Executive
Lacey Hébert
Director
Remington Bracher
Student Director & Education and Information
Ednna Stobschinski
Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Chair
Director
Student Director & Education and Information
Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Chair
Stan Boutin is currently Professor Emeritus in the University of Alberta’s Department of Biological Sciences. He grew up north of Edmonton and went to school at University of Alberta (BSc) and UBC (MSc and PhD). Stan was formerly Science Co-Director of the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, President and Science Co-Lead for the Canadian Mountain Network, Alberta Biodiversity Conservation Chair, and NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Integrated Landscape Management. Stan’s applied research is designed to allow stakeholders to make ecologically informed land-use decisions and he has worked closely with the forestry and energy sectors in Alberta. He became involved in the study and conservation of woodland caribou in the mid nineties. Other research interests include snowshoe hare-lynx cycles and red squirrel ecology, energetics, and evolution. Stan has tortured many great graduate students along the way. Despite this, he and his students have been awarded The Wildlife Society Publication of the Year in Wildlife, Ecology and Management three times. Stan was also fortunate enough to be awarded the William Rowan Distinguished Service Award from ACTWS and he has the belt buckle to prove it.
Colleen Cassady St. Clair is a professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta where she has been since 1998. Prior to that she completed degrees at the Universities of Alberta (B.Sc.), Canterbury (M.Sc.) and Oklahoma (Ph.D.). She and her students emphasise knowledge and methods of animal behaviour to study problems in wildlife conservation and management with a focus on resolving human-wildlife conflict. Together, they have produced over 100 peer-reviewed papers, a dozen government reports, several magazine articles, and hundreds of presentations and media interviews. Colleen seeks to engage others in both the process and products of science with collaborative teams that include wildlife and land managers, policy makers, diverse interest groups, and members of the public. You can learn more about Colleen on her University of Alberta webpage here.
Paul Frame has been the Provincial Carnivore Specialist with the GoA (Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, Environment and Parks, Environment and Protected Areas, Forestry and Parks) since June 2014. He started working in the wildlife research and management field in 1997 on Dr. L. David Mech’s deer and wolf study while working toward his B.Sc. at the University of Minnesota. Paul finished that degree in spring 2001, graduating with distinction. That fall, Paul started an M.Sc. program in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, which he successfully completed in 2005. While at the U of A, Paul was the 2002 recipient of the Alberta Chapter’s William Wishard Graduate Scholarship.
Paul has broad experience working with cougars, wolves, and bears in multiple jurisdictions including, Minnesota, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Alaska, Idaho, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Washington State. Returning to Alberta in 2014 as the Provincial Carnivore Specialist was an opportunity Paul couldn’t say no to. Eleven years and lots of political changes later, he still considers it his dream job.
The Wildlife Society has always been a guiding light in Paul’s career. As such, contributing to the work of the Alberta Chapter as President Elect will add a new dimension to his experience, while providing an opportunity to give back to the Society.
Marcus is currently an Ecologist with the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and specializes in large mammal population monitoring and evaluation of response to human disturbance. He received both his B.Sc. (Conservation Science) and M.Sc. (Economics) at the University of Alberta. Like most others in this space, Marcus is keen on getting outdoors to ride his gravel bike on unexplored country roads, hike up faraway mountains, and hunt for moose in Alberta’s backcountry. He currently lives in Edmonton with his wife, Megan, and their cat, Balou.
Shantel is a professional biologist with over ten years of wildlife research experience. Shantel holds a Masters in Ecology from the University of Alberta and a Bachelor of Science degree from Dalhousie University. Shantel has work experience as a consultant, report writer and science communicator, data analyst, and GIS technician.
Sandra MacDougall is a biology instructor and former Biology Department Chair at Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP). Born in Thompson, Manitoba, Sandra received a M.E.Des. (Environmental Science) from the University of Calgary and a B.Sc. (Biological Sciences) from the University of Victoria. Sandra has been at RDP (formerly Red Deer College) since 1995. Her research interests include black bear ecology, sea turtle conservation and monitoring, urban ungulates and understanding human-wildlife conflicts in a variety of contexts. She is passionate about ensuring that undergraduate biology students have a strong foundation in quantitative skills and wildlife ecology. For twenty years Sandra collaborated with Parks Canada to conduct field hazard assessments and analyze human-bear conflicts in northern parks. She subsequently worked with the Government of Alberta to develop the Alberta Wildlife Watch Program, a province-wide safety program that collects and analyzes real-time animal carcass data to identify hotspots and integrate wildlife considerations into transportation planning. She and her students are currently focused on (1) studying the feeding ecology and demographic characteristics of an expanding black bear population in the Beaver Hills Biosphere, and (2) using non-invasive techniques to study urban wildlife movements and habitat connectivity in the City of Red Deer.
Corey has been the Assistant Curator of Ornithology at the Royal Alberta Museum since 2014, where he prepares birds, manages the 40,000+ objects in the Ornithology collection, develops exhibits, participates in outreach activities and runs various research projects. Previously, Corey worked with Species at Risk in the grasslands of Alberta and Saskatchewan, where he focused on the influence of human development on Burrowing Owls. Outside of work, he enjoys growing food on almost every square meter of his yard in Edmonton as well as hunting and camping with family and friends.
Lacey has a Diploma in Environmental Technology from Vanier College in Montreal and a B.Sc. in Wildlife Biology from McGill University. Lacey is passionate about Canadian wildife conservation and her career path highlights that. Lacey has over 10 years experience in wildlife field research working with a variety of wildlife. In her current role as Conservation Research Associate at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo (WI/CZ), she supports the burrowing owl headstarting program and the halfmoon hairstreak butterfly project by implementing and coordinating field work, applying for permits, managing data, and writing reports. Her 7-year career at the WI/CZ provided her with the opportunity to support a variety of conservation translocation projects including greater sage-grouse translocations, burrowing owl headstarting program, as well as swift fox and black-footed ferret monitoring. In addition to working at the Wilder Institute, Lacey has worked for Parks Canada in Banff as a Human-Wildlife Conflict officer, and she has also been involved in several other conservation projects including monitoring wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park and supporting coyote and mule deer research in central Nevada.
Ednna is a recent graduate of Lethbridge Polytechnic’s Bachelor of Ecosystem Management (Fish and Wildlife). Born and raised in Mexico, she decided to take a leap of faith into pursuing a career in the Environmental Sciences in Canada in 2019 and has not stopped since. She finds joy in being actively engaged in her community and learning new things that continue to spark her curiosity for the natural world. This has led her to take on roles in academic policy, stakeholder involvement, and various leadership roles, such as being the former Vice President and President of the Lethbridge Polytechnic Chapter of The Wildlife Society (LPCTWS), as well as reprise her role as Chair of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee (EDIC). She describes herself as an aspiring Wildlife Biologist/Ecologist who fell in love with plants (and most recently, fungi and invertebrates!). During her spare time, you can find her birdwatching, hiking, or bio-blitzing in the Grasslands, the Rockies, or your local urban park.
Dr. Margo Pybus spent the better part of a life-time learning from wildlife. She was schooled early in life among the fields, forests, and marshes of southern Ontario and later in the prairie, foothill, mountain, parkland, and boreal landscapes of Alberta and beyond..
Margo received a B.Sc. in Fish and Wildlife Biology and M.Sc. in Wildlife Parasitology, both from the University of Guelph. She holds a PhD in Wildlife Parasitology from the University of Alberta and is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, UofA. Margo is on staff with Alberta Fish and Wildlife as the first Provincial Wildlife Disease Specialist. She leads high profile provincial wildlife disease surveillance and management programs, including chronic wasting disease, West Nile virus, avian influenza, and rabies.
Alberta TWS member since the Chapter founding in 1989. Former Chapter newsletter editor, President, student mentor, Dedicated Service and Rowan Distinguished Service award recipient, and ongoing reference/repository for many things chapter-related.
Layla is a caribou biologist with Parks Canada in Jasper National Park, and has been the ACTWS webmaster since 2007. Layla grew up in rural Alberta adjacent to Alberta’s green zone (without a lot of neighbours, but with a lot of sticks, rocks, and wildlife). She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. at the University of Alberta, and is a former president of the University of Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society. Layla’s M.Sc. thesis examined dynamics of Little Smoky caribou and wolves in west-central Alberta. Her work with Parks Canada takes her to picturesque locations throughout Canada’s National Parks and she’s a key member of the caribou research, monitoring, and recovery team in the Canadian Rockies National Parks. Layla enjoys hiking, biking, music, travel, biology, and loves the outdoors; she is looking forward to re-exploring favourite places with her two young children in coming years.
“Rooted in Wisdom: Deer Aging Techniques”
Embark on a journey of precision and insight with the Lethbridge College Wildlife Analytics Lab (WAL) at the ACTWS Conference in Jasper! Join our workshop, ‘Rooted in Wisdom: Deer Aging Techniques‘, to explore the secrets hidden within wildlife teeth. Explore both the field technique of ‘tooth eruption and wear’ and the laboratory marvel of ‘cementum analysis’ – both dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of ungulate ages. Delve into the heart of these techniques, comparing their accuracy and precision, with a revelation of the superior accuracy of cementum analysis. Learn the art of tooth extraction and witness the seamless process of submitting your own wildlife teeth to the WAL for aging through cementum analysis. Elevate your understanding of deer populations and contribute to the advancement of wildlife knowledge and bolster your resume with applied experience. Participants will gain hands-on familiarity with the field technique of jaw aging, and the lab process of tooth extraction, inspection, preparation, and cementum analysis. Join us in Jasper for a transformative experience at the intersection of field expertise and cutting-edge laboratory analysis!
Facilitated by the Wildlife Analytics Lab, Lethbridge College
Cost: $15
Professional refers to someone who works with wildlife and/or their habitats in a professional setting.
In this context, it is not in reference to a legal professional designation.
