Leigh Joseph

Leigh Joseph has been working in her home community, the Squamish Nation, to help design and teach ethnobotanical programs. She is currently part of a research team looking at the prevention and management of Type 2 Diabetes in Canadian Indigenous communities through the increased use of traditional medicinal and food plants along with culturally related exercise. She's also been designing and teaching courses at Quest University in Squamish BC on ethnobotany, ethnoecology and local Squamish Nation culture and history.

My education at UVic helped me to find a way to link together my cultural teachings and background with my educational goals. Discovering that I could study ethnobotany at university was a wonderful realization for me. I had to work hard to complete my required courses in the sciences but I felt that this foundation was important. My studies at UVic started me on a path towards a career focused on community based research and education with an aim to look at cultural renewal and looking towards traditional plant medicines and foods to improve health.