She has worked for the Department of Conservation as threatened species ambassador[1][2][3] and became chief executive of Forest & Bird in April 2022.

[4] Toki was born in Invercargill, and spent much of her early years moving around the South Island to support her father's career as a ski-plane pilot.

[9][10][11] After leaving that role, she was retained by the Department of Conservation as eastern South Island operations director.

[12] On her appointment, Toki said that she was looking forward to taking Forest & Bird (established in 1923) into its next century of operations, and wanted to work more closely with mana whenua.

While at Forest and Bird she advocated for the protection of New Zealand endemic species through the use of 1080,[15] and campaigned against intensive and large-scale dairy farming.