Our Team

Current Lab Members

Dr Anne McIntosh

Anne is the Associate Dean, Undergraduate at Augustana (2025-2027), and an Associate Professor of Biology at the Augustana Campus of University of Alberta. I began working at Augustana in July 2014 and love working on a campus where we are passionate about undergraduate teaching and learning. I am also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Renewable Resources.

My teaching interests include anything to do with plants, statistics, conservation biology, and all levels of ecology. My research interests are focused on how plant (and sometimes microbial communities) recover after disturbance. I am interested in exploring a range of novelties of those disturbances - including both natural (e.g., Mountain Pine Beetle), and anthropogenic (oil and gas development).

My philosophy on teaching and learning can be read HERE.

FUN FACT: I used to spend time 80-m above the ground in old-growth Douglas-fir trees - now I like terra firma better focusing on the plants that I can touch from ground!

Larissa Gómez Villaseñor

Larissa is a PhD student in Anne’s lab since Fall 2024. She is researching plant functional traits, along with soil characteristics on reclaimed well sites compared with other types of disturbances - in the early stages of her PhD she is still figuring out the specifics of her thesis!

Larissa is from Jalisco, Mexico. She completed her MSc in Natural Resources Management and her BEng in Natural Resources at the University of Guadalajara.

FUN FACT: Larissa loves jigsaw puzzles and once, she put together a 1,000-piece puzzle in a day."

Hollie Ostrowski

Hollie is in her fourth year of an undergraduate biology degree at Augustana. Throughout the summer of 2025, Hollie worked mostly in the field with Larissa on her PhD project in lodgepole pine forests. She won first place in the Images of Research competition - congratulations Hollie!

In Fall 2025 she is completing a directed study with Anne conducting a follow-up project using some of the soil pH data that she helped collected during summer 2025.

FUN FACT: Hollie is passionate about entomology, and has a collection of native insects, pinned herself.

Former Members

Raiany dias de Andrade Silva

Raiany was a post-doctoral researcher in the ecological recovery lab. She worked with Wood Buffalo Environmental Association in the vegetation component of the Forest Health Monitoring Program to assess the effects of atmospheric deposition from the Athabasca Oil Sands on surrounding jack pine forest stands. She was featured in an article HERE.

Raiany graduated from the University of Alberta with a MSc and a PhD in Forest Biology and Management. Her MSc research (working with Anne) was focused on the restoration of trails at a provincial recreation area in Alberta using balsam poplar cutting treatments, and her PhD research was focused on genetic variability and sex responses of aspen stands in a tree improvement region in Alberta.

FUN FACT: Raiany is originally from Brazil and she first came to Canada as a Mitacs Globalink research assistant working for Anne in 2015.

Aidan Broger

Aidan was a fourth year biology major at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus when he worked in our lab. He worked with Anne and Raiany on a directed studies course for Fall 2024 semester comparing plant communities on Jack Pine edge and interior forest ecosystems near the Athabasca Oil Sands.

FUN FACT: Aidan has played hockey since the age of 5.

Hailey Cole

Hailey was a Master's student in Anne's lab studying forest biology and management at the University of Alberta in the Dept of Renewable Resources. Her research project assessed the recovery of vegetation species and functional composition in forest ecosystems on reclaimed well pads. This research is part of a larger project with Natural Resources Canada. Hailey defended her MSc in September 2024 - congratulations Hailey!

Hailey graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BSc in Environmental Science and French. During her undergrad, she completed an independent research project studying forest disturbance interactions in Colorado.

FUN FACT: The snowman in the photo is named Pierre (he was built by a group of language assistants in France!).

Yifei Li

Yifei was a fourth-year ecology student at Zhejiang University in China when she came to Augustana. In the summer of 2024, she was a Mitacs intern working on Anne's Mountain Pine Beetle Project, along with working on ecological datasets and much more.

FUN FACT: Although Yifei has lived in a flood-prone region for the past three years, she does not know how to swim.

Reeve Kobbero

Reeve was going into his fourth year as a biology major at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus when he worked with the lab. Reeve worked as Anne's research assistant during the summer of 2024, continuing the work that Leah and AJ did through the creation of Rstudio tutorials, and helping with fieldwork on Anne's Mountain Pine Beetle study.

FUN FACT: Reeve applied to the U of A for mathematics, but somehow ended up going into biology.

David Valderrama Carmona

David was a fifth-year forestry engineering student at the National University of Colombia when he joined the lab. David was a Mitacs Globalink intern for the 2024 summer and he worked on Anne's Mountain Pine Beetle project, developing software tutorials for R, processing soil samples, and more.

FUN FACT: On his first day in Canada, David activated the fire alarm while cooking pasta.

Berenda Helmus

Berenda was a fourth-year biology major and music minor student at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus when she worked in the lab. Berenda completed a directed study with Anne processing soil samples and looking at effects of well pads on soil pH throughout the winter semester of 2024. Learn more about the project that Berenda and Kyle worked on here.

FUN FACT: Even thought she was born in Canada, her first language is Dutch!

This picture was taken while doing research on water quality and beavers at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park while doing research in the Fall 2023 3-week

Kyle Bergquist

Kyle was a fourth-year biology student at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus when he worked in the lab. Kyle completied a directed study with Anne processing soil samples and looking at effects of well pads on soil pH throughout the winter semester of 2024. Learn more about the project that Berenda and Kyle worked on here.

FUN FACT: Kyle knows more about dinosaurs than you do.

Lucille Wang

Lucille completed a directed study on specific leaf area of plants on reclaimed well pads and mature forests in Fall 2023. Lucille also worked in the lab when she was a fourth-year Environmental Science student at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus. She worked on Hailey's MSc project in the field in Fox Creek. Learn more about her project HERE. Congratulations to Lucille for receiving the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award for Fall 2023.

FUN FACT: Lucille likes places with history, especially the tombs of the ancients. She hopes to visit the pyramids - the tombs of the pharaohs, in the future.

Abril Medina Landeros

Abril was a fifth-year Biology student at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico when she worked with the lab. Abril was a Mitacs Globalink intern in the lab from June-September 2023. She worked on Hailey's MSc project in the field in Fox Creek.

FUN FACT: This picture was taken in the middle of a Montane Cloud Forest while searching for fresh leaves to feed very hungry caterpillars!

Anjola (AJ) Fadayomi

Anjola worked in the lab as a third-year Business Economics major at the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta. He worked as a Data Handling & Exploration Research Assistant for the summer of 2023, co-supervised by Dr. Paula Marentette. Check out the site that AJ and Leah built here: https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/augstats/home.

FUN FACT: Hoodies are his favorite type of clothing, they're very versatile.

Leah Peters

Leah worked in the lab as a third-year student studying Biology and Education through the University of Alberta (Augustana) combined-degree program. She worked as a Data Handling & Exploration Research Assistant for the summer of 2023, co-supervised by Dr. Paula Marentette. Check out the site that Leah and AJ built here: https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/augstats/home.

FUN FACT: Leah did twelve years of tap dance.

Emily Mahon

Emily was a 4th-year undergraduate student studying biology at the University of Alberta - Augustana Campus when she conducted her directed study under Anne, processing and identifying seeds collected from Elk Island National Park in Fall 2022.

View the Play-Clean-Grow: Tracking Seed Species Within Elk Island National Park study website: https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/pcgelkislandnationalpark/home

FUN FACT: Besides her passion for biology, archery also holds a close place in her heart. Emily was 1st place in the NASP Canadian National Championship in 2019, her final year within the NASP program.

Selena Schut

Selena recently graduated from their master's program at the University of Saskatchewan with an MSc in Geography - focusing on wetland hydrology.

They worked as a research assistant for Anne from January 2022 to April 2023 - they completed data processing and analysis using R software. They are also currently teaching themselves French and had a second job as a communications assistant with the Canadian Water Resources Association while working with the lab.

FUN FACT: Their picture is from when they hugged an erratic on the first glacier they ever climbed - Rae Glacier in Kananaskis Country!

Jocelyn Kublik

Jocelyn is an undergraduate student at the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta. She worked as a Research Assistant for Anne during the summer of 2022 and mainly focuses on studying biology in her undergrad.

Beatriz Moreira

Beatriz is an undergraduate biology student from University of Londrina, Brazil. She worked with Anne as a research assistant during the summer of 2022.

FUN FACT: When she was a kid, she tried to dig on her backyard, thinking she could get to China.

Former research assistants from before this website was created:

Michelle Rude (Ecological Recovery Project, December 2020-May 2021)

Chantal Ricard (Faculty Research Assistantship, Summer 2019)

Lara Canovai (MITACS intern from Germany, Summer 2019)

Michelle Rude (Faculty Research Assistantship, Summer 2018)

Anya (University of Alberta research experience student intern from Singapore, Summer 2018)

Melissa Tollitt (Faculty Research Assistantship, Summer 2017)

Benedict Oxenham (University of Alberta research experience student intern from UK, Summer 2017)

Ruijing Cheng (MITACS intern from China, Summer 2016)

Raiany Dias de Andrade Silva (MITACS intern from Brazil, Summer 2015) - went on to complete her MSc in the Ecological Recovery Lab

Carissa Wasyliw (Ecological recovery intern, Fall 2014)

Meet the team!

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