Melissa is a fourth-generation settler of European descent trained in the settler common legal system. She began her career with Ecojustice – a national non-profit environmental law organization – in 2010. Her legal work has included seeking protections for woodland caribou from oil sands development and successfully advocating for the federal government to secure emergency protection for endangered sage-grouse populations. She currently oversees Ecojustice’s law reform efforts to advocate for transformative shifts in law to support a just, sustainable, and decolonized future. Her efforts have included advocating for federal climate accountability and just transition/sustainable jobs legislation. Most recently she is advocating for a federal circular economy legislative framework.
Melissa has volunteered with numerous environmental and social justice organizations over the years, including co-founding Waste Free Edmonton, which successfully advocated for a single-use bylaw that came into effect earlier this year.
She also recently completed her Master of Laws degree. Her research focused on exploring the ways the settler environmental law community can be accountable to address settler colonialism while also supporting Indigenous sovereignty and the revitalization of Indigenous laws on Indigenous lands.
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