Élyse Caron-Beaudoin is an Assistant Professor in environmental health at the University of Toronto – Scarborough. Her research focuses on the development of transdisciplinary community-based research projects to assess the impacts of anthropogenic pressures on health by combining information from multiple levels of biological organization. Élyse holds a PhD in biology with a specialization in toxicology from the INRS – Armand-Frappier Institute in Laval, Quebec. From 2018 to 2020, she was a CIHR-funded postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montreal. She is implicated in several research projects on environmental and Indigenous health, including in oil and gas regions and in the Canadian Arctic.

 

Dr. Amira Aker is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Université Laval and the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec. She is an environmental epidemiologist and her research centers around protecting systematically and structurally excluded populations from contaminants of emerging concern, with a particular interest in Arctic communities.  She is currently studying the exposure sources of perfluoroalkyl substances and their health effects on cardiometabolic outcomes and immunological function in Inuit communities in Nunavik. Dr. Aker received her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto Scarborough focused on chronic disease.

 

Whitney Gravelle is a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community Gnoozhekaaning (Place of the Pike) in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. After graduating from Michigan State University College of Law in 2016 with a certificate from the Indigenous Law Program, Whitney worked for the Department of Justice with the Environment and Natural Resource Division in the Indian Resource Section, where she worked on cases related to the scope of tribal lands and jurisdiction, treaty rights, and the protection of lands held in trust for tribes and individual Indian lands. Whitney has also served as Chief Judge of Bay Mills Tribal Court where she worked on transforming restorative justice within her community by providing truth and healing to her Tribe through modern cultural Court practices, and again as In-House Counsel and attorney for Bay Mills Indian Community where she worked on a variety of legal issues that impact Indian Country, including the Indian Child Welfare Act. Currently, Whitney serves as President of the Bay Mills Indian Community, and serves on the Michigan Women's Commission and the Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice.

 

Wenona Singel is an Associate Professor of Law and Associate Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center at Michigan State University College of Law in East Lansing, Michigan. She recently completed a two-year leave of absence from MSU to fulfill an appointment as Deputy Legal Counsel and Advisor for Tribal Affairs for Governor Gretchen Whitmer. While working for theGovernor's Office, Wenona advised the Governor on all aspects of tribal-state relations, and she was responsible for advising the Governor on issues related to the Flint water crisis, the environment, natural resources, and gaming. At MSU, Wenona teaches and publishes in the areas of Property, Federal Indian Law, and Natural Resources Law. She is a member of the American Law Institute and an Associate Reporter for the Restatement of the Law of American Indians. She also received an appointment by President Barack Obama to the Board of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, a position she held for five years.  She received an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Wenona is a citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and she is married to Matthew Fletcher, with whom she has two sons named Owen and Emmett.