Meet Our Staff
Meet the Staff Team of Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary
Cara Gibson
Executive Director
Cara has a BSc (Biology, Honours, Univ. of Toronto) and a Master’s and PhD (Entomology, Univ. of Arizona). She taught in higher education for over 20 years and her background spans biodiversity monitoring, science research and management, instructional design, fundraising, community organizing and scientific illustration.
Cara joined the Nature Sanctuary as a Board member in 2019 and stepped into the Executive Director role in 2020. She is honoured to be helping to protect the Nature Sanctuary's rare and threatened species, steward and restore its ecosystems, and grow its communities of practice and education.
Elaine Parker
Operations Manager
Elaine has worked in the non-profit sector for over 15 years with a focus on education and science organizations. Joining the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary as Operations Manager in summer 2024, Elaine focuses on Human Resources, Financial and other Administrative work.
She has recently moved to Victoria from Nanaimo where she was Executive Director at Nanaimo Science. Elaine holds a BSc in Psychology and BA in English, and completed graduate studies in math and second language acquisition.
Elaine enjoys cooking, puzzles, and traveling with her family.
Jay Rastogi
Site Director
Jay studied Natural Resources Management and Environmental Studies at the University of Guelph and worked at the University Arboretum. After graduation, he mentored in sustainable forestry practices with renowned ecoforester Merv Wilkinson. Over the past 15 years he has shared these teachings and principles with thousands of students and adults during tours and workshops.
His family background includes farming and forestry, in Ontario, and wandering the foothills of the Himalayas, where he lived until he was 12 years old. Jay joined Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary in April 2013.
His interests include nature observation, studying landscape ecology and promoting sustainable land stewardship and self-sufficiency. He is especially fond of growing food and foraging for wild plants and mushrooms.
Tara Todesco
Manager of Volunteer Programs
Tara has a master’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Victoria, with a specialization in environmental education and community-engaged research and learning. She has extensive experience in developing, coordinating and evaluating environmental and community education programs throughout Greater Victoria.
Tara managed the Land Conservancy of British Columbia’s Volunteer Development Program, where she grew her love of working with and supporting volunteers and community-led stewardship. Tara joined the Swan Lake Team in summer 2023 and continues to grow and nourish our incredible volunteer community.
In her free time, Tara loves to garden, especially with native plants, and to cook, hike and bike with her family
Kristen Banasch
Biodiversity Coordinator
Kristen received her B.Sc. in Earth and Ocean Science from the University of Victoria in 2024. After two summers supporting Western Painted Turtle monitoring on site, she has now joined the Sanctuary full-time.
Kristen is passionate about conserving ecosystems for future generations by improving environmental integrity and supporting diverse local species. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, sewing, and exploring nature, often using iNaturalist to learn more about her surroundings.
Olivia (Liv) Levert
Communications Specialist
Liv is a recent graduate from the University of Victoria with a bachelor's in Geography and Environmental Studies. With a background in ecology, geomorphology, and GIS, she is passionate about local community engagement with nature and inspiring stewardship.
Liv grew up on unceded Ohlone land, also known as the San Francisco Bay Area, and has been living on the traditional territories of the lək ̓ʷəŋən-speaking Peoples and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples since 2018. In her free time, she likes making art with friends, going to local concerts, and long walks.
Nolan Wood
Biology Assistant
Nolan is a recent graduate from UVic with a bachelor’s in biology and environmental studies. His training and passion has been in entomology and ecological restoration. For the past 2 years, he’s been leading the UVic Restoration Club’s Garry Oak Ecosystem committee where they’ve increased camas and decreased invasives!
You’ll likely find Nolan in one of the many parks in Victoria looking for bugs and plants!
Fiona McLenahan
Administrative Assistant
Fiona is a recent graduate from the University of Victoria with a BA , Major in English and a Minor in Public Administration. With a background in administrative services, event coordination, and campaign management, she is excited to use her skills to help out with the team at Swan Lake. Her love of local community building, service accessibility expansion, and events development drives her to create positive and sustainable changes within her community.
Fiona believes in the value of life long education and is always looking to expand her skills and understanding of the spaces and cultures around her. In her free time, she loves to read, play her saxophone, and hang out at home with her cat Peter!
Sasha Zherdeva
CSJ Communications Assistant
Sasha is a student at the University of Victoria pursuing a BSc in Computer Science and Visual Arts. With a background in animation, videography, and nature education, she combines technical and creative skills to tell underrepresented stories from local communities. She is passionate about conservation and inspiring deeper connections between people and the natural world.
Originally from Siberia, Sasha has spent the past 12 years living across Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia, shaping her perspective through diverse landscapes and communities. In her free time, she enjoys painting, skateboarding, and film photography.
Ruby Ollivier
CSJ Nature Educator and Stewardship Interpreter
Ruby is graduating this summer from the University of Victoria with a bachelor's in Environmental Studies and Geography. Her favourite subject areas include sustainable city planning, ecosystem interactions, and plant identification. She has spent many of her summers working with mixed-age groups on leadership skills and healthy social interaction through theatre production.
Ruby is thrilled to be merging her passion of the environment and engaging with youth this summer at Swan Lake. When she is not spending time outdoors she loves to read, dance, eat fruit, and is currently learning how to knit.
Aidan Entner
CSJ Biology Assistant
Aidan is nearing the end of his BSc in Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, where he has been interested in every topic presented to him, especially entomology, animal behaviour, and the relationships and interactions between humans and the world around them.
His work experience has centered on helping people connect with the natural world, primarily through many years of science communication. More recently, he has undertaken community outreach and education for nature centres on Vancouver Island and in the Okanagan, supporting the connection between land and its inhabitants.
Aidan recently earned a Permaculture Design Certification through UVIC and Linnaea Farms on Cortes Island, so he is excited to have his boots on the ground (or in the lake) and get his hands dirty this summer. If you see him in the native plant garden or on the trails, please say hi and share a fun fact about the Nature Sanctuary!
Christopher Bruce
CSJ Biology Assistant
Kate Ledger
CSJ Environmental Monitoring Assistant
Kate holds a B.Sc. in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria and brings experience in environmental conservation to the Nature Sanctuary. Before joining Swan Lake, Kate worked in Resource Conservation for Parks Canada for five years, specializing in Species at Risk monitoring and augmentation (with a soft spot for freshwater turtles), invasive species management, and geomatics.
As someone who is also passionate about helping people foster positive relationships with the land and water, Kate is thrilled to help keep the Nature Sanctuary as a space for a diversity of species, including humans, to thrive. When she isn’t on site, you can find her curled up with a hot cup of tea and a craft, snorkeling alongside sea stars and nudibranchs, or hiking with her puppy
Abby Hyde
Relational Ecologist
Abby is joining the Swan Lake Team this summer as she works towards her Mitacs Master's degree in Industrial Ecology.
With her focus on linking the socio-ecological services of nature preserves for urban park management, Abby's project seeks to quantify the societal services that nature preserves provide relative to biological richness. In other terms, the value of a historically biodiverse green space in a city compared to a standard novel green space to people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
Abby loves to observe all organisms, but insects and plants (meadow and wetland species) catch her eye most frequently!
