FIRELIGHT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Guardian Program Support Specialist
Job Titles:
- Finance Coordinator
- BBA Financial Management / Finance Coordinator
Amrit is a Finance Coordinator. She has experience with full cycle accounting, process improvement and training other team members. Amrit has worked in finance roles for various industries and most recently worked as a contractor where she worked with clients to address gaps in their finance departments and provide support in the areas needed. Amrit has her Bachelor of Business Administration and Financial Management Diploma from BCIT.
Amy Wilson (she/her) is a Program Manager supporting the Environmental Assessment Team. She is a settler of mixed European heritage, currently living in Treaty 6 territory. With two decades working in the non-profit sector, Amy has extensive experience coordinating projects and supporting community-based research. As the director of a small non-profit organisation, Amy provided oversight for projects, leading and evaluating relevant strategies, guidelines and practices for partnership development and related activities, while working with community partners to strengthen relationships and support for Indigenous communities and clients. She completed her MSc in Environmental Sociology and Rural Economics at the University of Alberta with a focus on environmental governance and impact assessment.
Job Titles:
- Junior Researcher
- Junior Regulatory Researcher With
Anang is a Junior Regulatory Researcher with The Firelight Group. She completed a master's degree in Sustainable Environmental Management at the University of Saskatchewan in 2020. She tailored her program towards a career in environmental policy analysis and impact assessment consulting. Her background is in research on environmental policy, including carbon pricing and climate justice, environmental and socio-economic risk assessment of unreclaimed orphan oil wells in Saskatchewan, and conservation policy issues of polar bears. She has also worked on a project assessing the state of practice of Cumulative Effects Assessment.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Master of Geomatics for Environmental Management ( MGEM )
Job Titles:
- Certified Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners
- Planner
- Registered Professional Planner With Firelight 's Planning
Ashley Elliott is a Registered Professional Planner with Firelight's Planning and Implementation team, living and working within the Traditional Territory of the Lheidli T'enneh, in the City of Prince George. She has expertise in land use planning, project coordination, and community engagement and is committed to helping communities define and implement their collective vision for the future of their lands through meaningful collaboration.
Ashley is a Certified Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and received her Bachelor of Northern & Rural Community Planning from the University of Northern British Columbia, with a minor in GIS. In a former position as a Senior Planner at L&M Engineering Ltd., she contributed to and managed a diverse range of land use plans that promoted economic viability, place-making, social equity and environmental stewardship; each with a unique vision to help guide communities to meet their expressed goals and objectives.
Job Titles:
- Junior Researcher
- Researcher
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Researcher With the Indigenous Knowledge Research
Blake is a Researcher with the Indigenous Knowledge Research team. In this role, Blake hopes to help empower Indigenous communities to make the best decisions for themselves. Blake resides in Winnipeg, which is on Treaty One Territory, Territory of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, Oji-Cree, and the Homeland of the Métis Nation.
Blake is an Anishinaabe male from Obushkodayang (Lake St. Martin) First Nation in Manitoba. Blake earned his Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies from the University of Winnipeg. Prior to joining The Firelight Group, Blake held the position of Access and Privacy Coordinator at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation hosted at the University of Manitoba.
Job Titles:
- Program Manager
- Senior Researcher
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Community Development Specialist With Experience Working Collaboratively With Indigenous
- Member of the Métis Nation of Alberta
Claudia (she/her) is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta with family roots in the Young's Point Métis settlement in Manitoba, and is also of Chinese and Polish ancestry. She is an environmental scientist with over 17 years of experience in environmental project management and research, particularly related to climate change, renewable energy technologies, biodiversity, and ecological resource management.
Claudia is a community development specialist with experience working collaboratively with Indigenous and traditional communities around the world to address environmental conservation, biodiversity protection, food security, economic development and cultural preservation. Working together with communities in rural and remote locations, she is experienced in participatory data collection, community organizing, capacity building, and visioning and strategic community planning, including the incorporation of traditional knowledge into environmental project design and implementation.
Danielle Marie Coppaway (she/her) is Ojibwe and is a proud Anishinaabe Kwe from Curve Lake First Nation which is located approximately 2 hrs north of Toronto in Ontario. Danielle has just recently started as an IT Coordinator here at The Firelight Group. Danielle works remotely from home out of the Vancouver office and will be assisting Andre with providing better IT Support coverage for users in the Eastern Standard Time Zone. Having exposure to a wide range of technologies & being able to play a key role in diagnosing hardware and software problems, Danielle can ensure quality solutions meet business objectives.
Danielle completed the Computer Engineering Technician program at Sir Sandford Fleming College of Applied Arts and Technology. She has spent the last 10 years providing information technology support to 100+ employees at Curve Lake First Nation. She has experience providing both remote and onsite technical support, as well as being responsible for network administration and procurement. She was the only onsite technician working for Curve Lake First Nation from June 2013 to January 2022. When she is not working Danielle likes to be outdoors, enjoying time with friends, across the lake on fox island or walking her fur baby Walter.
Derek Rice (Onkwehón:we and settler) lives and works as a guest on Anishinabek Nation Territory in Northern Ontario. Derek holds a certificate as a Professional Aboriginal Economic Developer (PAED) with the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (Cando) and a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Ottawa. Some highlights of his research include evaluating the impact of First Nation self-government agreements on education attainment and evaluating the impact of changes in federal First Nation policy on socioeconomic outcomes.
Derek has held several senior positions in advising, academia, and government, where he led a diverse set of development, research, economic analysis, and economic development projects involving cost-benefit analyses, economic impact assessments, resource revenue valuations, and program evaluation. He has also led several projects involving Indigenous data sovereignty, policy and procedure development, and employment and training programs.
Director | IBA Team Lead | Socio-Economic Research Team Lead
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Researcher With
Job Titles:
- Junior Communications Specialist
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher
- Health Researcher With
Erin Tomkins is a Health Researcher with The Firelight Group. She is a settler currently residing on Treaty Six territory in amiskwacîw skahikan (ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ)/ Edmonton, not far from the small rural town where she grew up (Ardrossan). Erin holds a Masters degree in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria where her thesis work focused on imagining creative and culturally-rooted Indigenous community responses to the Crown's duty to consult and accommodate. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science.
For over a decade, Erin has worked in Indigenous health policy and research with experience working at the community level, in provincial and national political/advocacy organizations, and within provincial health authorities. She is driven by a desire to support Indigenous self-determination and advance opportunities to showcase Indigenous knowledge, wisdom, and excellence.
Graham holds a BSc in Environmental Sciences and a master's degree in Zoology from the University of British Columbia. His research has primarily focused on the impacts of human-driven climate change on coastal nearshore ecosystems through physiological and organismal responses to environmental change and their implications for ecosystem productivity and resilience. He has answered these questions through manipulative field and laboratory experiments simulating climate change, intertidal and subtidal surveys monitoring biological response to environmental stress, and through analytical techniques such as statistical modeling, geospatial statistics, and habitat suitability modeling. He has conducted ecological monitoring and experimental field work in remote locations along the coastal margin of British Columbia and worked with Coast Salish communities on marine spatial planning to support the revitalization of culturally important species and providing environmental conditions suitable for exercising traditional harvesting rights.
Job Titles:
- Accounts Payable Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Program Manager, Mapping & GIS
Job Titles:
- Research Director, Regulatory
Job Titles:
- Researcher Environmental Assessment Specialist
Job Titles:
- Indigenous - Led Impact Assessment Coordinator Intermediate
Job Titles:
- Senior Accounts Payable Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Accounts Receivable Coordinator, Finance
Job Titles:
- Research Director, Indigenous Knowledge Research
Director | Ecology Team Co-Lead | Planning & Implementation Team Co-Lead
Job Titles:
- Communications Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Director
Job Titles:
- Research Director / Ecology Technical Lead
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher Planner