Dr. Irlbacher-Fox is the Principal Investigator of the Modern Treaties Implementation Research Project, a SSHRC Partnership Grant between the Land Claim Agreements Coalition and Carleton University (2018-2025), with a national office hosted by the Tłįchǫ Government.
An independent academic and consultant based in Yellowknife, NT, Dr. Irlbacher-Fox has thirty years of experience working for Indigenous peoples’ organizations in the Northwest Territories, Canada on political and community development, including Treaty negotiations and implementation, and the development of public governance institutions in the NWT. For almost twenty years she was on the negotiating team of the Délįnę Self Government Agreement, and for the past decade has been a negotiator for the community of Colville Lake’s Self Government Agreement.
She was the Implementation Director responsible for overseeing technical aspects of setting up the Délįnę Got’įnę Government, combining the Délįnę First Nation, Land Corporation and municipality with new self government authorities. She continues to provide several NWT Indigenous governments with governance advisory services related to self government negotiations and land claim implementation.
Dr. Irlbacher-Fox is the founding Scientific Director of Hotıì ts’eeda, the NWT SPOR SUPPORT Unit, a CIHR-funded health research initiative hosted by the Tłįchǫ Government and governed by several NWT Indigenous governments, and continues as the Scientific Lead for the organization.
Dr. Irlbacher-Fox is the author of Finding Dahshaa: Self Government, Social Suffering, and Aboriginal Policy in Canada (UBC, 2009), nominated by both the Canadian Political Science Association and the Canadian History Association for book awards.