Mike Vernon is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada and Dalhousie University, where he earned his MA in English Literature. Mike switched to journalism after serving nine years as an army officer with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, including two years in West Germany.  As a fledgling freelancer he covered the war in Croatia in 1994. Then he became a television news producer and later videojournalist with CBC Newsworld and CBC TV Calgary. He reported from Afghanistan (2002) and France (2007) for the The National and CBC Online. As an army reservist with the Calgary Highlanders, Mike served in Sierra Leone (2011) and Afghanistan (2010), producing the one-hour documentary Desert Lions: Canadian Forces Mentors in Kandahar (2011). This documentary was screened at the Calgary International Film Festival in 2012. He also produced the 90-minute documentary Deployed: Canadian Army Reservists Overseas (2017).  Mike began teaching part-time at MRU in 2009. He specializes in visual storytelling and developed the JOUR 2503 War and Media course in conjunction with Gillian Steward. Mike retired from the Army Reserve in 2022 at the rank of colonel.