Fleming College

Barb retired in April 2023 from her full-time position as a professor in the Ecosystem Management Program at the School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences at Fleming College in Lindsay, Ontario, where she worked since 1995.

She has travelled to Costa Rica, South Africa, and Moose Factory with second year Ecosystem Management (EM) students as a faculty supervisor and mentor and completed her seventh trip to volunteer on a wilderness reserve in South Africa in April of 2023. Barb has received the Pascal Award for Excellence in Teaching from Fleming College, and the Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Texas at Austin. She now owns and operates her own environmental consulting business.

Barb is a certified teacher (B. Ed.) and graduate from the University of Guelph where she majored in Fisheries Biology (B. Sc.). She also completed her Master's in Education degree (M. Ed.) from Athabasca University and is a certified Aquatic Taxonomist with the Society of Freshwater Science, a North American-wide accreditation body. Since 2008, Barb has trained and certified over 600 individuals in the Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network (OBBN) Protocol. She is also certified in the Ecological Land Classification (ELC) for Ontario, the Ontario Stream Assessment Protocol (OSAP), and is a certified evaluator for the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES). Barb received her Certificate in Adjudication for Administrative Agencies, Boards and Tribunals from Osgoode Law School in August of 2020, and is designated as a Hearing Officer under the provincial Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.

Her passions include teaching, running, gardening, fishing, canoeing/camping, observing nature, identifying aquatic invertebrates, exploring marine and freshwater ecosystems, dragon boat racing, and spending time with her family and friends. She has completed 7 marathons, including the Boston Marathon in 2006, 2007 and 2011. This achievement fulfilled a lifetime goal for Barb, to complete this world-renowned running event 3 times in her running career that now spans ALMOST 6 decades. In 2017, she received the Environmental Excellence Conservationist Award from the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority in recognition of her many years of volunteer work in the environmental field, and, in 2021, the American Fisheries Society Outstanding Mentor Award, in recognition of her contribution to the development and education of students. Most recently, she was the joint recipient of the Joyce Chau Ecospark Legacy Award for Environmental Leadership, in June of 2023.