Nicole is an Anishnaabe Kwe from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory First Nation, Ontario. She is currently an M.Sc candidate in Biology at Laurentian University located on the traditional lands of the Atikameksheng Anishnaabek. She is co-supervised by Dr. Pascale Roy-Léveillée at Université Laval and Dr. Nathan Basiliko at Lakehead University. She has completed her B.Sc in Environmental Science at Laurentian University and advanced diploma in Chemical Engineering Technology at Cambrian College.
Her research is taking place in Old Crow Flats, Northern Yukon a part of the Vuntut Gwitchin Traditional Territory which is a large thermokarst lowland underlain by continuous permafrost with thousands of lakes. Her research is focusing on the concentrations of total mercury and methylmercury in the active layer soils of various aged, drained basin complexes of Old Crow Flats. Nicole is integrating her passion for creating Woodland art into her thesis work to help improve the understanding of links between changing permafrost landscapes on mercury cycling in drained thermokarst lake basins in rapidly warming climate.