Dr. Stephanie Avery-Gomm is a conservation ecologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Wildlife and Landscape Science Directorate. Her research focuses on assessing and managing the impacts of human activities on coastal ecosystems, with a particular emphasis on cumulative effects. Following the incursion of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) into Canada and the mass mortalities that followed in 2022, Dr. Avery-Gomm shifted her focus to understanding the virus’s consequences on bird populations. Her work on assessing mortality - including the use of participatory science platforms like iNaturalist and drift modelling to estimate at-sea losses - has helped to understand the population-level impacts of HPAI on key species. This work is supported by collaborations with the diverse list of partners that comprise Canada’s Interagency Surveillance Program for Avian Influenza Viruses in Wild Birds.