Dr. Kaitlyn Fleming joined the lab in January 2025 as a post-doctoral fellow. Kaitlyn is working with Michipicoten First Nation to improve the understanding of mining impacts within MFN Territory. Their research interests include terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, land-use changes, and the effect of anthropogenic change on local ecosystems and biodiversity.

Dr. Deborah (Debbie) Jenkins is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Trace Lab since May 2024; she earned her PhD at Trent University, where she studied the response of Arctic caribou and muskoxen to a changing environment.  Debbie is passionate about ecology, the conservation of biodiversity, and the braiding of science and Indigenous Knowledge to advance a more wholesome understanding of our natural world. She has a keen interest in species distributions and abundance, wildlife translocations, patterns of genetic diversity and population structure, and the ecological and functional connectivity of species – all to inform the conservation of wildlife and their habitat.  Debbie’s current research supports the Michipicoten First Nation Caribou Restoration Project, capturing and applying different ways of knowing to restore, connect and conserve self-sustaining caribou populations throughout their historic Lake Superior range.

Haley is working with WCS Canada and Moose Cree First Nation (MCFN) on the co-developed Learning from Lake Sturgeon (ki kiskinohamâkonânawan namewak) program (www.learningfromlakesturgeon.ca). Haley will work with MCFN to support the development of an Indigenous-led cumulative effects framework. Haley will support MCFN with her western science training using western science techniques such as assessing cumulative effects using a bioenergetics framework. More specifically, Haley will support the program by understanding the impacts of various industrial activities on Namew (Lake Sturgeon) movement, contaminant ecology, and ecosystem productivity in the Moose River Basin. 

Phillip Siambi is the TRACE lab manager. He has experience as a research & development coordinator with over a decade of experience in lab operations management as well as method development and implementation. Phillip oversees the day-to-day operations of the lab ensuring lab staff have all the tools and training necessary to execute their projects safely and effectively.