About Lisa

Lisa is a Canadian of northern European descent. She was born and continues to live and work on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Anishinabe people. Her husband, Mads, is a professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and is from Denmark. Together, they raise four humans who are now young adults and teenagers. Lisa loves to bike, walk, and be in nature. She has been a vegetarian/vegan for 35 years for environmental and ethical reasons. Click here to watch a video poem Lisa made to explore her positionality on the lands she calls home.

Lisa holds a Ph.D. in Education at the University of Ottawa. Her SSHRC-funded doctoral research looked at how teachers might unlearn colonialism. Specifically, Lisa asked how teachers unlearn colonialism, moving from a space of “learning about” Indigenous people to a place of “learning with and from” them.

Prior to her Ph.D., Lisa completed her Masters of Education. Her thesis looked at the movement for education for reconciliation across Quebec before and during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action.

She is a passionate teacher and (un)learner. She has taught at Pierre Elliott Trudeau School in Gatineau, Quebec, since 2006, and taught medically vulnerable students during the pandemic with the Western Quebec Online Learning Academy. Currently, Lisa is working as the lead research assistant on Just because we're small doesn't mean we can't stand tall: Reconciliation education in the elementary school classroom. This SSHRC-funded, multi-year project is a collaboration between the Faculty of Education and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. Lisa is committed to and honoured to learn from and work in relation with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

Currently, Lisa is also a part-time professor in the Faculty of Education, and truly enjoys working with teacher candidates and graduate students as they learn together. She is also a post-doctoral researcher with Dr. Tricia McGuire-Adams, who is an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Ganandawisiwin (Good Health) Sovereignties

In 2018, Lisa was honoured to receive three awards that recognized her years of teaching: a “Partner in Indigenous Education” Award from Indspire; a Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Teaching; and a Teaching Excellence Award from the Western Quebec School Board.

Lisa has been a mentor-coach at the WQSB since 2009 and is honoured to have coached over twenty teachers in this time. Since 2014, she has been a member of Ottawa Teachers for Social Justice and a Member of the Governing Circle with Justice for Indigenous Women. From 2016-17, Lisa appreciated being part of The Secret Path Education Advisory Group. From 2017-2018, Lisa was honoured to be on the Indigenous Advisory Group at the National Film Board of Canada as well as the Canadian Geographic Society Indigenous Map of Canada Education Advisory Group. She is one of the co-founders of “ReimagineCanada(day)-the bike or virtual tour around Ottawa. She has learned so much from all the inspired educators she has met through this work.