As host of CBC Radio’s World Report, Judy Maddren helped Canadians across the country begin their day with the news of the world and Canada. She thought of CBC listeners as part of her neighbourhood. Judy also served as the Media Broadcast Advisor, providing language and pronunciation recommendations to CBC broadcasters and writers on radio, television and the web.

In 1990, Judy founded and expanded the annual CBC “A Christmas Carol” readings across Canada, which are now held every year in more than 100 communities. Millions of dollars have been raised to benefit local charities of all kinds.

In recognition of her work to raise funds and awareness, she has been made a Senior Fellow of Renison College, Univ. of Waterloo, given the Centenary Award from her college at the University of Guelph, and was presented with Second Harvest’s Golden Fork Award.

From her experiences in radio news, the Carol readings, and as host for two seasons of CBC Radio’s Tapestry, Judy is convinced that stories are the meat of our lives and our relationships. Since leaving the CBC, she has focused full time on her business Soundportraits … helping people young and old to record their memoirs as family treasures. The library of biographies that she and her partner Alannah Campbell have recorded, confirms their belief that “every life is remarkable”.

Along the way, Judy has observed many of these wonderful stories in a Christian context … as a cradle Anglican, marriage to an Anglican priest, interviewing people of faith for Soundportraits, and at the international gathering of Prison Fellowship International, speaking with committed volunteers and leaders of change for prisons around the world. She and her husband Tim Elliott have four grown children. Tim and Judy have found a spiritual and conscience-nourishing home at the Church of the Redeemer in Toronto.