Welcome New Board Members

At the April 9, 2025, Annual General Meeting, the Beaver Hills Biosphere officially welcomed two new directors of the board.

Please join us in welcoming Scott Milligan and Paulina Johnson to the board and to the Biosphere.

Dr. Paulina Johnson (she/her)

Sîpihkokîsikowiskwêw, Blue Sky Woman, is Nêhiyaw (Four-Spirit or Plains Cree) and a citizen of Samson Cree Nation from Maskwacîs, Alberta. She is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta and the Co-Research Director for Braiding Knowledges Canada. She is trained in Indigenous and decolonial research methodologies to center Indigenous intelligence including ceremony rooted in community-based research. Her primary goal in academia is to ensure relationality, reciprocity and accountability are addressed when working with Indigenous Nations through how knowledge is produced, co-created, and disseminated to be done in a good and meaningful way. Her research specializations include Treaty, Indigenous-settler relationships, anti-Indigeneity, trauma, whiteness, white possessiveness, settler-colonialism, inequality and racism.

Scott Milligan

Scott Milligan spent 32 years with the Alberta Environment and Protected Areas prior to his recent retirement. He is a Registered Professional Forester who started his career as a field forester in northern Alberta and later worked with stakeholders to develop policies such as reforestation standards and timber harvest and grazing integration guidelines. In recent years, he was an Executive Director in Land-use Planning and Policy, leading the department's efforts in development of the Lower Athabasca and South Saskatchewan Regional Plans, which added significant new protected areas in northeast and southern Alberta. He is most proud of the Moose Lake Access Management Plan which was a joint effort with Fort McKay First Nation and Metis to develop a land-use plan that addresses cultural needs and values. He also led regulatory transformation and managed the Wetlands Replacement, reclamation/remediation and Land Trust Grant programs. Scott is a husband and father to three children and two ‘porty’ dogs. He grew up in Okotoks but has lived in Sherwood Park for 26 years. His ‘happy place’ is the Ministik Bird Sanctuary and he could not be more thrilled to contribute to stewarding the Biosphere as a board member.

New Board Members Paulina and Scott