Our Team

Erinn Drage is a conservation social scientist and environmental filmmaker who calls Treaty 7 Territory in Canmore, Alberta home. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Social Sciences at Stanford University. In her research, Erinn is exploring the political and economic dimensions of biodiversity conservation, with a focus on community-led stewardship and the role economic valuation in shaping conservation outcomes.Alongside her work in academia and conservation policy, she has guided expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctica and has written, edited, and directed award-winning documentary films. When not pursuing her intellectual passions, she can usually be found trail running, mountain biking, or backcountry skiing in the nearest mountain ranges.

Sara Anderson (she/her) comes from a mixed background of German Mennonite and Indigenous heritage. As the daughter of a Sixties Scoop survivor, her ongoing learning and reconnection journey has shaped her commitment to Indigenous self-determination, ethical research practices, and the responsibilities of settlers and institutions within Indigenous–settler relations.

Sara holds a Master of Arts from the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton University, alongside a Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Policy and Administration from Carleton’s School of Public Policy and Administration. Her academic and professional work is grounded in Indigenous policy and research ethics, with a particular focus on how institutions can support Indigenous leadership, data sovereignty, and community-driven knowledge systems.

She brings over a decade of experience across the non-profit, academic, and Crown corporation sectors. From 2015 to 2020, Sara worked at KAIROS Canada, where she supported national Indigenous education initiatives, including the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, contributing to large-scale public and institutional learning on colonial history and reconciliation. From 2020 to 2025, she served as Senior Manager, Indigenous Research in the Office of the Vice-President, Research & International at the University of Waterloo, where she led the development of Indigenous research policies, protocols, and institutional frameworks grounded in relational accountability and Indigenous priorities.

Sara currently works as an Indigenous Relations Specialist at Farm Credit Canada, supporting national Indigenous engagement, research, and data initiatives related to agriculture, food systems, and economic reconciliation.

Sara is committed to Indigenous research practices that shift decision-making power to Indigenous Nations and organizations, operationalize data sovereignty and consent, and hold institutions accountable for ethical, community-driven research across the full research lifecycle.

Dr. Myrle Ballard is a Canada Research Chair in Weaving Indigenous Science and Sustainability Science and Associate Professor in the Dept. of Earth, Energy, and Environment at the University of Calgary. She stood-up the new Indigenous Science Division at Environment and Climate Change Canada. Anishinaabe from Lake St. Martin First Nation, Dr. Ballard’s research explores Three-eyed seeing and how her fluency in Anishinaabe mowin can transform approaches to land and water resource management using Anishinaabe mowin baseline indicators. She has researched and documented the forced displacement and relocation of communities from flooding, as well as research on climate change and weather. She was recently selected as Lead Author on IPCC AR7 WG III Chapter 4 Sustainable Development and

Mitigation. She was also appointed as a Scoping expert for the second IPBES global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services; and Expert for the IPBES task force on Indigenous and local knowledge. She was inducted to the Royal Society of Canada in November 2025.

Bill Borland is an Environmental Professional and is the President of Borland & Associates Inc. in Rothesay, NB. He has held senior environmental management and government relations positions with Dillon Consulting, Associate; AMEC Environment and Infrastructure, Vice President, Canadian Federal Programs; J.D. Irving, Limited, Director Environmental Affairs and NB Power, Manager Environmental Planning. Bill Chaired the Board of the Canadian Water Network and sat on the Boards of the Canadian Rivers Institute, NB Research & Productivity Council and Enovex Inc. He was appointed to the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) where he Co-Chaired the Boreal Forest Program and sat on the Expert Advisory Committee on Water. He is a member of the Standing Selection Committee (Chair) and the Monitoring Committee of the Networks of Centres of Excellence, as well as the Board of ECO Canada. He sits on several Selection Committees for NSERC and New Frontiers, and the Multidisciplinary Assessment Committee for the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Meagan Grabowski is a researcher, biologist, and instructor with lifelong knowledge of Yukon systems. Through her business she supports governments and communities in integrated and collaborative approaches to socio-ecological stewardship. Meagan has studied and worked throughout northern mountain regions, including southwest Yukon, Nunavut and interior BC. As a founding board member and 2016-17 Chair of APECS Canada, she enhanced the voice and priorities of northern residents. From 2015-2017, she was a Jane Glassco Northern Fellow creating recommendations for research licensing in the Yukon. Meagan holds a Master of Science in Zoology specializing in plant-herbivore interactions and boreal shrub dendroecology. Meagan is deeply committed to relationship building between the research community and the North, and continues to advocate for the role of northerners in all stages of research.

Gùdia – Mary Jane is a Lhu’ààn Mân Ku Dashaw – Elder who worked for Kluane First Nation and with Parks Canada over 50 years on protected areas, environment, cultural, and Indigenous language issues. She is a champion for Indigenous language revitalization while partaking in a community that actively lives their culture.

She has contributed to the: Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report Response Task Force addressing the TRC’s Call to Action #70 reporting to the Standing Committee on Canada’s Archives; Canadian Mountain Assessment: Walking Together to Enhance Understanding of Mountains in Canada; Lhu’ààn Mân Keyi Kwanje Nààtsat: Kluane Lake Country People Speak Strong; and, the Facets Article – Toward reconciliation: 10 Calls to Action to natural scientists working Canada on which the film Signal Fire is based.

She continues to contribute an objective perspective to several boards and committees and sits as an active committee member on:the Asi Keyi Natural Environment Park Management Plan Steering Committee; The Pickhandle Lakes Habitat Protection Area Steering Committee the Canadian Mountain Network: Research Management Committee (transitioning to Braiding Knowledges Canada – beginning April 1st, 2024); and, Kluane First Nation – Citizenship Committee.

She is retired! And is a happy and busy Grandmother of eleven Grandchildren and one Great Grandson.

Lawrence Ignace is Anishinaabe from Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation within Treaty 3 Northwestern Ontario. He holds a Masters in Public Administration with an emphasis on Natural Resources Policy from the University of Alaska Southeast. His relationship with mountains significantly strengthened over a decade ago when he moved to Whitehorse, Yukon. During this time, he has held positions with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Carcross/Tagish First Nation, Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research and Yukon government. He has a passion for advancing the understanding and use of Indigenous Knowledge. As a PhD student at University of Victoria, his research focuses on the intersection of science and Indigenous knowledge and how we can learn from both worlds to shift our understanding. He is active on the Reference Group for the appropriate review of Indigenous research established by the three federal research funding agencies and Protect our Winters Science Alliance.

Julia Klein is a Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science & Sustainability and a Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University, traditional homelands of the Ute, Arapahoe and Cheyenne nations. She received a B.A. in Political Science from Cornell University and an M.S. and PhD in Ecosystem Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Upon receiving her doctorate, she was awarded a NOAA Postdoctoral Climate and Global Change Fellowship. The broad goals of Dr. Klein’s research are to understand how interacting global changes affect pastoral and mountain ecosystems and livelihoods; to detect the patterns and underlying mechanisms driving these responses and feedback; and to identify actions and pathways towards sustainable futures. Her projects typically combine diverse methods, including experimental manipulations, landscape analysis, local ecological knowledge and modelling. The main geographic focus of her research has been the eastern and central alpine grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau; however, she also works on the shortgrass steppe and alpine region of Colorado and conducts global syntheses of grassland, arctic/alpine and mountain systems worldwide.

Dr. Klein leads the U.S.-based Mountain Sentinels Collaborative Network, an international network which seeks to catalyze innovative solutions and actions towards global mountain sustainability through equitable collaboration, Western science, indigenous ways of knowing, and actions with diverse mountain stakeholders. She is also working on a documentary film focused on a small and dedicated group of people in the Peruvian Andes grappling with the severe and imminent effects of climate change.

Marlin Legare is a Métis graduate student and a research project coordinator who aids in the development and production of Indigenous research projects from the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in the field of Nutrition at the U of S, as well. Finally, Marlin is a U of S member of the Indigenous Initiatives Committee as a representative of the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition.

Marlin was raised in the Northeastern Saskatchewan in a rural community called Mistatim. He is excited to be studying health sciences, as he is someone who has seen firsthand the positive and the negative of health outcomes for Indigenous individuals in rural and remote communities.

Marlin is also an accomplished Métis athlete. In 2008, Marlin attended the North American Indigenous Games, and the Canada Games in 2009 for wrestling. In 2009 he also received the SaskTel Indigenous Youth of Excellence Award in the Sports and Recreation Category. He was also a member of the University of Regina (U of R) Men’s Wrestling Team, where he obtained his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. While at the U of R, he was also involved in Indigenous programs such as Sports For Life, Aboriginal History Month, and the 2014 North American Indigenous Games.

Dr. Emily Missyabit McAuley is a member of Lake Manitoba First Nation and was born and raised in Algonquin Anishinaabeg Territory in Ottawa. She received an M.Sc. in Biology (Behavioural Ecology & Evolution) from Carleton University in 2009 and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Conservation Ecology) from Simon Fraser University in 2020. Her Ph.D. thesis examined the food web impacts of native fish introductions into naturally fishless river systems across the Western Cordillera and resulting migratory behavior and breeding distribution of harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus). Her research interests include food web interactions, species distribution modeling, geomatics, stable isotopes, citizen science, and Indigenous Science. Emily has nearly a decade of experience fostering federal-Indigenous research partnerships and supporting the braiding of knowledge systems.

Shaun Stevenson is a faculty member in the University Studies program at Northern Lakes College in Treaty 8 territory, northern Alberta and an Adjunct Research Professor in the School of Canadian Studies at Carleton University. He grew up in southern Ontario and currently resides in Ottawa. Shaun received his PhD from the Department of English Language and Literature at Carleton University and his MA in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory and BA (Hons) in English and Indigenous Studies, from McMaster University. Shaun is a settler scholar whose research focuses on Indigenous land and water rights, law and policy, and settler/Indigenous relations. He previously worked as a Senior Policy Analyst in the Treaties and Aboriginal Government sector for the government of Canada and as a Project Director on a community-based research project with the Tahltan First Nation and the National Core for Neuroethics at UBC Hospital. Shaun has published on the ethics of community-based research, Indigenous water rights, literatures and reconciliation in Qualitative Inquiry, Decolonization, Settler Colonial Studies, Canadian Literature and Theory & Event, among others. In his spare time, he volunteers for Belong Ottawa, a community outreach organization in downtown Ottawa, plays tennis and spends as much time with dogs as he can.