Sonja Ostertag is a CIHR postdoctoral fellow in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo.
Sonja studied at McGill University to obtain her BSc and MSc and she obtained her PhD at the University of Northern British Columbia. Sonja has twelve years of experience conducting beluga whale research in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) in close collaboration with community members and the Fisheries Joint Management Committee.
Sonja’s research interests are at the intersection of human and ecosystem health and she is excited about bridging western science and Indigenous Knowledge to understand how environmental change may impact people and the environment that they depend on. Sonja's background is in toxicology, risk assessment, participatory research and traditional ecological knowledge.
Sonja is currently working with an interdisciplinary team to develop a three-year biomonitoring project for Paulatuk and Tuktoyaktuk, NT, CA. The proposed research will support food security in the ISR by reducing the risk of contaminant exposure and encouraging the consumption of country foods for positive health outcomes.