Advisory Circle
Chief Dr. Wilton Littlechild
Chief Dr. Littlechild is a Cree lawyer and Chief, former Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, former member of Canadian Parliament, and residential school survivor. He is known for his work nationally and internationally on Indigenous rights. He was born in Hobbema, now named Maskwacis, Alberta. View Bio
Honourable Ethel Blondin Andrew
Honourable Ethel Blondin Andew is former member of Canadian Parliament and also Minister of State (Northern Development). She was the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Parliament of Canada. Ethel is a member of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative and currently resides in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories, Canada. View Bio
Dr. Harriet Kuhnlein
Dr. Kuhnlein is Professor Emerita of Human Nutrition, Founding Director, Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE). She currently resides in Oregon, United States. View Bio
Dr. Frederick Wrona
Dr. Wrona is Professor and Svare Research Chair in Integrated Watershed Processes at the University of Calgary. He is a former Chief Scientist / Assistant Deputy Minister (Environmental Monitoring and Science Division) for the Department of Alberta Environment and Parks. Fred currently lives in Calgary, Alberta. View Bio
Dr. Florence Glanfield
Dr. Glanfield is Vice-Provost (Indigenous Programming and Research), Professor and former Chair of the Department of Secondary Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Alberta. She is a member of the Metis Nation of Alberta. She is based in Edmonton Alberta. View Bio
Dr. Prasert Trakansuphakon
Dr. Trakansuphakon belongs to the Karen Indigenous people of Thailand. He has been a leader and practitioner of social development among Indigenous peoples in Thailand and Southeast Asia for over twenty years. His expertise comprises Indigenous knowledge; natural resource management, in particular rotational farming; Indigenous education; and Indigenous peoples’ rights. He holds a PhD in Sociology. View Bio
Alejandro Argumedo
Alejandro Argumedo is Director of the Association ANDES, a Cusco-based indigenous people’s non-governmental organization working to protect and develop Andean biological and cultural diversity and the rights of indigenous peoples of Peru. He is also the international coordinator of the Indigenous People’s Biodiversity Network (IPBN), and Senior Research Officer for Peru of the ‘Sustaining Local Food Systems, Agricultural Biodiversity and Livelihoods’ Programme of the International Institute for Environment and Development. View Bio
Vice Chief Joseph Tsannie
Vice Chief Joseph Tsannieis is Vice Chief of Prince Albert Grand Council and is a member of Hachet Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan. He is a member of the Mackenzie River Basin Board, Traditional Knowledge, and Strengthening Partnerships Committee. He makes his home in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada View Bio
Leon Andrew
Leon Andrew is a Shúhtaot’ı̨nę elder with the Tulı́t’a Dene Band. He is a member of the Northwest Territories Aboriginal Steering Committee and representative on the Mackenzie River Basin Board, Traditional Knowledge and Strengthening Partnerships Committee. He makes his home in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories, Canada. View Bio
Cleo Reece
Cleo Reece is a member of Fort McMurray First Nation, Alberta. She is a key member of ‘Keepers of the Water’ and a former member of the Mackenzie River Basin Board, Traditional Knowledge and Strengthening Partnerships Committee. She makes her home in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. View Bio
Dr. Renato Silvano
Dr. Silvano is Professor in the Department of Ecology of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil with linkages to many non-governmental organizations involved with collaborators with local knowledge of fishers’ freshwater fisheries research. He lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil. View Bio
Dr. Fiona Schmiegelow
Dr. Schmiegelow is Professor in wildlife and landscape ecology and conservation, at the University of Alberta. She is the director of both UAlberta North and the Northern Environment and Conservation Sciences Program at Yukon University. She makes her home in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.
Lana Lowe
Lana Lowe is a member of Fort Nelson First Nation. She is currently employed with the First Nation as a Lands Director. She is a member of the Mackenzie River Basin Board, Traditional Knowledge and Strengthening Partnerships Committee. Her home is in Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. View Bio
Dr. Fikret Berkes
Dr. Berkes is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba’s Natural Resources Institute and a global leader in the area of community-based natural resources management in societies around the world. Fikret lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Corinne Porter
Corinne Porter is a member of the Kaska Nation, Yukon. She is Executive Director of the Dena Kayeh Research Institute and a member of the Mackenzie River Basin Board, Traditional Knowledge and Strengthening Partnerships Committee. Corinne lives in Lower Post, British Columbia.
Carwyn Jones
Carwyn Jones is of Ngāti Kahungunu and Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki (Maori) descent. He is Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Wellington in New Zealand. He currently lives in Victoria, New Zealand.
Dr. Kim Tallbear
Dr. Tallbear is Associate Professor, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta, and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment. Kim is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Nation in South Dakota. She currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Val Courtois
Val Courtois is Director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (since 2013) and a registered professional forester who specializes in Indigenous issues, forest ecology and ecosystem-based management and planning. She is a member of the Innu community of Mashteuiatsh, located on the shore of Peikuakami, or Lac-St-Jean, Quebec. Val currently makes her home in Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada.
Theresa Zapeta
Theresa Zapeta is a Mayan K’iche woman from Guatemala and Executive Director of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI).
Dr. John Parkins
Dr. Parkins is Professor and Chair of the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta. He currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
*Dr. John O’Neil
Dr. O’Neil is Professor of Global and Indigenous Health, and former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. John resides in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
*Dr. John O’Neil’s role has been elevated to Co-Principal Investigator.
