Biography
Carolyn Abraham is a journalist, author, writer and public speaker. She was born in London, England in 1968. She moved to Canada with her family, landing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in November 1972 at Toronto International Airport (now Toronto Pearson International Airport) when she was four years old. She spent her childhood in St. Catharines and Mississauga, Ontario, playing a bit of piano, a lot of soccer, and writing heartsick poetry. Carolyn became a founding editor of her high school newspaper and went on to study journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada from 1987-1991. She received a Bachelor of Journalism in Journalism, Political Science and History. During that time, she held summer reporting stints at the Welland Tribune, the Toronto Star and worked the peaceful night desk at the Ottawa Citizen, covering murders, fires and car crashes. After graduation, Carolyn Abraham set off to travel and freelance in South Asia, where she caught memorable glimpses of her ancestral homeland in India, as well as dysentery and a mountain river parasite in central Nepal. Returning home to a full-time job at the Ottawa Citizen, she discovered her passion for long-form writing. Her work earned the Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize for Young Canadian Journalists for two consecutive years. In 1996, after making the natural move from crime to politics, Carolyn landed in Toronto at Queen's Park. Two years later she joined The Globe And Mail as a medical reporter. Dolly, the famous Dorset sheep and first mammalian clone, was a newborn, and the Human Genome Project was about to produce its first map. She was nominated for six NNA's (National Newspaper Awards) and two awards for features related to the controversies in diagnosing bipolar disorder in children and The Globe's special project on cancer. She is a four-time recipient of the (CSWA's) Canadian Science Writers Association Science in Society Award for her medical reporting. Carolyn worked as a reporter for The Ottawa Citizen covering general news, crime features and provincial politics at Queen's Park from 1991 to 1997. Abraham worked as a medical reporter and feature writer for The Globe And Mail from February 1998 to January 2012. She received the Hollobon Science in Society Award for her articles on the business of genetics. Carolyn wrote the book, "Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain", detailing the true story behind the man who took Einstein's brain in 2002. The book was published in four languages and distributed in seven countries earning her a nomination for the 2002 Governor's General's Award for Literary Non-Fiction and winner of the Canadian Science Writers Association National Book Award. She wrote the chapter on the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Canada for the World Health Organization. She recently wrote the series, "The DNA Dilemma" for The Globe And Mail. Her latest book, "The Juggler's Children: a Journey into Family, Legend and the Genes that Bind Us", a memoir to be published by Random House Canada on March 26, 2013 that explores the power of DNA testing to solve family mysteries. Carolyn Abraham is the daughter of Dudley Abraham and Thelma Crooks. She is the youngest of four children. Carolyn has two older brothers, Conrad, the eldest child and Kevin. Her sister Christine is the third oldest child. Her paternal grandparents are Albert Abraham and Ena deCouto. Her maternal grandparents are Frederick Crooks Jr. and Gladys Thompson. Her maternal great-grandparents are Frederick William Crooks and Bridget Meek. She lives in Roncesvalles Village in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with her husband, Stephen Rouse, and her two children. Her daughter Jade was born on June 7, 2003 and her son Jackson, was born in the Spring of 2009. Her husband Stephen Rouse has superb writing skills and fifteen years of executive-level branding and media relations experience. He is president and founder of Carouse Communications, a full-service communications agency specializing in corporate storytelling, media relations and online brand amplification.
