Ann is an award-winning journalist, bestselling author, and psychotherapist. For more than 25 years, she worked at Maclean’s magazine, Canada’s newsweekly, where she was perhaps best known as the chief architect of the Maclean’s university rankings—and for a series of columns on modern life, including “The Boy Can’t Sleep,” anthologized in Carol Shields’ Dropped Threads II.

In 2013, Ann wrote Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, a book named one of the top 10 of the year by the Washington Post. Part memoir, part journalistic exploration, the book exposes the “pinking” of the alcohol industry. Says Gabor Mate: “The writing is gripping and vivid, the voice personal, the research exacting, the stories revealing if sometimes heartbreaking, the conclusions essential. A triumphant life, a triumphant book.”
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Since the publication of Drink, Ann has worked hard to destigmatize mental health and addiction, earning an honorary Doctor of Laws from Queen’s University for her efforts. She is also the recipient of a Transforming Lives award from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the American Research Society on Addiction’s Media Award, plus the T. A. Sweet Award from the Ontario Psychiatric Association for helping address stigma related to mental health and addiction.
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In 2017, Ann decided to follow her heart, applying to the Master’s of Social Work program at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. What this represents is the fulfillment of a decades-old dream: to become a psychotherapist. During her internships, Ann worked at the Jean Tweed Centre in Toronto, and with psychotherapist Jan Winhall at Focusing on Borden. Writing remains a significant part of her life, and she is hard at work on her second book.

In her spare time, Ann is a white-water rafter, a lover of nature, and an avid traveller. She is the mother of one grown son, Nicholas Johnston, also a psychotherapist, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two young daughters—Ann’s beloved granddaughters.