When she got the call to come in for a job interview at Baxter Media, Ann Ruppenstein had to push it back a week as she was out of the country trekking for mountain gorillas and chimpanzees in Rwanda and Uganda.

Armed with a journalism degree from Toronto Metropolitan University, where she also studied photography, and several years of experience working for community newspapers in Toronto, she moved up from Staff Writer to the Managing Editor of Travel Courier and Canadian Travel Press, and Deputy Editor of Offshore.

The Emo-born and Thunder Bay-raised writer got a taste for travel at a young age, spending her summers in Germany growing up, and now calls Toronto home.

Specialties include: destination features, trade profiles, adventure travel, luxury travel, weddings/romance.

Favourite part of the job: Getting to see the positive impact tourism can have on communities around the world. A memorable highlight was visiting social enterprises in Nepal and India with G Adventures’ non-profit organization Planeterra Foundation. Seeing firsthand how travel has the power to change lives was a special experience.

Overall country count: 49 and counting.

Best travel memory: visiting with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, trekking Machu Picchu and taking in the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

What’s still on your bucket list: Antarctica, Patagonia, Ecuador/Galapagos, South Africa, Laos, and the list goes on.