Her version of a scientist

Meet Shana Mann. Her family is from Sagkeeng First Nation, and she grew up in South Winnipeg. She is a proud mother, grandmother and auntie.

Shana will walk the convocation stage in October 2026, receiving her BSc with a major in microbiology. Having finished her degree requirements in August, Shana has also started her MSc program under the supervision of Dr. Ayush Kumar in the department of microbiology. Her research will involve characterizing the antibacterial activity of selected First Nations medicinal plants.

Before you entered UM, you completed the medical lab assistant program through the Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development (CAHRD) and worked at the St. Boniface Hospital pathology lab for 3 years. How was that experience for you?

It was an incredibly rewarding and sobering time in my professional journey. During my lab assistant training, I completed a two-week practicum. I saw and held things in my hands that most people will never get to experience. My interest was immediately piqued. I applied shortly after graduation and secured a position. I learned more about human anatomy, tissue pathology, and medical terminology than I ever thought possible during those three years. I pestered the pathologists and technologists with every question I could think of. I wanted to see, learn, and be a part of everything, and I got exactly what I wished for.

What made you decide to change course and rejoin academia?

The realities of working so closely with the hospital morgue were heavier than I anticipated, and my heart struggled with the weight of it after a while. Soon after suffering the loss of a close family member, I felt that it was time to pivot and find a new path for my own healing. My love for the laboratory was already well established by then, so I decided to pursue my not-so-secret love of microbiology.

Throughout your undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Science, you participated in the UM Indigenous Student Internship Program four times. Was research what you imagined it to be? What was your favourite part?

Through the UM Indigenous Student Internship Program, I worked at both the Bannatyne campus, at Ongomiizwin Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing, and the Fort Garry campus with various researchers from the Faculty of Science.

Being introduced to captivating research addressing critical environmental and health issues was an intellectual high I’ll never forget for the rest of my career. Now that I am a part of the graduate studies program, I can create my own project and conduct my own research, which really is a dream come true.  

My favourite part was the relationships built along the way, a professional network that continues to advise and inspire me on a regular basis. Having the courage to step out of my comfort zone has served me very well, and I cannot recommend the program enough to young Indigenous scientists who want to gain research experience and build their own network.

I would like to say a special thank you to the fantastic professors who welcomed me during the Internship Program and the awesome graduate students who took me under their wing.

You have mentioned that you love zombie movies. Did your love for this genre have anything to do with why you chose Microbiology at UM?

I have always been fascinated and terrified by the idea of an uncontrolled spread of something so small it can’t be seen, but its effects can be observed.

My early obsession with the genre led to a love of reading medical thrillers, which eventually led to me finding and reading The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, a story about an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever caused by the Ebola virus (a level 4 viral pathogen). I always refer to the Ebola virus as my first love, microbiologically speaking, as this pathogen sparked a fascination with laboratories and infectious diseases that continues today.

Whether against a horde of flesh-eating zombies or a hemorrhagic virus run amok, I was so inspired by the competence of the laboratory scientists portrayed. I began to wonder if a career like that was possible for someone like me (under more realistic circumstances, of course).

Several of my family members have previously attended UM. Once I learned that the university had the only microbiology department of its kind in Canada, I was convinced that it was the place for me. Ever since I started my first class here in 2015, I’ve been trying to get my foot in every lab I can.

Now that you are graduating, what would you say is your proudest accomplishment in your degree?

If I were to choose, I would say I am intensely proud of my refusal to give up on my dream. I came here with the single-minded (although admittedly naïve) intention of getting my degree in 2015. I had a vision of myself standing among the professionals I always admired, making space for people like me, and using that knowledge to help my people.  

Achieving that dream was not nearly as straightforward as I hoped. Multiple times, I gave everything I had to prepare for an exam only to fall short and fail. Coming face-to-face with failure is a humbling thing and it took a lot of soul-searching to acknowledge and accept my academic shortcomings. My vision had once seemed so silly and unattainable, but every time I broke through and succeeded after failing, it started to feel more possible.

During my time here, I have encountered, accepted, and put to rest every version of me that was not up to the task of holding up this vision. I have stubbornly built a professional identity from scratch, every piece of it hard-won. In battling my way towards realizing my dream, I have represented my family and my nation well while preparing space for the young Indigenous scientists on their way behind me. When one of us succeeds, we all succeed. My victories, my failures, the suffering and the relief – I never gave up, and I am proud of it all.

How has your experience been as an Indigenous scientist who is a mother and a grandmother? What are the highlights and what could have been improved at UM to support you better?

When I first started here, I was very compartmentalized about the different facets of my identity, student vs. mother. After my experiences in health care, I assumed that there had to be hard lines drawn between the personal and professional aspects of my life if I wanted to be successful.

It took time to realize that the things I was trying to hide were actually some of my best attributes. My people at home know me to be very maternal, silly, hardworking, and reliable. I’m someone the kids always love, and the family always knows they can count on. Learning to lean into these qualities has greatly enriched my professional relationships, and I am still learning how to weave it all together. Now that I am also a Kookum, it continues to shape the way I view and execute the work that I take part in, especially in terms of environmental and laboratory safety. It’s more important to me than ever to be mindful about the potential impacts on future generations and getting everyone home safely at the end of the day. I’ve grown to enjoy the different perspective I have now, and it only enhances the intellectual diversity of the team I work with and is not a hindrance like I once worried it would be.