Assistant Professor Shari Okeke is an award-winning journalist and podcast creator with more than 25 years experience in radio, television and online, primarily at CBC. Since joining the journalism faculty at Toronto Metropolitan University full-time in 2022, she has led her podcasting students to produce three seasons of We Met U When... which are available on several listening apps. Students behind Season 3 Episode 5: The Call won a 2025 BEA (Broadcast Education Association) Award of Excellence – the only winning team in the narrative audio category from a Canadian university. Shari Okeke is also a story editor for Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) award-winning podcast The Plot Thickens Season 4: Here Comes Pam and she created the Peabody-nominated CBC podcast Mic Drop, featuring stories of young people, in their own words. Shari Okeke received the 2025 Dean’s Teaching Award (TFA) for excellence in teaching at The Creative School.
- Documentary podcasts, long form storytelling
- Audio journalism
- Curriculum co-creation
- Media education, pedagogy of care
- Working with students as partners
- Diversity of sources in journalism
- Journalism standards and practices
- Underrepresented/misrepresented communities
- We Met U When...podcast (17 episodes across three seasons) https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/we-met-u-when/id1660948082 (external link)
- “How ‘We Met U When...’ Podcast Students Are Teaching the Journalism Industry to Do Better” project funded by TMU Learning and Teaching Grant
- On the Record, Off the Mark: The Effects Journalists Have on Black Interviewees (project funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council 2025-2027)
- Supervising a project within Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) program
- 2025 Dean's Teaching Award for The Creative School – Faculty, which recognizes TMU faculty members who have demonstrated continuing teaching excellence and achievement in instruction.
- 2023 Webby Awards nominee for Best Film and Television Podcast for The Plot Thickens Season 4: Here Comes Pam
- 2021 Canadian Association of Journalists Award for Human Rights Reporting for The Brightest Licence Plate in Montreal, an audio documentary about racial profiling (awarded in 2022)
- 2021 Peabody-nominee in podcast/radio category for Mic Drop Season 2
- 2020 Gabriel Award for radio feature Dangers of Drunk Cycling
- 2019 RTDNA Canada Best Podcast Award, Central Canada Region for Mic Drop Season 1
- 2018 RTDNA Canada Dave Rogers Award - Long Radio Feature, Central Canada Region for How Men Experience Intimate Partner Violence
- 2017-2020 Gala Dynastie Finalist for Radio Personality of the Year
- 2013 Recipient of Taste of the Caribbean’s Woman of Merit Award which recognizes contribution for the advancement of Montreal’s Caribbean Community and the community of Greater Montreal