Steering Committee

Michelle Vandevord (Day Star Woman) is from Muskoday First Nation, Saskatchewan, where she has lived for 29 years. A proud mother of six and Kokum to five grandchildren, she is the longest-serving firefighter in her community and the first female Captain in the Muskoday First Nation Volunteer Fire Department’s history.

Michelle serves as Director of Saskatchewan First Nation Emergency Management (SFNEM) and President of the Prince Albert Grand Council Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team. She represents Saskatchewan on the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council (NIFSC) and made history as the first woman elected, both Saskatchewan Director (2019) and President (2020) of the Aboriginal Firefighters Association of Canada (AFAC), guiding its transformation into NIFSC.

She contributes to several national bodies, including the Indigenous Services Canada Emergency Management Assistance Program (EMAP) Advisory Council, the Thunderbird Collective, and the Wildfire Resilience Consortium of Canada, which is developing a national centre of excellence for wildfire management. Most recently, she was appointed to the G7 Gender Equity Advisory Council (GEAC), advising global leaders on gender equity.

Her lifelong dedication has earned numerous honours, including the Emergency Management Exemplary Service Award for Resilient Communities, Saskatchewan Protective Service Medal, NIFSC 25 Years of Fire Service Medal, Federal Fire Service Exemplary Service Medal, King Charles III Coronation Medal, and Global Affairs Canada Peace and Security Civil Society Leadership Award.

Michelle’s daily mission is to strengthen and advocate for Indigenous Fire and Emergency Management training, response, and services on reserve, ensuring communities are safer, stronger, and more resilient for future generations.

Joe Gilchrist lives in Skeetchestn, near Kamloops, B.C., a part of the Secwepmc Nation (Shuswap). He was born in Kelowna and grew up in Ashcroft, Merritt, and Kamloops. Joe has lived with fire since an early age, as they did not have electricity or running water in his youth. They used fire all year round to cook, heat and boil water, and heat the house during winter. They learned safety around fire, how to use fire as a tool, how to maintain a fire, and how to use fire outdoors.

Joe began fighting forest fires at the age of 15 and started with the Type 1 all indigenous 20-person sustained action Unit Crew the Merritt Firedevils in 1991. In 1992, he became the Unit Crew Leader in charge of the entire crew and travelled all over B.C. and Canada fighting forest fires. In 1996, he got on full time with B.C. Wildfire Service after completing a 16-week in-house government training program called Indigenous Fire Prevention, which was held in the Old residential school in Mission, B.C., The Indigenous Justice Institute.

Currently he works bringing Indigenous Cultural Burning, Traditional land stewardship to the forefront as a Traditional Fire Keeper.

My name is Justin Kane and I am from Ts’kw’aylaxw First Nation in B.C. I am happy to be a part of the Thunderbird Collective and have been involved with the Collective since 2022 or 2023. I have been involved in leadership in my community since 2020.

Wildfires have been having drastic impacts in Indigenous peoples lives more and more each year. I am happy to be able to be part of something that is about having Indigenous peoples more involved in all aspects of fire on the land, and being part of networking at various levels with those who are active in the fire world.

Daylan Chookomolin is from Peawanuck, Ontario, a Cree community in the Hudson Bay Lowlands. He serves as the Wildfire Management Coordinator for Weenusk First Nation, where he leads the planning, coordination, and delivery of local wildland fire response and mitigation efforts. His work includes serving as an instructor and managing Peawanuck’s wildland firefighters, overseeing operations, developing, and implementing fire management and community resilience initiatives, guided by the pillars of emergency management.

At the national level, Daylan serves as a Youth Representative with the Thunderbird Collective, providing a youth perspective in Indigenous fire stewardship. He is also a mentor with Preparing Our Home, supporting youth development in emergency management and leadership. Provincially, he serves as Co-Chair of Ontario’s Ishkode Coordination Table, supporting Indigenous-led collaboration in wildland fire management in Ontario.

Daylan holds a post-secondary education in Police Foundations and Criminology.

Amber MacLean-Hawes is currently attending Dalhousie University for Medicine (2029). She also works as a Manager in Public Health for Nova Scotia Health focusing on health equity. Previous to this Amber held the role of Emergency Management Program Manager with the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq (CMM), and worked with 8 Mi’kmaw communities in Mainland Nova Scotia.

Amber started with CMM back in 2017, in the initial stages of a Climate Change and Health Adaptation project aimed to support communities’ emergency preparedness using a holistic approach through a climate and health lens. Amber had the joy of seeing this project develop into a more comprehensive program, which provided support and resources to increase overall community emergency management capacity and efforts.

Amber attended Dalhousie University where she completed a BSc Chemistry (2014) and a BSc Health Promotion Honours (2017). She has research and work experience focused in community development, health promotion, environmental health, social justice, and wildfire prevention and mitigation.

Serenna Besserer, an Inuit woman and a member of the Nunatsiavut territory of Labrador, is currently a Senior Emergency Management Program Advisor of the Indigenous Engagement and Support Programs Unit for Emergency Management Ontario (EMO). EMO is responsible for emergency management in the Province of Ontario.

Serenna was born and raised in Labrador. Serenna brings generations of community service, 15 years emergency management experience, decades of community service, and an Indigenous perspective, to her current position as Senior Emergency Management Program Advisor with the Indigenous Engagement and Support Programs Unit for the Province of Ontario.

Jonathan is from Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg and works as a Nagadjitodjig Aki Guardian to help maintain the knowledge of the vast lands and waters.

Jonathan works at making a difference with the “boot on the ground” approach, advocating for the use of traditional knowledge. Jonathan networks with other Guardians and enjoys getting to know people.

Alyssa Etsell is Métis and Settler, with ties to Grantown and St. Francois Xavier of the original Red River Settlement. She grew up in Treaty 2 territory in western Manitoba, where she started her communications career as a student at her hometown’s fur trade museum. Since then, she has gotten experience working with nonprofits, municipal, territorial, provincial, and federal governments, small businesses, and Indigenous Nations.

Etsell formerly worked at Parks Canada in marketing and communications roles, most recently as the Indigenous Relations Manager at Wood Buffalo National Park. Here, she focused on relationship-building with land users, building cultural competencies within the workplace, and encouraging processes that promoted Indigenous inclusion.

She is a trained Wildfire Information Officer and Liaison Officer, and enjoys connecting with people and facilitating the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in wildfire response strategies. During the summer of 2023, she worked solely on wildfires, providing a consistent, reassuring voice and point of contact for Indigenous leadership, land users, and later, for evacuated residents.

She now works in communications as a Ministerial Press Secretary with the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Alyssa has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Winnipeg, a Creative Communications diploma in Advertising and Marketing from Red River Polytechnic, and a Northern Leadership Development Program certificate from Aurora College.

She spent the last six years of her life in Fort Smith, NWT, but currently resides in Yellowknife. In her spare time, you can find her beading or crafting, volunteering, walking her husky-shepard, hiking, cross-country skiing, canoeing, and playing hockey.

My Name is Wayne Risby I was born in Fort St. John B.C. in 1963. I am a citizen of the Tahltan Nation and moved to Ross River, Yukon, in 1965.
I grew up in a small community of 300 people and this place shaped my need to help First Nations people as I got older. My bother and I ran a hockey team that played in the annual Native Hockey tournament for 42 years, which was all guys from Ross River.
I started working at age 14 crushing rocks for Acme Labs, and at 16, along with me dad Pete Risby and my brother John and friend Gord Andrews, I began Placer Mining on the Indian River out side Dawson City, where I learned to operate heavy equipment.
We mined from 1979-1996 and provided 1/3 of all Yukon gold production .
I became a fisheries patrolman, then a fisheries officer, then a conservation officer, which was a hard thing to do being First Nations and enforcing the Law.
I started my fire carrier in 1990 as a Federal Fire Fighter, as an Initial Attack FF, and then in 2005 we devolved to Yukon Government employees. I left YG due to a workplace injury, but I’ve been part of the fire community for the last 36 years.
I now work for Yukon First Nations Wild Dire and have been in the role of Manager of Operations since 2019 when YFNW was formed. We have 9 Initial Attack crews throughout Yukon and two 20-person Unit Crews stationed here in Whitehorse.
I believe in helping First Nations youth to get a chance to better themselves, family, and community.

Alvin First Rider works as the Environmental Protection Manager for Blood Tribe Land Management. He was raised on the Blood Reserve in Southern Alberta, and on the Blackfeet Reservation in North Central Montana. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Salish Kootenai College. A main focus is promoting truly Indigenous-led conservation projects and Blackfoot Ecological Knowledge with a focus on Bison and Fire rematriation.

A highlight of his career was rematriating bison and fire to Blood Reserve in the winter and spring of 2021. He was introduced to the Thunderbird Collective through collaboration with Amy Cardinal Christianson on rekindling the fires of the past to enhance our ecological and spiritual well-being of the present.