I’m Rekha (she/her), and I am a Masters student in Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. I grew up on the traditional territory of the Huetar and Cabecar peoples (San Jose, Costa Rica). Having the privilege to learn from such beautiful lands from a young age sparked in me a passion for conservation, and I continued on to complete my BSc in Zoology with Honours from UBC Okanagan, on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the syilx Okanagan peoples.

Currently, I am grateful to be living and learning on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. I am working within the Strategies for a Changing Ocean and the Restoration Futures labs at the University of Victoria on a project related to estuary conservation on the Pacific Northwest coast. I’m particularly interested in the intersection between climate change and conservation planning, and am working to better understand how climate change is going to affect estuaries and the birds that inhabit them, both seasonally and year round. Through my research as well as my personal life, I am guided by values of community, collaboration, care, and reciprocity, and invest in relationship building with the land and the people around me as a fundamental aspect of my work. In my personal time, I am an avid birder, and enjoy hiking, camping, bouldering, and dinner parties with friends!