Liz holds a MA in Educational Technology and a Master Spinners Certificate. Now retired from Vancouver Island University where she held the position of Director of Research Services, she spends much of her time studying Coast Salish textiles. She is a Research Associate with the Smithsonian and with VIU’s Anthropology Department.

She has worked with various museums including: the British Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum, the RBCM, the Smithsonian Institution, MoA at UBC and the Burke Museum helping to identify yarns, fibres, tools and techniques used to create textiles. Liz was instrumental in identifying a rare blanket in the Burke Museum confirmed to be made of Woolly Dog hair.

Liz has given many presentations and workshops on the subject of Coast Salish spinning and textiles to Coast Salish spinners and weavers and has written articles on the subject for magazines such as Selvedge, Spin-Off, Ply, BC Studies and the latest one “The History of Coast Salish ‘Woolly Dogs’ Revealed by Ancient Genomics and Indigenous Knowledge” was published in Science. She also reviews books for The British Columbia Review.

Liz lives on an island in the Salish Sea, BC, in Snuneymuxw territory.