CV
I grew up in British Columbia, Canada bouncing between Vancouver and a gulf island in the Straight of Georgia. As a child, I always had a fascination for all things ecological and spent many hours observing tide-pools and frogs. As an adult, this fascination only grew as I got involved in research throughout my undergrad and ultimately inspired me to embark on a PhD.
When I'm not involved in academic pursuits, find me kayaking, backpacking, or playing music in any of the places that I call home.
The work I do and the land upon which I live is in the traditional territories of many Indigenous peoples. As a settler, I am privileged to be here and share in the resources of these lands. I acknowledge the ongoing and systemic injustices created by the settler-colonial state of Canada.
My life in Vancouver rests on the traditional and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. In Toronto, I live on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.
Education
Publications
Presentations and workshops
2024
2024
2023
2021
2021
2021
2018
2018
2016
Select awards
and affiliations
2024
2021
2021
2020
2019
2019-2023
Lertzman-Lepofsky G, Dolezal A, Waters M T, Fuster-Calvo A, Black A, Flaman S, Straus S, Langendorf R, Eckert I, Fan S, Branch H, Chardon N, Collins C G. Temporal changes in taxon abundances are positively correlated but poorly predicted at the global scale. Ecography, accepted fall 2024.
Frishkoff L, Lertzman-Lepofsky G, Mahler DL. Evolutionary opportunity and the limits of community similarity in replicate radiations of island lizards. Ecology Letters. October 2022. DOI: 10.1111/ele.14098
Lertzman‐Lepofsky G, Kissel A, Sinervo B, Palen W. Water loss and temperature interact to compound amphibian vulnerability to climate change. Global Change Biology. 2020 Sep;26(9):4868-79. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.15231
Lertzman-Lepofsky G, Mooers AØ, Greenberg D. Ecological constraints associated with genome size across salamander lineages. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 2019 Sep 25;286(1911):20191780. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.1780
Toniello G, Lepofsky D, Lertzman-Lepofsky G, Salomon A, Rowell K. 11,500 y of human–clam relationships provide long-term context for intertidal management in the Salish Sea, British Columbia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2019 Oct 29;116(44):22106-14. https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/10/09/1905921116.short?rss=1
Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky, Luke O. Frishkoff, D. Luke Mahler. Consequences of deforestation on functional community structure reverse at high elevations. Presentation. Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution, Vancouver.
Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky, Luke O. Frishkoff, D. Luke Mahler. Deforestation and elevation jointly shape morphospace occupation in anole communities. Presentation. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Seattle.
Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky. Intermediate R workshop. Faculty of Information iSkills. University of Toronto.
Panelist in Massey Dialogue: ClimateMusic Project Executive Director Stephan Crawford, composer Richard Festinger, Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky, moderated by Dr. Dianne Saxe. ClimateMusic Icarus in Flight: What does global heating feel like? https://tinyurl.com/ru365vwu
Panelists in CIFAR Massey Lecture: Dr. Jenny Tung, Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky, Mariela Faykoo-Martinez, Rushay Naik. How social relationships get under the skin. Massey College, Toronto
Panelists in Massey Dialogue: Dr. Johannes Refisch, Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky, Dr. Dianne Saxe. Zoonoses to pandemics: how biodiversity loss contributes to zoonotic disease. Massey College, Toronto
Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky, Dan A. Greenberg, and Arne Ø. Mooers. Presentation. Genome Size Constrains Breeding Habitat. Eco-Evo, Squamish
Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky, Amanda Kissel, Wendy Palen, and Barry Sinervo. Presentation. Water loss and temperature and amphibian vulnerability to climate change. North American Congress for Conservation Biology, Toronto
Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky, Amanda Kissel, Wendy Palen, and Barry Sinervo. Presentation. Desiccation Risk of Alpine Amphibians. Joint Meeting of Ichthyology and Herpetology, New Orleans
NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship: Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement
NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
Moira Whalon Prize: recognizing Junior Fellows who embody the spirit and ethos of the Massey College Community
Queen Elizabeth II/Dr. F. M. Hill Scholarship in Science and Technology at the University of Toronto
Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
Junior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto
2012-2017
Simon Fraser University
Bachelor’s of Science from Simon Fraser University Honours First Class with Distinction
2019-Current
PhD candidate in the Mahler lab at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto