Working Group Members

Cat Sun (she/her) is a Chinese-American, early-career wildlife ecologist specialising in monitoring the spatial patterns of wildlife populations and demographics to inform wildlife conservation and human-wildlife coexistence. Her graduate education in the United States and subsequent experiences with seeking funding while a postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) have informed her relationship with early-career granting mechanisms.

Postdoctoral researcher, University of British Columbia

Senior Quantitative Ecologist, Zambian Carnivore Programme
Contact: catherine.c.sun@gmail.com

Alys Granados (she/her) is an early-career wildlife ecologist working for a conservation non-profit in western United States. She is interested in using research to develop evidence-based conservation strategies in temperate and tropical forests. Over the course of her Master's (Concordia University) and PhD (University of British Columbia), Alys became familiar with various funding agencies. This and her own experiences also highlighted the need for increased representation of historically marginalized groups in the fields of ecology and evolution.

Postdoctoral researcher, University of British Columbia
Wildlife Ecologist, Felidae Fund
Contact: alysgranados@gmail.com

Peter Soroye (he/him) is a black, African-Canadian, early career conservation biologist working with Wildlife Conservation Society Canada on the Key Biodiversity Area program. During his PhD at the University of Ottawa, Peter studied the effects of climate change and land-use change on pollinators such as bumblebees, and investigated the benefits of community science for research.

PhD Student, University of Ottawa
Outreach Coordinator, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada

Chris Beirne (he/him) is an early career ecologist working on understanding the implications of anthropogenic disturbance on wildlife communities in Canada and beyond. His desire for more transparent, equitable, and inclusive granting systems comes from both his experiences funding research inside and outside of traditional academic avenues, and seeing the huge hurdles which collaborators from developing nations face when applying for support for their further education and research initiatives.

Postdoctoral researcher, University of British Columbia

Dr. Lian Kwong (she/her/hers) is an early-career biological oceanographer specializing in secondary production and zooplankton/micronekton active carbon transport. During her graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, she applied for numerous early-career grants noting the need for application processes to better capture the diversity of backgrounds and experiences of applicants.

Biological Oceanographer, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Helen Yip(she/her) is a Canadian-born Chinese woman who is trained as a marine biologist. She earned her Masters in Biology at California State University, Los Angeles studying landscape ecology of marine intertidal organisms in the west coast of Canada. She has since pivoted in her career to engage in equity, diversity and inclusion work in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields from an intersectional lens. She is motivated to create inclusive spaces for those underrepresented in STEM.

Outreach Coordinator, Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science and Technology (WISEST) - University of Alberta

Jeff Bowman (he/him) is an established researcher who works as a wildlife scientist for the Government of Ontario and is an adjunct professor at Trent University. He leads Ontario’s furbearer and small mammal research programs, and has expertise in population and landscape ecology, and landscape genetics. He has also served on the NSERC Discovery Grant 1503 Evaluation Group, and the Vanier Scholarship committee.

Wildlife Scientist, Government of Ontario
Adjunct Professor, Trent University

Anita Miettunen (she/her) was previously the program coordinator for the Liber Ero Fellowship Program which funds early-career applied conservation research scientists in Canada, and she has worked on partnership grants at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She has also worked in environmental science for the federal government and is now a policy analyst at Health Canada where, among other roles, she supports her Branch’s working group for action on EDI and anti-racism in the workplace.

Policy Analyst, Health Canada

Cole Burton (he/him/his) leads the Wildlife Coexistence lab and pursues research on human-wildlife interactions and biodiversity conservation. Cole has been fortunate to work with a diversity of collaborators and students from around the world, and has observed the challenges in obtaining funding for many early career researchers, and the associated need to increase equity and diversity in funding programs.

Associate Professor, University of British Columbia