Dr. Roldán A. Valverde is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Dr. Valverde was born and raised in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. He earned his undergraduate degree in Marine Biology at the Universidad Nacional of Costa Rica in 1985. He initiated his professional career in 1987 working on the nesting ecology of the olive ridley sea turtle in Nancite beach, Costa Rica. His work on the “arribada” phenomenon led him to continue his studies in graduate school at Texas A&M University, where he received his Doctorate in 1996 for his work on the endocrine stress response of the Olive Ridley sea turtle. Shortly after graduation he worked for the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (now the Sea Turtle Conservancy) as field coordinator of the green sea turtle tagging project in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. From 1997 through 2001 he conducted post-doctoral training in the Department of Biology at the University of Michigan on the endocrine control of amphibian metamorphosis. In 2001 he came to Xavier University where he taught until he joined the faculty at Southeastern in 2004. He received tenure in 2010 and was promoted to full professor in 2015. In 2016 he became Scientific Director of the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

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