Fwd: Sad news about Sheila Colla to share

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Rhonda Teitel-Payne

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Jul 10, 2025, 8:22:48 PMJul 10
to toronto-urban-growers
Hi everyone,

I don't know how many of you had the opportunity to meet Sheila Colla or learn from her work on pollinators, but I thought I'd pass along this message.  

A little soil-idarity at a time of loss. 

Rhonda


Rhonda Teitel-Payne (she/her)
Co-coordinator
Toronto Urban Growers

@TOurbangrowers #iGrowTO


Dear members of the Pollinator Community. Apologies to those who get this message or a variant multiple times.

On behalf of the family, friends and colleagues, I'm sorry to share that the Colla Conservation Science Lab’s founder and principal researcher and our mentor, teacher, champion, and friend, the extraordinary Dr. Sheila Colla, died Sunday, July 6, 2025 after bravely living with Mesothelioma for 20 months.  She leaves behind two young children, a devoted husband, other family, and an amazing legacy in conservation, social justice, and community building.

We will have much more to share about her life and legacy and the ways in which our lab members and others will continue her work, but for now, we wish to share her formal obituary (also copied below), GoFundMe page (with another mini obituary, plus updates from along her cancer journey), and how you may join in celebrating her life in person or remotely (see below).  We will add future updates to her lab website here.  (If the embedded links don't work for you/disappear, please see further down this e-mail for a summary).


Funeral:
Friday, July 11, 2025
9:30 a.m. eastern time 
at St. Brigid Catholic Church, 300 Wolverleigh Blvd., Toronto

For those who can not attend the funeral in person, it will be livestreamed:  Funeral Livestream link (available 9:15-10:45am Eastern Time): 
https://cdn.boltwave.com/stbrigid/stbrigid__scarborough_on_ca__cdn_stream.html

You can also access it via the St. Brigid's website: https://stbrigids.archtoronto.org

It will be a Catholic mass, approximately 45mins in length.

Reception:
A reception will follow the funeral in the church hall. This will be where the remarks will be shared.  It will not be part of the funeral livestream, but we are looking into ways to share it, potentially via a recording afterwards, pending family permission.  Monitor her lab's social media and website (https://www.savethebumblebees.ca/celebrating-sheila/) for more details, or reach out to me.

In lieu of Flowers - Ways to Commemorate
In lieu of sending floral arrangements, in Sheila’s honour, please consider planting a flower or tree native to where you live, or uploading a bumble bee sighting to www.BumbleBeeWatch.org (the community science project she helped found); or find the best cannoli in your town and bring some to a friend; or write your government officials and ask them to implement a pollinator protection plan; or make a contribution for Marc and the children through their GoFundMe (https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-sheila-colla-through-cancer-treatment); or sit quietly and contemplate the overwhelming beauty of this world even as it breaks your heart. Or all of those. Because that’s what Sheila would do.

Tributes
If you wish to share a memory or send a note to the family, one way to do so is via the funeral home website: 


Love to all who knew her and respected her.  This will be a heavy loss personally and professionally to many. But we can take heart in knowing her positive impacts will ripple out for decades to come.

Victoria
(proud graduate of the Colla lab and long time friend)

****

Sheila Colla Obituary

SHEILA RAFAELLA COLLA


With heavy hearts, we share that Sheila Rafaella Colla – beloved partner and mother, sister and daughter, teacher and mentor, scientist and author, ecologist and activist, and friend to so, so many – died July 6, 2025 at the age of 43, after 20 months of bravely living with Mesothelioma.


Sheila is survived by her husband Marc Michalak, cherished children Tristan and Rowan, father Daniel Colla, mother Marlene Colla, sister Christina Colla (Josh Huson), brothers Elia and Michael Colla, and nephews Sebastian and Orion Huson.


Sheila was born on May 4, 1982 in East York and grew up in neighbourhoods all over Greater Toronto from Scarborough to Markham to North York, but spent her summers exploring the hilltops and vineyards of Veneto in the small Italian village where her grandparents farmed.


On family walks to the tiny chapel of San Giorgio, as a little girl, Sheila knew all the wildflowers from the local guidebooks she studied, and while foraging wild asparagus, herbs, or blackberries, Sheila would also search for signs of fairies. This appreciation for the land in all its generosity and wonder – and love for winged beings – would influence the conservationist she became.


Sheila was always a star science student so it was no surprise when she graduated with distinction from the University of Toronto with an honours degree in Zoology in 2005, or that she then went on to graduate in the top 5% of her class, achieving her Ph.D from York University’s Department of Biology in 2012.


Early in her academic career, when there was virtually no public interest in bees, Sheila was one of the first conservation scientists to study their populations, document the decline of the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee specifically, and successfully advocate for it to be the first bee listed federally as endangered in both Canada and the U.S.. She used the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee’s story as a cautionary tale to explain conservation science and biodiversity and teach her university students, the general public, NGOs, and government bodies to appreciate the value, beauty, and vulnerability of all at-risk pollinators, and, most of all, encourage participation in their protection.


The little girl who read nature guidebooks grew up to write her own. A Field Guide to the Bumblebees of North America won the American Library Association Outstanding Reference Source Award, and has sold more than 20,000 copies, making it one of the most widely used wildlife identification guidebooks in North America. Another of her books, A Garden for the Rusty-patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators, is a national bestseller.


Sheila’s is one of the most respected voices for wild bee conservation. Her research papers have been cited more than 5,500 times. She gave 164 media interviews on environmental issues. She was invited to lecture all around the world. And she’s been celebrated with numerous awards, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Award for Science Promotion, the Ontario Nature Education Award, the Entomological Society of Canada C. Gordon Hewitt Award, and the King Charles III Coronation Medal.


The brilliant members of her Colla Conservation Science Lab and the many students and scientists Sheila mentored are the proudest part of her professional legacy. A dedicated teacher, she tracked and celebrated their accomplishments from her hospice bed.


York University gave Sheila more than an academic home: in 2005, it is where she met a handsome young Marc Michalak, the calm counterbalance to her determined spirit, the man who would become her husband in the summer of 2011, and the father of their cherished children, Tristan in 2013, and Rowan in 2016. Also the man who would learn passable Italian for her in a week so they could legally buy property near her grandparents’ village. The man who filled her life with music, whose videos of his singing she would privately and proudly share with friends. The man who paused his important work as a musician and teacher to care for their family, and make Sheila feel safe.



Sheila deeply understood how to nurture community, whether it was in wildlife habitat, a classroom, research lab, or in her neighbourhood of East York where she helped organize East Enders Against Racism and local parenting groups and worthy political campaigns, and where she would wave over the shy neighbours to sit with her in the park on market Thursdays, where she made sure everyone felt they belonged. Growing up, as the first-born, she mothered her younger siblings. As an adult, she mothered us all, and as she did, taught us how to take better care of each other.


Tristan and Rowan are her whole heart and her love for them is beyond words and beyond the end of life.


Sheila’s loved ones are grateful for the kind support of all Hennick Bridgepoint Hospice staff, especially Sheila’s cousin and palliative care nurse Utina Colla whose care in Sheila’s final days was so meaningful. They are also thankful for the support of medical oncologist Dr. Penelope Bradbury and family doctor Dr. KitShan Lee and the other compassionate doctors, nurses, and medical staff who provided care across her multiple hospital visits. They also greatly appreciate the kinship Sheila found in online Mesothelioma support groups – thank you to everyone who shared their experience and understanding with her.


If you are able to join us to celebrate Sheila’s life, visitation is Thursday, July 10 from 2:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. at Heritage Funeral Centre in Toronto (50 Overlea Blvd.). The Funeral Mass will take place Friday, July 11 at 9:30 a.m. at St. Brigid's Catholic Church (300 Wolverleigh Blvd.). A reception will follow in the church hall.


In lieu of sending floral arrangements, in Sheila’s honour, please consider planting a flower or tree native to where you live, or uploading a bumble bee sighting to www.BumbleBeeWatch.org, the community science project she helped found; or find the best cannoli in your town and bring some to a friend; or write your government officials and ask them to implement a pollinator protection plan; or make a contribution for Marc and the children through their GoFundMe; or sit quietly and contemplate the overwhelming beauty of this world even as it breaks your heart. Or all of those. Because that’s what Sheila would do.


Victoria MacPhail, PhD (she/her)
Pollination Biologist and Ecologist



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