Sharing Circle 2023 Participants

From about 90 applicants for the APECS & Arctic PASSION Sharing Circle 2023, we have selected 16 participants through a rigorous review process involving 30 reviewers.

Find out more about who the Sharing Circle 2023 participants are:

• Élise Brown-Dussault - Canada

  Elise has been a resident of the Yukon for nearly 7 years and is a fierce lover of animals, plants, and lichens. She is currently embarked on a two-year journey of learning about caribou lichens and how it can help rewild boreal forests after wild fires (also known as: a master's degree). In her spare time, she likes to hang out with her lazy sled dog and go out for hikes.

  © Bruno LeCavalier
  

• Emma J. Bullock - United States

  I am a PhD student in the MIT-WHOI joint program for oceanography. I research groundwater in Arctic coastal regions, with a focus on mercury fluxes to the Arctic Ocean.

  © Julia Guimond

• Peyton Cavnar - United States

  My home is Texas, United States but I am currently attending the University of Vermont for graduate school. I study paleoclimatology and the behavior and sensitivity of extinct ice sheets. My non-academic passions are epee fencing and feminist literature!

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  I'm very excited to meet other young career professionals who also study the Arctic. I also can't wait to be immersed in Skolt Sami culture and grow my knowledge of Indigenous communities while making new friends!

  © Juliana Souza

• Lauren Clavelle - Canada

  Lauren is a Tahltan researcher at Tū’desē’cho Wholistic Indigenous Leadership Development Society in the Community-Led Monitoring, Tene Mehodihi, and Tahltan Knowledge Documentation programs. She is a student of Political Science at the University of Calgary. Her research interests included Indigenous cultural revitalization, activism and the intersection of Indigenous worldviews and Western science in topics related to environmental policy and decision-making.

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  As a representative of TWILD, I would like seek reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships that can achieve local, regional and international social change. I would like to participate in the Sharing Circle to better understand how knowledge can be shared through equitable collaborations between Arctic communities and stakeholders. I hope to further educate myself on how multiple types of environmental data and maps can represent Arctic environmental, social, cultural, and economic change over time and space.

  © Lauren Clavelle

• Ilaria Crotti - Italy

  I am an Italian researcher in the field of polar sciences and climate change. During the Ph.D., my research focused on reconstructing past climate changes and Antarctic ice sheet dynamics from ice cores. From September 2022 I joined the Joint Research Centre of the EU Commission and I was welcomed on board of the Arctic PASSION Project as one of the developers of the Local Air Pollution Forecast Service (PS5).

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  I would like to participate to the Sharing Circle because I believe that this experience would largely improve my current knowledge on the Arctic topics. I think this experience would enhance my understating of Arctic environmental and climate change issues and also enlarge my knowledge regarding the local communities’ problems and needs.

  © Ilaria Crotti
  

• Alizée Le Moigne - Switzerland

  Hello! I am Alizée, a passionate aquatic microbial ecologist exploring the hidden world of invisible organisms inhabiting our environment (Bacteria, phytoplankton and other unicellular organisms). My focus lies in the exploration of remote regions, where a vast array of microorganisms thrive, playing vital roles for the global Earth. Among these captivating places, polar regions, like the Arctic, hold a special place in my heart, with their mesmerizing landscapes where aquatic and terrestrial realms converge into one breathtaking tapestry.

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  Researchers have data to show climate change and its evolution. However, data are not what touches people. Stories are what touches people, and this is something populations living in the Arctic regions have, they are living climate change. With the Sharing Circle, I am looking forward to learning from the people living these changes and hope this dialogue will help me to understand deeply how Arctic ecosystems are changing. I am enthusiastic about meeting people from diverse background who share my fascination for the Arctic.

  © Alizée Le Moigne

• Jessica Louise Hall - Norway

  Hi, I am Jessica. I come from England but have lived in Norway for a few years now. I live in a forest outside of Oslo. I have a background in Comparative Literature and Indigenous poetry. I am now researching Indigenous ecological restoration of land, specifically land which has been stolen for nuclear testing.
  

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  I am incredibly excited to learn more about Indigenous-led ecological restoration sites and to better understand what is needed to support this work. Additionally, I am really interested in braided knowledge systems and co-management structures within ecological restoration and think this opportunity will be a great place to learn more.

  © Jessica Louise Hall

• Caitlyn Lyons - Canada

  I am a fourth year PhD candidate at Wilfrid Laurier University in the Forest Ecology Research Group with Dr. Jennifer Baltzer. I study how permafrost thaw and wildfire impact the boreal forest of the Northwest Territories, Canada. During my free time I enjoy running with my dog and volunteering with Girl Guides of Canada.

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  It can be intimidating as an early career professional in the arctic; the issues the arctic faces are immense and overwhelming. By participating in the Sharing Circle I hope to share my experiences and learn from the experiences of others to contribute to arctic research in an impactful and meaningful way.

  © Evan Schijns

• Louise Mercer - United Kingdom

  I am a PhD student at Northumbria University, UK. Currently, my research centers on better understanding community-based monitoring of environmental change in the Canadian Arctic. Through my research, I hope to advance collaborative partnerships and capacity sharing to promote resilient and sustainable environmental monitoring approaches. In doing so, different capacities and insights from diverse knowledge systems are brought together to guide environmental monitoring toward appropriate and effective decision-making.
  

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  The sharing circle will facilitate two-way knowledge exchange processes, providing me with the invaluable opportunity to learn from diverse individuals and knowledge systems. Indigenous youth and ECRs can drive positive change in research approaches, takeaways from this sharing circle could be used to shape future Arctic research processes towards being more inclusive of diverse ways of knowing.

  © Louise Mercer

• Elizabeth Moeser - United States

  After earning a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California, I pursued a Master of Science in Sustainable Development from Trinity College Dublin and, for my thesis, used a decolonization framework to analyze natural resource development in the US Arctic. Now, as an Education Specialist at the Alaska SeaLife Center, I deliver educational programs on Alaska's ecosystems, animals, and culture. I hope to continue working in science communication at the intersection of environmental and social issues in the Arctic and Subarctic.
  

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  I am eager to participate in the Sharing Circle to deepen my understanding of the challenges and opportunities of building a more sustainable and equitable future in the Arctic region. I anticipate learning a great deal through this experience and I believe that participating in the Sharing Circle will make me a more effective collaborator and educator.

  © Rebeca Irigoyen
  

• Rashmi Ramesh - India

  Rashmi is a doctoral candidate with the School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. For her thesis, she works on the role of institutions in the Arctic, focusing on the Arctic Council and the Sámi Council. She is a Visiting Researcher with the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi. Her research interests include Arctic geopolitics, Asia's role in the Arctic, climate change and India's foreign policy.
  

  © Srinivas Kadaba

• Conor Savage - United Kingdom

  Conor is an ESG Programme Manager with Sainsbury's, where he is responsible for leading the development and maintenance of Sainsbury's Bank's ESG strategy. Before this he was a Climate Reporting Manager with NatWest Group, where he provided advice and technical expertise on climate, nature, and other sustainability-related policy. He joined the Group in 2019, as a Change & Business Solutions Graduate with Ulster Bank. Prior to this he studied Marine Biology at Bangor University, completing both a BSc and MSc. Whilst there, he specialised in the effects of Arctic sea ice retreat on sea ice-reliant/associated species, in particular walruses!
  

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  I'm joining the Sharing Circle as I believe it will be a valuable opportunity for me to learn from other early career professionals as well as Arctic youth, giving us the chance to network and discuss the key issues affecting the Arctic today, whilst allowing me to share my own work and experiences in the financial sector, explaining the important role it plays in shaping climate and nature through its activities, and importantly, how this can potentially be shaped for the better. I’ve always been fascinated by the Arctic, and I can confidently say I wholeheartedly support any efforts to safeguard it and support the people that inhabit it, as this goal has always resonated with me, and is very close to my heart. I'm hoping to learn about Arctic life, especially the different cultures of those that hail from there. I'd also like to share my own experiences with training and development initiatives, and how they could potentially be applied to support those operating in an Arctic context.

  © Roisín Savage
  

• Fabian Seemann - Germany

  I am a physical geographer specialized in permafrost research based at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute in Potsdam, Germany. My work focuses on a range of localities from sub-Arctic permafrost peatlands in Sweden to high-Arctic coastal environments in Alaska.
  

  © Fabienne Mannherz
  

• Karina Sheifer - United States

  I am a researcher at the Department of Linguistics of Dartmouth College. In Russia I worked at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I am a field linguist with expertise in Indigenous languages of Siberia and the Far East, namely Northern Tungusic (Evenki and Even), Siberian Turkic (Dolgan and Yakut), and Chukotko-Kamchatkan (Itelmen and Chukchi). My fieldwork seeks the preservation, digitalization, and revitalization of extremely endangered languages. Although her main research interest is in linguistics, an integral part of her work is an interaction with minority national communities in terms of education and promotion of native languages, as well as protection of the interests of Indigenous communities before the federal authorities.
  

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  I am deeply involved in the language, social and right problematics of the Arctic peoples, who are represented in greater numbers in Russia, that I left because of the police persecution related to my antiwar activities, and the USA, where I currently work as a researcher

  © Karina Sheifer

• Pavel Tkach - Finland

  Researcher with a law background and experience, interested in Arctic Governance from multiple perspectives. These include policymaking and innovations in environmental and climate governance, legal developments in domestic systems of the Arctic States, and bilateral relations between the Arctic states.
  

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  My primary interest in SC is in curiosity and research interest on the topic of interactions between indigenous communities and public administration bodies. In participating in SC, I see my chance to interact with the indigenous community, ask questions, and have interesting discussions with young researchers from different parts of the Arctic.

  © Anastasiya Liamina
  

• Minetta Westerlund - Norway

  Originating from Helsinki, I relocated to Tromsø three years ago to pursue a Master's degree in Visual Anthropology and immerse myself in backcountry skiing. Since I graduated summer 2022, I have been interning at the Arctic Council Secretariat. This September I will take up a new position as Administrative and Communications Advisor at the ACS, and I look forward to keep working on Arctic issues and deepening my knowledge and understanding about the region. © Jessica Cook

• Jaakko Juvonen - Finland

  I am a researcher and a doctoral student working in Finnish Meteorological Institute with academic background in environmental and natural resource economics. My research focuses on estimating economic impacts of climate change adaptation measures and natural resource use.

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  Questions linked to socially optimal and sustainable use of natural resources fascinates me. Sharing circle could perhaps help me to understand these questions better in the arctic context.

  © Jaakko Juvonen
  

• Kaisa Juhanko - Finland

  I'm a young researcher working at the Finnish Meteorological Institution with a background in environmental economics. When I'm not doing research stuff, you'll find me outdoors, doing sports or playing with dogs. I'm also a passionate secondhand shopper and circular economy advocate.

  Why are you participating in the Sharing Circle?

  I'm eager to participate in the Sharing Circle because it provides a unique opportunity to engage with fellow early-career scientists from various disciplines and to expand my understanding of the Arctic environment, its complexities, and the challenges it faces. I believe that this collaborative event will broaden my understanding of Arctic research and foster connections that can drive innovative solutions for the preservation of this critical region. Additionally, the chance to meet, share ideas, and learn from experienced mentors and indigenous people really excites me.

  © Iris Nurminen