Kecia is a prairie native with a background in ecological research, education, and applied conservation. She completed her B.Sc. in Biology at the University of British Colombia, M.Sc. in Geography at the University of Victoria, and her Ph.D. in Ecology at McGill University in the Neotropical Environment option, a partnership program between McGill and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. Her postdoctoral research was conducted at STRI, the Australian National University and the University of Alberta. She took on the role of Executive Director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), Northern Alberta, in June 2017. In this role she works with colleagues and collaborators to increase protections of our public lands as protected areas to benefit biodiversity, nature-based climate solutions and human communities.