Su-Ling Goh
A compassionate voice for health
Su-Ling Goh received the Alumni Award of Excellence for her remarkable achievements in journalism, her heartfelt storytelling and her dedication to examining health-related issues in the Edmonton area.
From NAIT to the red carpet to being a multi award-winning journalist in Edmonton news, Su-Ling Goh (Radio and Television - 
TV '98) brings her heart, soul and a wealth of lived experience to everything she does.
“I would like to be known as a compassionate storyteller – someone who really pours her heart into her work,” Su-Ling says, adding she feels that luck has played a significant role in much of her career.
After graduating from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Science in 1995, Su-Ling took a year off to wait tables and figure out her next move. Hearing about NAIT’s Radio and Television program from a co-worker and intrigued by the opportunities, she decided to enrol.
“My practicum was perfectly timed, and this is part of where the luck comes in, in that A Channel Edmonton was opening when my practicum was starting,” she says, adding that she was hired on as a videographer after a short time, later becoming the in-house entertainment reporter at A Channel in Calgary.
A voice for others
In 2000, Su-Ling went on to host and produce Inside Entertainment, travelling the world to interview celebrities from her Calgary home base. That same year, her father, a respected surgeon, suffered a massive heart attack, resulting in severe brain damage that required him to be in long-term care.
“The long-term care system at that time was not easy to navigate,” she remembers, adding she would return home as often as she could and sometimes sleep in the hospital dorm to be near her dad when he was in the brain injury unit in Ponoka. “That’s where I really learned the importance of having a voice, especially for him because he couldn’t speak so we had to speak for him.”
With this in mind, Su-Ling approached Global Edmonton in 2006 about bringing back their former health beat, both so she could be closer to her dad and to inform and be a voice for Edmontonians on issues related to health and health care.
Since then, she’s worked passionately to reduce stigma by shining a light on “uncomfortable” but important topics, such as sexual health, below-the-belt cancers, 2SLGBTQIA+ health-care issues, suicide, medical assistance in dying.
The most rewarding aspect of her career, she says, is enabling people to tell their stories as a way to inspire or help others.
“People come to me because they have a mission or a message that they want to get out, and I’m happy to be the messenger for them, which is why it’s so important to me that I get their stories right,” she says.
Award-winning journalist
Throughout her illustrious career in health reporting, Su-Ling has received numerous awards, including a national award from the Society of Obstetricians & Gynecologists of Canada for Excellence in Women’s Health Reporting (2021) and a national award from the Canadian Association of Pediatric Health Centres for Leadership in Media (2018).
But the one that means the most to her is an award for Excellence in Health Reporting (2013) from the Canadian Medical Association because of her father’s life’s work in the medical community and knowing how much it would have meant to him.
“I think he would have thought that was pretty cool,” she says.
Alumni Award of Excellence
The Alumni Award of Excellence recognizes the significant contributions made in recent years by NAIT alumni to their profession or community.
Story photos supplied by Su-Ling Goh.
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