Team Bio

Our team includes Tom Ryan (tern expert, avian biologist, and owner, Ryan Ecological Consulting). Together with SDZ Global, we lead research, knowledge dissemination, and applied conservation partnerships. We use ecosystem approaches, including genetics, spatial applications, and strategies to aid reintroduction, reproduction, restoration, monitoring, management, and outreach. Our team brings combined expertise spanning decades relevant for advancing research on endangered seabirds.

Ignacio Vilchis

Growing up surfing in Baja California and Southern California, I spent most of my life in or around the Pacific Ocean. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of San Diego, my first graduate program at the Universidad Catolica de Chile, earned my PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla California, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in conservation biology with the Wildlife Health Center at the University of California Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine. I have spent thousands of hours surveying underwater in kelp forests in California and Chile, and months at sea studying tropical and temperate seabirds in open oceans off the Hawaiian archipelago, Clipperton Atoll, Malpelo Island, Galapagos Islands, British Columbia and Puget Sound. Currently, I am an Associate Director in the Applied Animal Ecology division at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. In this role, I implement and oversee conservation research of a number of endangered bird species.

Gabriela Ibarguchi

I am a Conservation Program Manager in Applied Animal Ecology at the Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global. My role includes building and coordinating research, monitoring, and management activities for at-risk water bird species, with a focus on threatened Western Snowy Plovers and endangered California Least Terns. My interests include conservation, biogeography, ecology, and evolution. I also work with partners and communities to mitigate the effects of disturbance, to promote habitat conservation and connectivity, and to investigate the complex ecological effects of climate change. I completed my studies in Ecology, Evolution and Population Genetics at the University of Toronto, Scarborough (B. Sc.) and at Queen's University in Ontario (M.Sc. and Ph.D). I have worked on Arctic seabirds and on the Andean seedsnipes as part of my graduate training and as part of collaborative long-term studies. I have taught courses in biology and environmental sciences, and I conduct collaborative research with the Arctic Institute of North America (University of Calgary), Environment Canada, and the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program, Terrestrial Expert Group (Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Arctic Council).

Lisa Nordstrom

I am an Associate Director of Applied Animal Ecology at the Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global. My research focuses on Southern California and northern Baja California region species at risk. My work includes Peninsular Bighorn Sheep and habitat connectivity locally and across international borders, Burrowing Owls and the restoration of grassland ecosystems; California Least Tern and Western Snowy Plover monitoring and adaptive management; and habitat associations and monitoring of Golden Eagles and Coastal Cactus Wrens. I have acquired extensive experience in landscape and population ecology, wildlife-habitat interrelationships, and on the linkages between ecological patterns and processes at multiple spatial scales for guiding species recovery. I studied Forestry and Wildlife Management at the University of California, Berkeley, Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University (M. Sc.), and Wildlife Ecology at Utah State University (Ph. D.). Our collaborative projects are comprehensive, and have applied conservation, adaptive ecosystem management, research, and education components to achieve successful species recovery efforts in collaboration with local, national and international partners.

Thomas Ryan

I have worked on the recovery of the California Least Tern for the past 12 years, starting as a colony manager at the Venice Beach Colony. I am a member of the California State Scientific Advisory Board for the California Least Tern and participate in annual California Least Tern Working Group meetings. In partnership with Los Angeles Audubon and later Loyola Marymount University, I have managed the Venice colony with a research and community outreach focus. Research projects have included studying vegetation management in relation to productivity and the use of aversion to reduce predation by American Crows. Our community outreach has focused on introducing students from inner-city schools to conservation efforts at the colony. In 1997, I became interested in the movements of the California Least Terns and searched for wintering least terns along the coast of mainland Mexico with just a few observations. In 2012, we took this to the next level using geolocators to attempt to track the terns, but ran into technical problems recovering the data. This however provided valuable information that will increase our chances of success. I feel that this new GPS technology is our best hope yet at unraveling this mystery. I studied at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona (B. Sc.) and California State University, Long Beach (M.Sc.). I work as an independent researcher for my own small business, Ryan Ecological Consulting, as well as teach biology, environmental studies, and field ecology at Pasadena City College and Santiago Canyon College.