Current Employees
Keith was born and raised in North West River, Labrador and graduated from Lake Melville School in 1987.
Keith obtained his B.Sc. from Dalhousie, M.Sc. from Acadia, a PhD from Memorial. Keith has worked in both the private and public sectors.
Prior to joining the Labrador Institute Keith worked with Environment Canada, and prior to that with the Labrador Inuit Association. Keith enjoys the outdoors and is especially fond of music and sports.
Martha MacDonald, Associate Director
Martha MacDonald has lived in Labrador since 1988. She is the Associate Director of Education and Training, she has been employed with LI since 1999, and also teaches folklore in the college-university transfer year at the College of the North Atlantic. She studied at Mount Allison University, Universite de Strasbourg and Memorial. She volunteers in the arts community of Happy Valley-Goose Bay and has a long-term interest in Labrador culture and history.
Beatrice Dickers
Beatrice started working with the Labrador Institute on a four-month contract in 1981. During the years, she has worked as a secretary and administrative staff specialist.
Throughout her employment she met many interesting people through the Labrador Institute and the St. John's campus.
In her spare time, she is an avid photographer and has taken some of the landscape shots that appear on the Labrador Institute web site.
Ron Sparkes
Dr. Ron Sparkes has been involved with education and special projects in Newfoundland and Labrador for the past 40 years serving as President of the College of the North Atlantic, President of the Labrador College, and Superintendent of Education with the Labrador East Integrated School Board. He was Federal Facilitator for the establishment of an Environmental Institute to Monitor Low Level Flight Training in Labrador and Quebec, and Co-Chaired Government's 1999-2000 Panel on Educational Delivery. In 2002 he completed a two-year secondment to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador as Deputy Minister of Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs and now serves as Labrador Associate with the Labrador Institute of Memorial University.
Karen Pottle-Fewer joined the Labrador Institute in the fall of 2009 as Program Coordinator in the Labrador West office. Karen was born and raised in Labrador City, NL and graduated from Menihek High School. She has obtained certificates in Library Studies and Business Administration and a Bachelor of Business Administration, all from Memorial University.
Prior to joining the Labrador Institute team, Karen worked at College of the North Atlantic as a Library Technician and Business Development Officer. She has also been employed with the Labrador School Board and Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries.
In her leisure time, Karen enjoys walking, reading and scrapbooking and has a long-time interest in genealogy.
Rebecca Schiff
Dr. Schiff joined the Labrador Institute in 2011 as Assistant Professor (Aboriginal Health) with the Division of Community Health & Humanities in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University. Prior to joining the Institute, Rebecca was Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice Studies at the University of Regina.
Rebecca has degrees from McGill University and a PhD in Sustainable Development from Murdoch University (Australia). Issues of social justice, sustainable development, social policy, and public health have been at the forefront of Rebecca's career. She is resolutely committed to community-based research that is rooted in truly collaborative, engaged and respectful inquiry. Dr. Schiff has extensive experience working with the non-profit sector and marginalised communities.
In her spare time, Rebecca enjoys music, gardening, and exploring the great outdoors.
Scott Neilsen lives in North West River, Labrador with his wife and two daughters. He is a PhD candidate/researcher at Memorial University, an anthropology instructor at the College of North Atlantic, and a heritage resource specialist. His primary research focus is on the long-term history of indigenous people in eastern Quebec and Labrador, and their relations with one-another, settlers, visitors and the environment. More generally, he is interested in the culture and history of small-scale societies from around the world, and the impact of climate and the environment on their immediate adaptations and long-term transformations.
As an instructor he is interested in archaeological and anthropological theory, and the history and role of these disciplines within society. His varied and extensive work as a heritage resource consultant has helped Scott develop keen research and fieldwork skills, which he is able to apply in an efficient and effective manner.
Ilana Allice is a research assistant for Dr. Trevor Bell, a professor in MUN's geography department. Ilana has a BSc from Queen's in Environmental and Life Sciences and an MA in Development Studies from Queen's.
Morgon came to Labrador in 2007, shortly after receiving his M.A. from the University of Toronto. He joined Memorial University in 2010 and now puts his education to use in a variety of ways, teaching literature, promoting academic skill development, and most recently helping out with the Labrador Institute's library collections. As of May, 2012, he is employed as a Program Coordinator in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
He is currently working on a Certificate in Library Studies, has written an as-yet unpublished fantasy novel, and is the top-rated competitive chess player in the province.
Rachel Hirsch
Rachel Hirsch is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University and a Labrador Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her postgraduate work was conducted at the University of Western Ontario and she recently completed her first postdoctoral fellowship at York University. Rachel's postdoctoral work expands on her doctoral research by exploring how everyday decision-making about environmental health information, across scales from communities through to the federal government in Canada, can inform government initiatives to promote healthy communities and cities. For the last year, Rachel has also been actively involved as principal investigator in the development and implementation of a technique called knowledge tracking meant to assess the use and exchange of a local message from Iqaluit, Nunavut about climate change and health by municipal, territorial, and federal policy actors. Rachel maintains connections with York University as an Executive Member of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability and as co-chair of the Climate Consortium for Research Action Integration working group on interdisciplinary collaboration.
Rachel is very excited about the unique opportunity her current PDF with the LI offers. Rachel will be residing in Nain from January-December 2012 where she will continue to work on issues of knowledge mobilization and environmental health program evaluation. She will be a partner on an innovative project, the first of its kind in Canada, focused on working together with community members, the Nain Inuit Community Government (NICG) and the Nunatsiavut Government (NG) to expand Nain's community freezer program to include a youth outreach component focused on intergenerational skills, knowledge, and values exchange and to evaluate the success of this environmental health intervention by drawing on techniques in participatory program evaluation.
