Meet the Team
Lynn Lavallee (She/Her)
Ryerson University
Lynn Lavallee is Anishinaabe registered with the Metis Nation of Ontario. Lynn uses she/her pronouns. She explicitly positions herself in the academy, identifying her family and ancestry because of the cultural fraud that is emerging given opportunities being afforded to people who self-identify as Indigenous. Lynn's maternal ancestry includes the last names of Godon, McIvor, Swain, Lillie, Larocque, Labelle, Lafond and Courchesne from the Red River and Anishinaabe territories of Swan Lake, Maniwaki, Timmins and Sudbury. Her paternal relations include the last names Lavallee, Gauthier, Pepin, Richard, Taylor, McKaye and Champagne from the Metis and Anishinaabe territories of Temiscaming, Mattawa, Sudbury and Algoma.
Lynn completed a Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology and Psychology, Master of Science in Community Health and Doctorate in Social Work. She started her career as an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University in the School of Social Work in 2005. She has taken on governance and administrative leadership roles including chair of the Research Ethics Board, associate director and acting director of the School of Social Work, senator, and many other service activities all with the focus of advancing Indigenous peoples and knowledges in the academy.
Lynn served as University of Manitoba's first vice provost of Indigenous engagement in 2017. She resigned from this position after 16 months and returned to Toronto Metropolitan University. She currently holds the position of strategic lead, Indigenous resurgence in the Faculty of Community Services. Her research expertise lies in the area of Indigenous research ethics, Indigenous research methodology, and Indigenous health and well-being. Lynn achieved full professor status in 2019.