Education:
I was privileged to be born and raised on lands of many of the 14 Yukon First Nations, in particular the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, Ta’an Kwäch’än Council, Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, & the Vuntut Gwitchin, I now work, live, and conduct research on the these lands with tremendous gratitude.
My Westernized education includes a B.Sc. 2001 (University of Victoria), specializing in marine biology and wildlife ecology.
M. Sc. 2005 (University of Calgary), specializing in Behavioral Ecology of birds, especially pertaining to bird song in the avian group of birds known as the ‘suboscines’ or New World flycatchers
Ph.D. 2020 (University of Alberta), specializing in conservation and climate change impacts on migratory birds in the Yukon and at the broader scale across the western boreal forest region.
Instruction and Coordination
I instruct several first year biology courses, second-year university-transfer biology courses (genetics, conservation biology, statistics), several field courses at Yukon College since 2009 and now Yukon University (2020). I coordinated the Renewable Resources Management Program from 2012 – 2020. I was the chair of the School of Science from 2022 – 2025.
Research:
I currently am investigating community and population ecology of bird species reliant on wetlands and intact forests in the North. I focus mostly on birds that eat insects and their essential insect food and how climate change could be impacting these relationships. I am also interested in broader-scale impacts of climate change and disturbance on northern forested and wetland ecosystems, such as wetland drying, and impacts on the many species that rely on wetlands. My field work involves observing breeding birds daily during the breeding season (mid-May – August), monitoring for breeding progress and behavioral changes, capturing insects to examine biomass and timing of this biomass, as well as species distribution modeling using larger (broader geographic scale) datasets. I usually hire one field assistant (a YukonU student) per summer, sometimes two to assist with this project. I also have a project investigating the levels and types of microplastics in Yukon lakes.