Kiirsti grew up surrounded by the coastal rainforests of British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, but now lives on the windy shores of New Brunswick. She is finishing up her doctoral degree at the Universities of New Brunswick and Acadia studying how wetland birds use human-created landscapes of Atlantic Canada. She completed a bachelor of science degree in ecological restoration in 2015 at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and a master’s of science degree from the University of Windsor in 2020. Research for her master’s focused on bird community recovery in regenerating tropical dry forests of Costa Rica.
Kristii enjoys igniting a fascination with birds and nature in others. In pursuit of this goal, she regularly volunteers with organizations such as Skya-a-Scientists, and she is the current Vice President of Wild Research, a Vancouver-based non-profit focused on community engagement in conservation science.
Kirstii will be collecting valuable information on seabird populations via the Eastern Canada Seabirds at Sea surveys (ECSAS) for Environment and Climate Change Canada.