Dr. Tara Joly specializes in environmental anthropology and community-based research with and for Indigenous Nations primarily in western subarctic Canada. Her career straddles applied consulting and academic research, blending the strengths of both to support Indigenous communities in their assertions of rights and sovereignty in the face of resource extraction and cumulative effects. Bringing an interdisciplinary lens to her work, she emphasizes the centering of Indigenous Knowledge systems in typically western science-dominated evaluations of disturbed landscapes, regulatory frameworks, and environmental monitoring initiatives.

For over a decade, Tara has translated her expertise into roles across both academic and applied research sectors. She has served as a Research Director with Willow Springs Strategic Solutions, Inc. and operates Tara Joly Consulting, through which she has led numerous community-based traditional land use studies, technical reviews of Environmental Impact Assessments, and cumulative effects research projects for First Nations and Métis communities across Western Canada. Notably, her collaborative work in Treaty 8/the Athabasca oil sands region has investigated critical environmental and social pressures, ranging from the decline of freshwater mussel populations to the reclamation of wetland ecosystems and the history of displaced Indigenous spaces. Her extensive background in applied research and advocacy directly informs her current primary role in academia, where she shapes critical pedagogy and conducts community-partnered research. She continues to lead funded research tracking regulatory commitments, while teaching next-generation scholars to critically engage with environmental assessments, Indigenous land use methodologies, and Indigenous data sovereignty.

As a Technical Advisory Committee, Tara is dedicated to building long-term institutional and community capacity and contributing to national efforts that empower Indigenous-led cumulative effects management.