About

Dr. Lisa Howell (she/her) is Canadian of northern European descent. She comes from a line of grandmothers who came across the sea as uninvited guests. One of her great-grandmothers was a She was born and continues to live and work on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Algonquin Nation. From a young age, Lisa somehow understood ecologocal connectivity and decided to stop eating meat when she was ten years old. Forty years later, she remains vegan.

Like most of us, Lisa’s life has evolved over periods of time, places, and people. In her early twenties, she married an artist from Iran. They had two beautiful children. Apple trees planted to honour their births now grow tall in a small backyard at the bottom of a Sandy Hill. After many years of exhilerating/exhausting sole/soul parenting, Lisa met her now husband who immigrated to Canada half his life ago from Denmark. He invited Lisa to love and raise two more children, who were small when she became their (step)mum and are now young adults. She is a mother, partner, sister, auntie, friend, and colleaugue.

Prior to becoming a professor, Lisa taught for thirteen years at Pierre Elliott Trudeau School (PETES)in Gatineau, Quebec, where she met children and youth from Eeyou Istchee, Nunavut, Kiigan Zibi, and Rapid Lake, and began to learn a history that was very different from the one she was taught. During her time as a classroom teacher, Lisa was a mentor-coach to over twenty new teachers. While teaching full-time, she completed her Masters of Education. Her thesis examined the movement for education for reconciliation across Quebec before and during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission took place across Canada. She had the opportunity to work with incredible teachers doing activist work during this project.

In 2018, when Lisa took a leave from her position at PETES to pursue her PhD, she 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.

During her PhD studies, Lisa was the lead researcher 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 was a collaboration between the Faculty of Education and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. The project led to the creation of the Spirit Bear Virtual School for teachers, including a curriculum, learning gudies, and video series.

Her SSHRC-funded doctoral research (2018-2022) asked how teachers unlearn colonialism through a process of ethical relationality, moving from a space of “learning about” Indigenous people to a place of “learning with and from” them. After completeing her PhD, she was a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Tricia McGuire-Adams, who, at that time, was an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Ganandawisiwin (Good Health) Sovereignties at uOttawa.

Currently, Lisa is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, where she teaches courses in the teacher education and graduate studies programs, conducts research, and supervises students .

Lisa loves to travel to interesting places, teach, listen to music, write, grow food and flowers, read books, and ride her bicycle. She also loves cooking and baking vegan food and visiting with family and friends.