FORED BC, which takes its name from "forest education," creates classroom resources and hosts teacher workshops to promote the responsible and mixed use of B.C.'s natural resources.

About 60 per cent of FORED BC's revenue comes from contracts to provide environmental protection crews to fight forest fires, plant trees and clean streams. Other FORED BC revenue comes from donors, memberships, funding from the Vancouver Foundation and from provincial gambling revenue.

Ziola has succeeded creating a sound financial base for her 105-employee organization through strengthening partnerships with industry and the B.C. Teachers Federation, which distributes its newsletter Landscapes.

She learned her knack for business as a manager at the P.D.'s Hot Shop snowboard store and while working as a freelance journalist for Lower Mainland papers such as The Westender, The North Shore News and The Whistler Question.

"As a freelancer you're working for yourself as Me Incorporated," she said. "That was a challenge, given that I was juggling two other jobs at the time."

Outside work, she volunteers for the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication and the Environmental Educators Provincial Specialist Association of B.C.

Ziola has helped disabled youth attend the Variety Club Christmas Concert and the Nanaimo Reggae Festival. She participates in CIBC's Run for the Cure to benefit breast cancer. And she spends as much time as she can with her husband Vladimir Savchenko and their two-year-old daughter Isabella.

Profession you would like to try: Advertising

Where do you feel most comfortable? Curled up with a good book

Currently reading: Other than BIV, I'm reading Pompeii by Robert Harris and What to Expect in the Toddler Years, by Arlene Eisenberg

Toughest decision: To try to have a second child with my husband. We'll see what happens in nine months.

Car: Now driving a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta

Would most like to meet: Jimmy Pattison

Birthplace: Burnaby

Last CD bought: The Very Best of Frank Sinatra and Billy Idol, Greatest Hits

Education: Douglas College university transfer and a diploma in journalism from Langara College

What's left to do: Successfully raise a daughter who's kind, positive and a productive member of society in whatever field she chooses