As an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, Dr. Atleo teaches Aboriginal and cross-cultural education in the BEd program and adult and post secondary education in the MEd and PhD programs. Marlene Atleo, ?eh ?eh naa tuu kwiss, a member of the Ahousaht First Nation, B.C., came to Adult and Post Secondary Education after a career in the West Coast salmon fishing industry. Atleo's work in the design, development, delivery, and evaluation of Aboriginal education, training and research gave her insight into the intractability of the “dirty rotten problems” in Aboriginal education. Her dissertation about the Nuu-chah-nulth “Provider”, Umeek, earned the Thomas Greenfield Award from the Canadian Association for the Study of Educational Administration. The currency of research on such Indigenous learning themes as well their relationship to Indigenous Peoples' standpoints, orality, language and achievement, resulted in SSHRC supported research about the central role of Aboriginal heritage language in attainment. The opportunity to conduct research with diverse and non-traditional community needs in the academy (especially through adult education) is her current application of a passion for lifelong learning as a philosophy.

Intergenerational transmission of knowledge structures, Metaphorical mapping, Phenomenological orienteering, Adult strategies in changing economies, Story work Narrative research