Deborah McGregor

Deborah McGregor is Anishinabe from Whitefish River First Nation in Birch Island, Ontario, and is a professor and a Canada Excellence Research Chair in Indigenous Planetary Well-Being at the University of Calgary. Deborah’s research has focused on Indigenous knowledge systems in diverse contexts including environmental and water governance, environmental and climate justice, health and Anishinaabe legal traditions. She remains actively involved in a variety of First Nation initiatives, continuing to serve as an advisor and engaging in community-based research and initiatives.

She gives attention to mobilizing knowledge where the greatest impact will be felt and to supporting the widespread application of her research. Her creativity in using digital and social media to reach Indigenous communities and youth has amplified her impact. Central to her knowledge mobilization approach is the employment of a “knowledge-sharing” paradigm with respect to knowledge production and dissemination. McGregor coordinated the first ever Indigenous Environmental Justice symposium in 2016 and established an IEJ knowledge network as part of a website based on her research and collaborator contributions, (see http://iejproject.info.yorku.ca/).  The IEJ website in turn supports the IEJ Knowledge Network that serves as a link between the scholarly, community and broader society.  The website also serves as a forum for knowledge dissemination about Indigenous and climate justice issues locally, nationally and internationally.  The IEJ website makes available pertinent resources for educators, artists and activists, including videos, podcasts, arts projects, a listserv for global users, tool kits, and links to the network’s podcasts. She has published over 100 peer reviewed articles, book chapters and reports, generated creative or text-based outputs for over 250 research publications and outputs. 

Deborah is a contributing author for an Indigenous stand-alone assessment on climate resilience (see https://changingclimate.ca/indigenous-resilience/) and she serves as a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on cities and climate change and for Canada’s Health in a Changing Climate.  She currently serves on the National Assessment Advisory Committee, the Expert Adaptation Panel for the Canadian Climate Institute and the Assembly of First Nations’ Advisory Committee on Climate Change Action.