Valarie is a member of the Walpole Island First Nation, where she served as counsel to the Band Council for five years. Her law degree is from Windsor and she has a masters in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Osgoode Hall. Val recently completed a doctorate at Trent University on the trauma of the residential school experience and the legal compensation processes. For the past two years, she has been the Ianni Scholar-in -Residence at Windsor Law where she co-chairs the faculty/student TRC Committee.