Helping others help themselves: Roxane Francis

Having a successful career doesn’t always stop self-doubt, so Roxane started an affirmations site to build confidence in herself and others.

Published on the 14 April 2026

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UNSW Research Fellow Dr. Roxane Francis out in the field

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Growing up in regional NSW, Dr Roxane Francis, in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES), has always had an affinity for animals and the outdoors.

“I grew up with a lot of pets and some of my friends lived on big farms, so I was always around animals,” Roxane said.

“I completed a double degree in Science and Arts and approached Professor Richard Kingsford about doing my Honours. He said there were three programs and I could choose between studying turtles, frogs or birds.

After completing her Honours, Roxane moved to France.

“I was finding it really difficult to get work,” she said. “I got one interview from 100 applications.

“The guy who interviewed me said, ‘You work with turtles, but we don’t really have many turtles in France’, and that’s when it clicked – I needed to be more strategic about the animals I chose to work with if I wanted to work overseas.”

Moving back to Australia, Roxane reconnected with Richard to complete a PhD specialising in water birds – an animal found in most parts of the world.

“I’m not a night person, so frogs weren’t an option, as you study them after dark. Between turtles and birds, I chose turtles – there was more animal handling.”

Meditation and mindfulness

Working in academia, Roxane has found that many people in the field are self-driven, self-motivated and highly critical.

“It’s our job to be critical – you review a manuscript 100 times before it’s remotely acceptable to share; you must find every double space in a document; you need to criticise a study design, find all its flaws and redesign it – and this compounds those critical traits,” Roxane said.

Roxane working with a lizard.

Before starting at UNSW, she hadn’t known the term ‘imposter syndrome’, but it’s something Roxane recognised the longer she was in academia – and realised it is something disproportionately affecting women.

“I felt like I had so many amazing female researchers around me – people that I really admire – and hearing how they talked about themselves sometimes really shocked me,” Roxane said.

“It’s something you can easily recognise in others but is harder to see in yourself. I realised I was going to have to start practising what I preached.”

Wanting to quiet her own critical inner voice, Roxane began meditation and the practice of positive affirmations.

It took Roxane a while to find a meditation tool that suited her –many were overly spiritual rather than self-affirming – but once she began, she started to feel the changes. Wanting to give others an opportunity to try it, Roxane reached out to students and staff, inviting them to join her for a meditation session.

“It was just after the COVID pandemic and student feedback was that they were feeling really stressed and isolated,” Roxane said. “The meditations were helping me, so I started open invite sessions for people to join in.

“It was simple and small, but it gave students an opportunity to connect, practice mindfulness and form relationships with others who were feeling the same way.”

Alongside the guided meditation sessions, Roxane decided to make it easier for others to find an affirmation practice by creating one herself. She started with an affirmations Instagram account, then began a website with her husband and friend.

“The website, MindSaid Affirmations, lets you create your own affirmation tracks,” Roxane said. “You choose the voice you’d like to hear, add some background music and decide how long you’d like the track to last.

“For a longer meditation session, you might choose a 10-minute affirmation track to piano music. If you need a quick pep-up before an exam or job interview, you could choose a one-minute track with some upbeat hip-hop.”

Becoming a role model

Roxane has recently returned to her work at UNSW after welcoming a baby girl into the world.

In this new chapter of her life, she has realised that doing affirmations and meditation is for more than just her – it’s also for the people she cares about.

“I think about how much work I’ve had to put in to correct my inner voice, and it would be nice if my daughter didn’t need to do that. I think the only way that’s possible is if she sees me speaking nicely to myself.

“I am much more aware of what I say about my body, how I react when I look in the mirror and how I speak about myself. If she can see her mother being kind to herself, maybe she’ll grow up being kind to herself.

Roxane working with water birds in Botswana.

“I think the greatest gift you can give someone is an inner confidence to be exactly who they are at all times, completely unapologetically.”

What’s something about you that might surprise your colleagues?

Perhaps my music taste. I am massively into afro beats and dancehall – the kind of music you can’t play in the car on a shared fieldtrip.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

“It's not how much you earn but how much you spend.”

What makes you happy?

My dog is my absolute baby – he is full of love, support and even gets up in the middle of the night to keep me company when I feed my baby. I also love op shopping.