Masters Students
Lara Durksen
Lara has a BA in Environmental Governance from the University of Guelph with a minor in Sustainable Business, where she completed courses in geography, political science, food and agriculture resource economics, and business. This wide range allowed her to focus on creating bridges between the disciplines and become a well-rounded student. In her last semester she completed an independent study in geography, supervised by Dr. Diana Lewis, which explored how Indigenous Knowledge and health are incorporated into Canadian Environmental Impact Assessments. Lara is pursuing an MA of Geography at U of G in the fall and will be expanding the research of Indigenous health and resource economics with a focus on creating a more comprehensive view of environmental economic understandings and the impact of current practices on Indigenous peoples’ health. In her free time, Lara enjoys reading, biking, travelling, and bartending.
Antonina Struminski-Bodden
Antonina (she/her) is a Polish and Jamaican settler researcher from the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton Nations. She has an HBSc in Environmental Geoscience and a Major in Indigenous Studies; and is currently pursuing an MA in Geography at the University of Guelph under the supervision of Dr. Diana Lewis. Her graduate research focuses on the collaborative development of a hydrological model measuring water health in Oneida Nations of the Thames – a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project that contributes to the design of a Haudenosaunee value-based Conceptual Site Model. She has been a research assistant in the IndigenERA lab since January 2023, where she has been able to work with community partners and peers on research relating to health and wellbeing, energy sovereignty, and the IEHRA project. Antonina is passionate about the promotion of equity, inclusion, and decolonial praxes in academic spaces and is part of the GIDS Anti-Racism Working Group at UoG. In her free time, she enjoys hot yoga, hiking, poetry, and reading!
Jacklyn Simonson
Jacklyn is of mixed ancestry (Mi’kmaq, Puerto Rican, Settler) and was born and raised in Tampa, FL with an ancestral connection to Natoaganeg (Eel Ground) First Nation, NB. She just completed her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science in Summer 2024 and joined the IndigenERA lab in the Fall of 2024. She recently began her Masters of Science degree in Integrative Biology, where she works with Dr. Bernhardt and Dr. Lewis. Her research aims to evaluate the ecological risks of microplastic contaminants in the soil of the Oneida Nation of the Thames community from Toronto’s Greenlane Landfill.
Olivia Thom
Olivia is Oneida on her maternal side and also comes from mixed settler descent. Her family comes from Oneida Nation of the Thames, in southwestern Ontario. She has a BA in Indigenous Studies with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. She is pursuing an MA at the University of Guelph in the Geography, Environment, and Geomatics program, under the supervision of Dr. Diana Lewis. For her master’s thesis she is working with her home community to develop an environmental wellness survey that is going to be able to adequately account for Indigenous environmental health and risk assessment in relation to environmental contamination and other health and wellness impacts in the community. Olivia has worked for Dr. Lewis since 2020 on numerous projects including; developing a community report for Pictou Landing First Nation using Stata, designing and creating an online resource and website for the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada to learn how to work with Indigenous communities in Canada when dealing with resource development, extraction, land dispossession, and contamination. Olivia is very passionate about Indigenous environmental health equity and feels lucky to be able to pursue a career path that aligns with her cultural, passion, and personal journey. She enjoys hot yoga, reading, bingo, travelling and visiting with family.
Maja Wetzl
Maja (she/her) is Ojibwe, with family roots in Serpent River First Nation and Austria on her paternal side and Germany on her maternal side. Maja has a HBSc in Mathematical Science in the statistics stream with an emphasis in bioinformatics, from the University of Guelph. Maja started her Master of Science in Applied Statistics in September 2024, continuing at the University of Guelph. Through her schooling, she has been able to gain knowledge from a variety of disciplines, gaining skills such as coding, statistical analysis, and research. Maja started as a research assistant in the IndigenERA Lab in November 2023, where she will contribute to the development of the IEHRA approach. Her thesis will focus on updating the reporting of cancer incidence in Fort Chipewyan communities (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, and Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation). Maja will be comparing and analyzing data from Statistics Canada, which she has access to through the Guelph Branch Research Data Centre. In previous research assistant positions, Maja has done work in bioinformatics to further biodiversity research, as well as work in forest modelling, contributing to Ontario carbon cycle research. In her free time, Maja enjoys reading, beading, painting, and hiking.
Postdoctoral Scholars
Elana Nightingale
Elana Nightingale is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the IndigenERA lab where she works on Indigenous economic impact assessment. She holds a PhD in Geography from Western University, a MSc in Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Economics from Carleton University. Elana aims to support community-led research as a means to advance health and social equity for First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities in Canada. Her research interests include the social determinants of Indigenous health, community economic development, community-based research methodologies and knowledge translation.
Volunteers
Ava Augustine
Ava is a fourth-year student in the first cohort of the Bachelor of Indigenous Environmental Science and Practice program at the University of Guelph. Growing up in a farming town along the coast of Lake Erie, she observed the importance of respecting the lands and water with her family. She loves spending time swimming, running on trails, and painting the world around her. As a self-taught artist, Ava strives to increase accessibility in the sciences and uplift Indigenous knowledge systems through graphic recording and illustration. In work with Dr. Susan Chiblow and the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Elders group, she has collaborated to create interactive illustrations of Anishinaabek stories and teachings. Inspired by the amazing research of Dr. Lewis and the students of the IndigenERA lab, she aspires to support the lab with her interests in art, science, and statistics. Ava is currently working on the creation of the Indigenous Environmental Science Student Council and is a student representative on the OAC senate. She hopes to continue making efforts of leadership and advocacy towards intersectional environmentalism throughout her learning.
Sophie Shepherd
Sophie (she/her) is a fifth-year Environmental Governance student at the University of Guelph and has completed a Certificate in Indigenous Environmental Governance. She is a settler of French and English descent from a small French farming community on the shore of Lake St Clair. She grew up between the lake and an important conservation area, and learned to appreciate the natural world by observing the seasonality of the space. Sophie continues to enjoy spendings hours climbing trees and filling countless notebooks with illustrations and notes about the beings that surround her. She is passionate about working with plants, and was able to further her learning during the Haida Gwaii Institute’s semester in People, Plants and Place. She is immensely grateful for the teachings she has received, and hopes to continue to work with Indigenous Nations and Communities towards strengthening and revitalizing relationships with culturally important plants. She remains steadfast in her commitments to uphold Indigenous data sovereignty as she works with ethnobotanically significant plants. Her training in human geography, biophysical geography, political science, ecology, economics, environmental impact assessment and other fields has given her multidisciplinary skills which guide her work. Sophie is excited to be sharpening her technical skills in data analysis while supporting the wonderful work of Dr Lewis and the members of the IndigenERA lab.
