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2022-25 Sheridan R. Thompson Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator Currently, Sheridan is an Interdisciplinary PhD candidate conducting transdisciplinary research in Iceland focused on the impact that local knowledge has in adaptation to a rapidly changing coast in the face of a climate crisis. Sheridan has inquired into the making of knowledge with coasts through multiple ways of experience including story-telling, rock climbing, surfing, hiking, and research in both the natural and social sciences. Sheridan has been conducting experiential hiking tours in coastal landscape and culture since 2013 and has partnered with organizations such as Shorefast Foundation (Fogo Island), Newfoundland and Labrador Environmental Network (NLEN), Oceans Learning Partnership (OLP), Coastal Connections, Harris Centre Public Engagement, and Fishing for Success (F4S). Sheridan came on board as the Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator with Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures (FOCI) in June 2022.

David Lane Collaborator (IWP4) As part of FOCI IWP4, I will create a puppet play that reflects the rich craft and storytelling traditions of the Gros Morne region while capturing and promoting public engagement with core coastal communities around themes of our changing oceans and other FOCI themes. My aim is to enhance capacity in puppet construction and performance in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Gros Morne Puppet Project will engage in a process that recognizes the diversity of the west coast of Newfoundland, and uses indigenous and traditional knowledge as the bases for design and construction. We will draw on the knowledge that exists in communities already, be it boatbuilding, rug hooking, or trap construction, and in FOCI and relevant Bonne Bay Marine Institute research and redirect it towards making a piece of theatre that feels connected to the community in which it’s being created and works for a diverse audience. The creation of the play will help to answer some of the outreach programming needs of the Bonne May Marine Research Station, creating a piece of FOCI/Bonne Bay Marine Station theatre which will sit in their performance venue, and can be remounted with relative ease each summer. Visitors to the research station will view the play in the context of the region, and learn specifics about the history and local practices of the neighboring coastal communities and their connection to larger issues/challenges related to ocean change and coastal community sustainability.

Howard Ramos Co-Lead (WP6), Co-Investigator (IWP3) Professor Ramos is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology at Dalhousie University and Professor in, and Chair of, the Department of Sociology at Western University. He draws upon his experience as a political sociologist who investigates issues of social justice and equity and eclectic and wide range of research interests and expertise. He has published on environmental advocacy, perceptions of change in Atlantic Canada, social movements, human rights, Indigenous mobilization, ethnicity, race. He has published in his discipline’s top international and national venues and has worked across the disciplines of geography, political science, and sociology. Ramos is also a public intellectual who regularly works with community groups, such as the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat, as well as all levels of government. He is currently the Chair of the Canadian Statistics Advisory Council which advises the Chief Statistician and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industy on matters concerning the overall quality of the national statistical system. He has also worked with NRCan and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and has worked with the Office of Immigration in Nova Scotia and city planners in Halifax. Ramos likewise engages in public debate and has done so through numerous television interviews, radio, and newspaper interviews in English and French on most national networks. He also has written many op-eds for national and international newspapers and magazines and been author of numerous reports. Additionally, Ramos is well known for his work on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and has worked with Universities Canada and the Tri-Council on these issues. His co-authored book, The Equity Myth, is widely adopted and has informed NSERC policy.

Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Moses Adjei Postdoctoral Fellow (WP5) Moses Adjei is a Marine Social Scientist and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Science and the Environment at Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Grenfell Campus. He has been working on FOCI’s WP5 – ‘Building collaborative interdisciplinary research infrastructure in Atlantic Canada’s lobster fisheries’. Within the past year, Moses has collaborated with FOCI’s WP5 team and leaders of Lobster Fisheries Associations (Lobster Node) to co-develop a survey and interview tools for tracking the socio-economic benefits of lobster to communities, municipalities, and Provinces in Atlantic Canada. Moses has also participated in several conferences and seminars under the FOCI project in Canada. He has strong research interest and experience in working with coastal communities. Specifically, Moses’ research focuses on women and gender, coastal livelihoods and wellbeing and marine resource governance. His studies have been published in reputable journals including Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Comparative Family studies, Rural Sociology, Ocean and Coastal Management, The Extractive Industries and Society, and Gender, Place and Culture, Coastal Management and Maritime Affairs.

Brian Veitch Co-investigator (IWP1) Professor Brian Veitch is the NSERC / Husky Energy IRC in Safety at Sea at Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. His research focuses on the safety of people who work in complex socio-technical systems, especially those who work at sea. During the last 20 years, he has supervised more than 260 graduate students, research associates, and undergraduate co-op students; published more than 270 journal and conference papers; and secured over $15M in research funding. Veitch will serve on the FOCI Advisory Committee and is an investigator in IWP1.

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.

Melanie Griffin Co-investigator (WP5) Melanie learned a long time ago that she loved the outdoors. During her time at St. Francis Xavier University, she favoured classes like biology, marine biology, coastal oceanography, and marine pollution while she completed her Bachelor of Science, majoring in Biology. After this, shg attended James Cook University in Townsville, Australia and noted that she learned more about the Canadian fisheries while in Australia than she ever did here in Canada. She went straight to work looking for a job in Canada where she could help in the lobster industry. She had some amazing jobs along the way, as a Marine Interpreter on a Whale Watching Boat, Marine Biologist in a lobster plant, Field tech at the Lobster Science Centre and Project Manager/field biologist with Aquatic Science and Health Services. All of which lead her to the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association. Now, she assists fishers directly in answering questions about different species and stock status, in an effort to ensure that fishing remains sustainable for future generations while maintaining a healthy ocean.

Memorial University Matthew Addison Master's Student (WP5) More to come.

Memorial University Christine Knott Postdoctoral Fellow (WP9) Dr. Christine Knott is a post-doctoral fellow with the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI) in the Department of Geography at Memorial University, working with Module M3 – Social License and Planning in Coastal Communities. Her research expertise aims to develop a better understanding of the current gendered and racialized labour processes within the aquaculture and seafood processing industries and their dynamics within communities and workplaces. These explorations allow Dr. Knott to investigate the significance of the interactions among resource dependent communities, government policies, global corporate capitalism, ecological and economic mobility regimes, and animal enclosure and commodification. Dr. Knott will be affiliated with FOCI Work Package 9, Inclusion, social justice and equity in urban and rural coastal communities.

Memorial University Alexandria Major Research Assistant (WP1) Alexandria is a Research Assistant II with Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures (FOIC) at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Her research focuses on fishing vessel safety and in particular aiming to improve and reduce the environmental footprint of marine vehicles by design and operation. She completed her masters in engineering (M.Eng) in Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering at Memorial University. Her masters area of research involved investigating the manual performance and usability of emergency signalling devices for cold maritime environments. From her research she authored a paper in the journal of Applied Ergonomics titled " Investigating manual performance when using push buttons following cold water hand immersion." She was a Teaching Assistant at Memorial University for the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science during her masters program in which she was a TA for a variety of engineering undergraduate courses in the department of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering. She completed her undergraduate degree in engineering at Memorial University where she had the opportunity to work abroad in Hamburg, Germany and London, England for some of her co-operative engineering placements. Her fields of interests are safety engineering, offshore structures and arctic engineering.

Memorial University Finbar Hefferon Research Assistant (IWP3) More to come.