Joel has made a name for himself in Ontario as a tireless reporter with a versatile ability to tell all kinds of stories, regardless of the subject matter. 

His work has affected change within the municipalities he's worked, creating both staff and procedural shifts.

Joel got his start working a short stint at the New Hamburg Independent, a newspaper serving a small town outside of Kitchener, Ontario. From there, he took a job with the Athabasca Advocate in northern Alberta covering municipal politics in a town that was smaller than his former high school. 

During his time there, his investigation into councillors wrongfully claiming money for meetings they didn't attend led to the firing of the council's chief administrative officer and a new policy of how councillors handle their pay. 

In 2014, Joel returned to his home province to take a job with The Oshawa Express, a weekly newspaper with a circulation of around 35,000. His piece on an Oshawa man who was wrongfully accused of killing his father won him Reporter of the Year honours at the Ontario Community Newspaper Awards in 2015, and his saga on a former local councillor who kidnapped the city's lawyer at gunpoint, leading to a 27-hour standoff with police, was labelled the Best Feature in the province by the OCNAs in 2016. In 2018, a trio of stories he wrote delving into the rise of human trafficking in Durham Region was named the top feature news series in the province by the OCNA’s and his investigation into an proposed ethanol plant on Oshawa’s shoreline of Lake Ontario won top honours for environmental reporting.

Following three years as a reporter, Joel took over as editor of the newspaper and worked to coordinate all the stories, content, pictures and design of the weekly newspaper. 

After a year in the editor's chair, Joel was recruited to start an entirely new media organization in Brampton, Ontario. He currently spends his days writing and managing a team of reporters for The Pointer - Brampton, a company of which he is a part owner. Since 2018, The Pointer has opened outlets in Mississauga (2019) and Niagara Region (2022)

Joel lives in Toronto with his fiancé and their black cat Bagheera. He also loves Stephen King, dogs, and an uninterrupted morning of writing with a full pot of coffee. 

That's about it. 

For now.