biology

Sheila Colla

Sheila Colla is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sheila Colla rather than just read about it. In short: Sheila Rafaella Colla (4 May 1982 – 6 July 2025) was a Canadian conservation biologist specialising in wild bumblebees, and an advocate for increasing diversity in entomology. Her work with the rusty patched bumblebee led to the first listing of a bumblebee as endangered in both Canada and the United States.

Key takeaways

Sheila Colla belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sheila Colla to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sheila Colla from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sheila Rafaella Colla (4 May 1982 – 6 July 2025) was a Canadian conservation biologist specialising in wild bumblebees, and an advocate for increasing diversity in entomology. Her work with the rusty patched bumblebee led to the first listing of a bumblebee as endangered in both Canada and the United States.

Early life and education Sheila Rafaella Colla was born 4 May 1982 in East York, Toronto to parents who came from Trinidad and Italy and were teachers. She was brought up in the Greater Toronto area of Canada. She was interested in nature from a young age and studied zoology at University of Toronto, graduating in 2005. She focused on biodiversity and went on to study for a doctoral degree in York University with Laurence Packer, graduating in 2012.

Scientific career Colla was appointed to York University in 2015, after working at University of Toronto between 2014 and 2015. She was a tenured assistant professor at York University, holding a research chair in interdisciplinary conservation science. She was also executive committee member at the university's Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation. Since 2004, Colla's research focused on bees, especially wild bee population biology, conservation and their roles as pollinators and in sustainable agriculture. In her PhD research, she recorded the decline in rusty patched bumblebee using museum specimens and field observations and used it to raise public awareness, resulting in this species being listed as endangered in the USA and Canada in 2012. The reasons for the very substantial decline of this species are partly understood. Colla was the North American Coordinator for the IUCN Red List Bumblebee Specialist Group. Colla also studied community science programmes and stakeholder perception, including writing books about bumblebees for the general public. She was active in raising awareness of the need for more diversity within the academic community of entomologists. Colla co-founded Bumble Bee Watch in 2014, a community science project with over 5,000 observers created to track and conserve North America's bumble bees that has received media attention. Her public outreach also addressed strategies for improving Canadian landscapes for insects, particularly in gardens and urban locations.

Personal life Colla married Marc Michalak in 2011. They had 2 children, born in 2013 and 2016. Colla died on 6 July 2025 of mesothelioma. She is buried in St. John's Norway Cemetery in Toronto.

Publications Colla was the author or co-author of 3 books, 2 book chapters and over 50 scientific publications. The books include:

Johnson, Lorraine; Colla, Sheila (2023). A Northern Gardener's Guide to Native Plants and Pollinators. Washington, DC: Island Press. ISBN 978-1-64283-299-0. Johnson, Lorraine; Colla, Sheila (2022). A Garden for the Rusty-patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators. Madeira Park, BC: Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 978-1-77162-323-0. Williams, Paul; Thorp, Robbin W.; Richardson, Leif; Colla, Sheila (2014). Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15222-6. Colla's scientific publications include:

MacPhail, Victoria J.; Hatfield, Richard; Colla, Sheila R. (22 May 2024). "Bumble Bee Watch community science program increases scientific understanding of an important pollinator group across Canada and the USA". PLOS ONE. 19 (5) e0303335. Bibcode:2024PLoSO..1903335M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0303335. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 11111064. PMID 38776282. MacPhail, Victoria J.; Colla, Sheila R. (1 September 2020). "Power of the people: A review of citizen science programs for conservation". Biological Conservation. 249 108739. Bibcode:2020BCons.24908739M. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108739. hdl:10315/37823. ISSN 0006-3207. Kerr, Jeremy T.; Pindar, Alana; Galpern, Paul; Packer, Laurence; Potts, Simon G.; Roberts, Stuart M.; Rasmont, Pierre; Schweiger, Oliver; Colla, Sheila R.; Richardson, Leif L.; Wagner, David L.; Gall, Lawrence F.; Sikes, Derek S.; Pantoja, Alberto (10 July 2015). "Climate change impacts on bumblebees converge across continents". Science. 349 (6244): 177–180. Bibcode:2015Sci...349..177K. doi:10.1126/science.aaa7031. PMID 26160945. Bartomeus, Ignasi; Ascher, John S.; Wagner, David; Danforth, Bryan N.; Colla, Sheila; Kornbluth, Sarah; Winfree, Rachael (20 December 2011). "Climate-associated phenological advances in bee pollinators and bee-pollinated plants". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (51): 20645–20649. Bibcode:2011PNAS..10820645B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1115559108. PMC 3251156. PMID 22143794. Colla, Sheila R.; Packer, Laurence (1 June 2008). "Evidence for decline in eastern North American bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with special focus on Bombus affinis Cresson". Biodiversity and Conservation. 17 (6): 1379–1391. Bibcode:2008BiCon..17.1379C. doi:10.1007/s10531-008-9340-5. ISSN 1572-9710.

Awards and honours Colla was awarded the Entomological Society of Canada C. Gordon Hewitt Award in 2021 for outstanding contribution to entomology in Canada within 12 years of being awarded a PhD., the President's Research Impact Award from York University in 2024 for the way her research had influenced government policy, an Ontario Nature Education award in 2024 and the NSERC Award for Science Promotion in 2024 She received the King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2025. Colla's 2014 book Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide was listed on the American Library Association's Outstanding References Sources list in 2015.

References

External links Colla Conservation Science Lab Sheila Colla publications indexed by Google Scholar Expression of Condolence for Sheila Colla by Toronto City Council

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sheila Colla

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sheila Colla claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sheila Colla before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sheila Colla ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sheila Colla

In research: Sheila Colla appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sheila Colla in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sheila Colla is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1982 births, 2025 deaths, 21st-century Canadian biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sheila Colla outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Sheila Colla in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sheila Colla means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sheila Colla out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sheila Colla in simple terms?

Why does Sheila Colla matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sheila Colla?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sheila Colla.