Dr. Kirk has been a research scientist with the Aquatic Contaminants Research Division of Environment and Climate Change Canada at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters since 2009.

She has also been an adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography with the University of Toronto Mississauga since 2014. Dr. Kirk achieved a B.Sc. in Molecular Genetics in 2001 and a PhD in Environmental Biology at the University of Alberta in 2009. Dr. Kirk studies the biogeochemical cycling of elements and contaminants in the environment. Her recent studies have focused on the deposition, transformation, and bioaccumulation of mercury and metals in aquatic ecosystems undergoing change, including: Atmospheric deposition of contaminants in the Alberta Oil Sands region; the impact of multiple stressors, such as climate change and eutrophication, on mercury cycling in freshwater ecosystems of Canada, including the high and sub Arctic; and the deposition and bioaccumulation of mercury downwind of major Canadian point sources.