Growing up surfing in Baja California and Southern California, Ignacio “Nacho” Vilchis has spent most of his life in or around the Pacific Ocean. Nacho earned his PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla California, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in conservation biology at the University of California Davis’ Wildlife Health Center of its School of Veterinary Medicine. Nacho has spent year’s at sea studying tropical and temperate seabirds in open oceans off the Hawaiian archipelago, Clipperton atoll, Malpelo Island, Galapagos Islands, British Columbia, Puget Sound and the Gulf of California and all of its islands.
Currently, he is an Associate Director in the Applied Animal Ecology division at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. In this role, Nacho implements and oversees conservation research of a number of endangered bird species in Southern California, Baja California and northwestern mainland Mexico. Nacho joined the SJV Management Board in the spring of 2018 and is keen on helping conserve and restore bird populations from throughout the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.