Education

• BSc, Hons Queen’s University
• MSc, University of British Columbia
• PhD, University of Washington

Biography

I am privileged to be a Professor of Applied Marine Ecology in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. Ultimately, I seek to discover what makes the relationships between people and other components of nature resilient to disturbances.

My students and I weave multiple knowledge systems and use a diversity of innovative tools to better understand tipping points in kelp forest ecosystems, resilience in small-scale fisheries, recovery of culturally and ecologically important species, productivity of ancestral clam gardens and coastal climate solutions.

I am deeply committed to working across disciplines and engaging with communities outside the university to catalyze transdisciplinary research that addresses environmental challenges of concern to Canadian and global society. As such, my research group and I collaborate with Indigenous knowledge holders, fishermen, government managers, practitioners, and artists, to mobilize our research beyond the academy. By cultivating partnerships and co-designing research from its outset, we aim to democratize ocean science and governance, and inform ecologically sustainable and socially just ocean policies.

I was elected to the Royal Society of Canada College and Royal Canadian Geographic Society in 2019, named a Pew Fellow in marine conservation in 2013, and awarded the International Prize in of Professional Excellence in Ecology in 2013. Here at home, I was humbled to receive SFU’s award for Excellence in Graduate Student Supervision in 2015 and SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Achievement Award in 2022.

Publications

Google Scholar Profile

Websites

Coastal Voices

Sea Gardens Across the Pacific

The Clam Garden Network