Meet the lab

Kimberly Yazzie

Kim (she/her)
Principal Investigator

Dr. Yazzie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences in the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Stewardship. She is a lecturer in the Centre of Indigenous Land Stewardship, a Green College Leading Scholar, and a member of the Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory (IBioS). Dr. Yazzie was a postdoctoral fellow in the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford and holds a Ph.D. in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from the University of Washington. She is Diné, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation from northern Arizona in the United States. She enjoys backpacking, paddleboarding, watercoloring, practicing meditation, and going on long urban walks.

As the PI of the FCS Lab, she cultivates a research environment that is inclusive of different worldviews that centers relationality and reciprocity in applied conservation science. She is committed to equitable knowledge co-production that builds capacity across generations and sectors.

Sam Ronnenberg

Sam (he/him)
PhD Student

Hailing from Saint Paul, Minnesota in the United States, Sam is a first-year PhD student with the lab. Research interests of his include citizen science, and how land management impacts ecosystem resilience and ecosystem services. When not in the office you can find him playing tennis, skiing, hunting for banana slugs, or at bar trivia.

Natalia Portales

Natalia (she/her)
MSc Student

Natalia’s research interests focus on understanding how climate change and human disturbance impact ecosystem resilience, biodiversity, and aquatic ecosystems, with a particular focus on freshwater and coastal systems. Her work uses quantitative, data-driven approaches to understand ecological change and inform conservation, restoration, watershed management, and endangered species recovery. She is also interested in connecting ecological research with community engagement to support effective and sustainable conservation.

Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Natalia calls the Great Lakes home. She grew up around the lakes where her love for nature and conservation grew. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, running, reading, traveling, and spending time with family and friends!

Colette Bennett

Undergraduate Research Assistant