Siobhan Bonisteel is an experienced non-profit leader, researcher, and educator specializing in advancing nonprofit organizational missions, strategic development, advocacy, land-based learning, and community-based research. Her work focuses on leveraging local food systems, research, and community programs for ecological and social transformation, poverty alleviation, and decolonization. Siobhan’s leadership style emphasizes power sharing, active listening, and co-creative participation, guided by decolonization principles, ecological stewardship, and data-driven management.
Currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Science at the University of Toronto, Siobhan focuses on community-based research methodologies, land-based learning, local food systems in the food charity sector, and climate change adaptation through grassroots approaches. She holds a master’s degree in Environment and Resource Studies from the University of Waterloo, specializing in ecological systems thinking, local food systems, eco-parenting, and community-based research. She also has an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto, concentrating on equity, community development, systems thinking, decolonization, and Indigenous studies.
Siobhan is also trained in non-profit fundraising, board governance, and permaculture. Outside of her professional life, she enjoys music, cooking, gardening, being a mom, and spending time with her dogs on the Ottawa River in the warmer months.