Roxan Chicalo is a Registered Professional Biologist with BC’s College of Applied Biologists, with a background in wildlife ecology, applied research, and environmental consulting. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Victoria (UVic) and earned a master’s degree from the University of Guelph, where she studied the incubation behaviour of Canada jays in Denali National Park, Alaska.

Roxan spent several years specializing in field-based research and species monitoring across the Americas before joining an environmental consulting firm on Vancouver Island. As a Registered Professional Biologist, she worked at the intersection of science, policy, and practice. She supported environmental assessments, designed wildlife mitigation measures, and provided regulatory guidance to stakeholders. This experience gave her a unique perspective on how environmental policy is implemented on the ground, the real costs and constraints of monitoring, and the opportunities for coexistence between development and conservation.

In her current role as Program Lead for the UVic-based Thriving Ecosystems project, which focuses on monitoring and managing biodiversity in BC, Roxan is leading the development of a biodiversity indicator database that organizes indicators by criteria such as level of biodiversity (ecosystem, species, genetic) and required inputs (e.g., remote sensing, genomic data, etc.). Designed as a practical “menu” of indicators, this tool will help practitioners select appropriate measures for assessing biodiversity across landscapes.