Featured programming
Rachel Portinga - Keynote Address
Crossing boundaries to address social justice and sustainability challenges in the Lake Superior watershed
Rachel Portinga (she/her) has been privileged to live on Anishinaabe territory in the Lake Superior watershed since 2007. While in Onigamiising (Duluth, MN) she earned an MS of Integrated Biosciences at the U of MN Duluth, then taught biology courses at numerous postsecondary institutions in the Arrowhead region. She has been living in Anemki-Wiikwedong (Thunder Bay, ON) for the last five years as a PhD Candidate of Health Sciences at Lakehead University. Her research interests include: how people collaborate across boundaries (e.g., sectoral, disciplinary, geopolitical) to work towards social justice, ecological sustainability, and health promotion and how people use watersheds as eco-social settings for teaching, organizing, research, and action. She engages in boundary crossing every day personally as an American living in Canada, and professionally as the Coordinator of the Lake Superior Living Labs Network. She is always excited to bring people together across boundaries, particularly over good food. She is also an organizer for community groups committed to climate justice & action, seed saving, and equity, accessibility, & decolonization. For fun she bakes, sews, canoes, and plays ultimate frisbee. She is an enthusiastic, but moderately skilled birder and seed saver, and she has been known to get overly competitive during Scattergories.