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Memorial University Emily Reid-Musson Postdoctoral Fellow (WP2) Emily Reid-Musson is an interdisciplinary work and labour researcher with training in human geography (PhD, 2017, Geography, University of Toronto) and public/occupational health (Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, 2017-2019). Her research focuses on workers’ experiences in non-standard workplaces, including migrant, mobile, and self-employed forms of work, with a particular emphasis on Canadian agriculture, and more recently, Atlantic Canada fisheries. Another area of focus is labour policy and regulation, including workplace health and safety. She is a qualitative researcher and contributes to social and geographical theory, particularly feminist geography and political economy. Her research has been published in human geography and labour and employment journals, including Environment and Planning A and New Technology, Work, and Employment. With Dr. Joel Finnis and Dr. Barb Neis, she is currently conducting OFI research on the ways small-scale fish harvesters use and interpret weather information to manage weather hazards in their work at sea. Their research article was recently published in Applied Geography, “Bridging fragmented knowledge between forecasting and fishing communities: Co-managed decisions on weather delays in Nova Scotia's lobster season openings” ( https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102478 )

Robert Chafe Collaborator (IWP4) Robert Chafe is a St. John’s based playwright and has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and in the United States, and include Oil and Water, Tempting Providence, Afterimage, Under Wraps, Between Breaths, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted from the novel by Wayne Johnston.) He has been shortlisted twice for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been guest instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and The National Theatre School of Canada. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the playwright and Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland. Mr. Chafe’s roles in the FOCI’s IWP4 will be to gather original stories related to the collapse of the fishery, the impact of offshore oil development, and the effects of climate change from people living in coastal communities in the province and work with Neis to place them in conversation with FOCI and OFI themes and research findings. Chafe will develop the stories and conversation into a play for which original music - informed both by his text and the rich traditional music from these specific regions of the province will be commissioned by composer Randolph Peter.

Carissa Brown Co-investigator (WP2) Dr. Carissa Brown is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Memorial University and has 18 years experience conducting experimental and observational studies in Canadian forest ecosystems. C. Brown is the lead of the Northern EDGE Lab, where her research group focuses on the impact of climate change on plant species across their distributions. She does this primarily in forest ecosystems, studying both understory plant and tree populations and communities, typically at the edge of their range. She combines field experimentation and observational studies to answer questions related to biodiversity and land-use change, disturbance, abiotic characteristics, and biotic interactions, analyzing these data using tools such as mixed-effect modeling, Bayesian approaches, and multivariate statistics. Her ongoing research programs include a large-scale field experiment distributed across Newfoundland testing the ability of native temperate tree species of eastern North America to expand their distributions into boreal forest stands under climate change. Previous research in Canada’s subarctic treeline has involved propagating and planting out tree seedlings across a natural field experiment. Her research funding and collaborations span Federal (NSERC, Parks Canada), Provincial (Research and Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador), and international (International Arctic Science Committee) bodies. She has published 21 peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals ranging from Canadian Journal of Forest Research to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. C. Brown’s research has been featured in the journals Nature and Science, and she has been a guest on regional CBC radio programs as well as the national science program ‘Quirks and Quarks’.

Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Sara Langer-Smith Research Assistant (WP7) To learn more about Sara Langer - Rural Resilience

Memorial University Yousra Abdelhady Master's Student (WP1) Yousra is pursuing another master’s degree in Ocean and Naval Architecture Engineering at Memorial University. Her thesis focuses on the Safety of Fishing Vessels, specifically on the effect of length to breadth ratio on dynamic stability. She is a Naval Architect with over a decade of international experience in the shipbuilding industry. She has worked in Canada, Netherlands, and Egypt, covering various aspects of naval architecture, project management, production, and modelling. Her top competencies are multitasking, ship stability and weight distribution. She holds a bachelor and master’s degrees in Naval Architecture from Alexandria University in Egypt, as well as a PMP certification and a train of trainer credential. She is also a Techwomen fellow, and a registered Professional Engineer in British Columbia and Alberta. Besides her technical expertise, she is also an active volunteer for SNAME, serving as an Alternate Functional Vice President for Knowledge management and the social media and Events Chair for SNAME Canadian Atlantic Section. She is also part of the communication team of Maritech conference 2024. Moreover, she has mentored and facilitated various hands-on workshops for different age groups.

Memorial University Pierrette Janes-Bourque Master's Student (WP2) Pierrette Janes (she/her) is a Master’s of Science in Geography student at Memorial University’s campus in St. John’s, NL, and is co-supervised by Dr. Carissa Brown and Dr. Joel Finnis. Pierrette is from the beautiful, nature-filled province of New Brunswick where she spent most of her childhood exploring local forests. After completing her Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Leadership from the University of New Brunswick, Pierrette’s interest in forests led her to a position as Stewardship Coordinator for the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, working closely with local conservationists to protect, monitor and restore some of New Brunswick’s unique natural spaces. Pierrette’s research with FOCI will focus on climate smart trees and urban forests as a potential nature-based climate solutions in coastal communities in Newfoundland.

Doug Smith Co-investigator (IWP1) Assistant Professor Doug Smith of Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied. Science researches complex socio-technical systems. He has developed an approach called the process monitoring and performance measurement (PMPM) method for investigating these systems. The PMPM method provides insights into the how complex systems function by modeling the interactions between people, organizations, and technologies. Smith is an investigator in IWP1.

Madeleine Gustavsson Collaborator (WP9) Dr Madeleine Gustavsson is a Researcher at Ruralis – Institute for Rural and Regional Research in Trondheim, Norway. Before joining Ruralis, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter (UK), holding an Economic and Social Research Council New Investigator fellowship, researching the changing lives of women in small-scale fishing families in the UK and Newfoundland. As part of the Women in Fisheries project, Madeleine visited Memorial University in 2018 as a visiting postdoctoral fellow where she also got to learn about the Newfoundland fishery and collect data with women in Newfoundland fishing families. Previous to this, Madeleine conducted research on fishing cultures – including intergenerational and gendered dimension – in North Wales, UK which led here to secure PhD in Human Geography at the University of Liverpool. In addition to publishing on the topics of fisheries, gender and Blue Justice, Madeleine has co-edited the book ‘Researching People and the Sea’ published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2021. More broadly, her research focuses on marine, coastal and rural issues drawing on social science methods to understand the lifeworlds of people living and working with the sea. Dr Gustavsson will collaborate with the lead and postdoctoral fellow of FOCI’s Work package 9.3.

Nancy Dahn Co-investigator (IWP4) Dr. Nancy Dahn, F.R.S.C., is a University Research Professor at the School of Music, Memorial University. Her expertise is in violin performance and, with her ensemble Duo Concertante, she has performed over 600 recitals throughout North America, Europe and China, recorded 12 acclaimed commercial CDs one of which won a JUNO and three of which won ECMAs, and commissioned over 65 new Canadian works. She is also the founder and Co-Artistic Director of the chamber music festival The Tuckamore Festival which recently celebrated its 19th season. With Duo Concertante, she has been the impetus for many interdisciplinary collaborations including projects with Vincent Ho (Maples and the Stream), Chan Ka Nin (Late in a Slow Time), Andrew Staniland (The Ocean is Full of its own Collapse) and has a proven track record of bringing to life new works of art which combine music and dramas supported by strong artistic vision, careful planning and fundraising, and skillful execution. Committed to outreach, she has also performed for over 3000 school age children across NL in a program focusing on mental illness, marginalization and disability, as well as in Germany through the Rhapsody in School program. Dr. Dahn’s primary role in the FOCI’s IWP4 will be as violinist performer in the dramatic musical work created by playwright Robert Chafe and composer Randolph Peters.

Memorial University Jacopo Fragasso Postdoctoral Fellow (WP1) More to come.

Dalhousie University Gillian Kerr Postdoctoral Fellow (WP6) Dr. Gillian Kerr joined the Dalhousie team in August 2020. She will be coordinating the work of the Rural Futures Research Centre and training and supervising students. She will also be working with the FOCI Work Package 6 team on collecting and disseminating research on the climate change perceptions across Atlantic Canada. She is also adjunct faculty at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC where she teaches environmental and ecological economics for decision-making. She recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University in the RESNET research group on ecosystem service research and application across Canada. Her doctoral thesis, “Market-Based Approaches for Environmental Governance: Exploring the Implementation Gap in Alberta” explored governance issues that have impeded that application of MBIs for environmental objectives in Alberta. Her research interests include ecosystem services theory and application for sustainable communities, and the application of ecological economics to enhance sustainable futures. She has recently moved to Halifax from Edmonton, Alberta.

Shameem Islam Co-investigator (WP1) Dr. Shameem Islam has over nineteen years of experience in the fields of marine, offshore and arctic engineering with technical expertise in both physical and numerical modelling, particularly for harsh environmental conditions. Dr. Islam has carried out various ocean and naval architectural engineering-related research and development projects throughout his career, focusing mainly on numerical modelling of ships and propulsion hydrodynamics and acoustics. Dr. Islam’s current research interest includes ice-waves-structure interactions modelling and marine propulsion and noise measurements and modelling. Dr. Islam’s research work has been disseminated through more than ninety publications and presentations at various international journals and conferences, including several editions of the SNAME Transactions, RINA Transactions, ISP, OE, JNAME, JSR, JSDP, and OMAE Journals. Dr. Islam is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE) and the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland (PEGNL). In addition, Dr. Islam is a member of the Government of Canada interdepartmental working group of Ocean Noise and represents Transport Canada in the international Cooperative Ship Research (CRS) initiatives. Dr. Islam has completed his Doctoral research at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2008. Dr. Islam is co-investigator in Work Package 1: “Improving safety and environmental footprints of marine vehicles by design and operation.”