Catherine M. Febria, PhD

Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) & Associate Professor
Freshwater Restoration Ecology
Department of Integrative Biology & GLIER
Director, Healthy Headwaters Lab
Co-Director, GLIER Organic Analysis & Nutrient Facility

she/her/siya

Dr. Febria is a Pinay/Filipina immigrant settler to Turtle Island who conceptualized and launched the Healthy Headwaters Lab in 2019 when she joined the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor. She is a tenured Associate Professor in the Dept of Integrative Biology and holds a Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Restoration Ecology. She received her PhD in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Toronto, with certificates in Environmental Studies, and, Teaching & Learning in Higher Education. She earned a MSc in Geography from Simon Fraser University, and, earned an HonBSc in Environmental Science from the University of Toronto Scarborough.

With nearly 70 publications, her work has been published in the Science, Nature (Ecology & Evolution, Biogeoscience, Human behaviour), FACETS, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Environmental Science & Technology, Trends in Ecology and Environment, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, and many other multidisciplinary journals. She has a long history of generating plain-language newsletters, technical reports and creative outputs alongside science-based research to more effectively mobilize knowledge into decision-making at all scales (see our Publications page for examples). Since 2019 she has successfully received more than $7.5 million in competitive research-based funding & science-based contracts with local, national and international contracts. Her work has been featured in the public media through numerous podcasts and news outlets that include The Narwhal, The Globe and Mail and the New York Times.

As a researcher, Dr. Febria has more than 20 years experience conducting empirical research on small streams with a focus on ecosystem-processes and restoration ecology in anthropogenic landscapes. In addition to leading the Healthy Headwaters Lab and research team, she currently she serves as: co-Director of the GLIER Organic Analysis & Nutrients Laboratory (a central research facility), the Associate Director of FishCAST (an NSERC CREATE graduate student training program), as Canada’s nominated appointee on the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel with the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). With IPBES she served as an inaugural Fellow (2015), scoping expert on the Nexus Assessment (2020), and currently serves as the MEP-appointed Co-Chair of the Indigenous and Local Knowledge Task Force (2023-present). Her service work extends locally and globally, including as a former Co-Chair of the International Science Advisory Board for New Zealand’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge – Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho (2019-2024), and currently as an Advisory Board Member for The Great River Rapport (2025-present). She has been a long-serving Coordinating Editor with the journal Restoration Ecology and has provided numerous reviews for peer-reviewed journals.

She is co-founder of the Kindness in Science collective, which was initiated as a community of practice in Aotearoa-New Zealand and continues to cultivate networks, actions, publications & mentorship to advance a more relational science. Through the Healthy Headwaters Lab, kindness in science is practiced through knowledge co-production, capacity strengthening and science service provisioning to local organizations and communities, and the centering of local knowledges through the lab’s Farm Advisory Board and Kinship Circle (formerly Ode’imin Indigenous Knowledge Circle).

For general and media requests, please contact: healthy.headwaters@uwindsor.ca

SELECTED EXPERIENCE

2020-2025: Co-Chair, International Science Advisory Panel, New Zealand’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge – Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho (Aotearoa New Zealand)

2013-2018: Director & Scientist – Canterbury Waterway Rehabilitation Experiment, University of Canterbury (Aotearoa New Zealand)

2015-2018: IPBES Fellow (Asia-Pacific Regional Assessment)

2013-2018: Assistant Research Scientist, University of Maryland (USA)

EDUCATION:

PhD Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. University of Toronto

Collaborative certificates: Environmental Studies, and, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

MSc Geography, Simon Fraser University

BSc Environmental Science (Co-op), University of Toronto Scarborough