Dr. Murray Humphries appointed CMN co-Research Director

The Canadian Mountain Network (CMN) is thrilled to announce that Dr. Murray Humphries has been appointed Interim co-Research Director. In this role he will work in close collaboration with fellow co-Research Director Norma Kassi, with whom he has a longstanding research relationship. Dr. Humphries is a wildlife ecologist with extensive experience working in mountain regions across Canada and a passion for conservation, teaching, supporting local communities and conducting academic research that is inclusive of Indigenous knowledge. Pending an evaluation by CMN’s Board of Directors, Humphries’ appointment could be made permanent in January 2021.

Dr. Humphries is an Associate Professor of Wildlife Biology at McGill University, Director of McGill’s Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment and holds the McGill Chair in Northern Research. Humphries’ research focuses on the environmental determinants of wildlife physiology, behaviour, and trophic interactions, as well as the contributions of wildlife conservation to the traditional food systems of Indigenous Peoples. His mountain research experience includes studies of wildlife habitat selection and species coexistence in and around the St. Elias, Ogilvie, British, and Richardson Mountains in the Yukon, the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec, and the Adirondack Mountains in north-eastern United States.

“I’ve been involved with CMN since the organization’s start-up phase, and it’s exciting to see how the Network has evolved and developed over such a short period into a truly pan-Canadian initiative dedicated to supporting mountain research through both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing,” says Dr. Humphries. “I’m thrilled to collaborate with CMN co-Research Director Norma Kassi and work in collaboration with the diversity of knowledge holders that the Network has brought together to support the resilience and health of mountain peoples and places.”

Dr. Humphries has served on CMN’s Research Management Committee since 2019, and has worked extensively with former CMN co-Research Director Dr. Stan Boutin from the University of Alberta. Over the last five years, Boutin and Humphries co-led a NSERC CREATE graduate training program that engaged Indigenous organizations, federal, provincial, and territorial governments and industry to enhance graduate training and encourage reciprocity in partnered research 

As a scientist and researcher, Dr. Humphries builds bridges beyond academia by engaging Indigenous, government, and non-government organizations in partnered research that includes the knowledge and addresses the priorities of local people. “Murray Humphries brings experience of successful collaboration in the design and delivery of Indigenous-led and community-based research like that which CMN has committed itself to advancing. He has supported this initiative from the start and he has the knowledge, experience and wisdom to help bring CMN to new heights,” states Norma Kassi, CMN co-Research Director.

See Murray Humphries’ biography here

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