Meet the People Who Make it Happen

With guidance from the Board and Scientific Advisors, the MFG staff plan, implement, oversee, and evaluate our conservation projects. Most have lived their entire lives in Toamasina. Their understanding of local needs and their ability to proceed within the framework of local policies and politics, coupled with the consistency of the  MFG's presence in the community, has enabled the MFG to become a respected voice for conservation within Madagascar.

Program Director
​Virginia Rodriguez Ponga, DVM

Virginia graduated from Madrid’s Veterinary School in 1998 after which she practiced small animal medicine in private practice and at the UCM’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.  Virginia gave that up in 2007 to pursue her lifelong interest in primates by becoming the volunteer Coordinator of the Mikongo Conservation Center’s Great Ape and Human Health Coordinator in Gabon. The experience permanently changed the direction of her professional career to wildlife conservation. In 2009 she moved to the Democratic Republic of Congo where she worked with several NGOs to advance their conservation objectives and to Cameroon in 2014 to serve as technical assistant to Deng Deng National Park Project.  Virginia Rodriguez Ponga took over as MFG’s Program Director in April 2017. Virginia brings with her a range of field, education, capacity building, community relationship and administrative experiences.  

Research Director
Karen Freeman, PhD

 Karen graduated with a BA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. She served in Mauritius as Field Coordinator of Mauritian Wildlife Foundation's Pink Pigeon Conservation Project from 1996 until 1999 when she returned to England to enter a PhD program at Queen Mary, University of London. Her dissertation, The Ecology and Conservation Genetics of the Gongylomorphus Skinks of Mauritius, combined ecological and genetic criteria to distinguish and identify the most appropriate populations from which to select individuals to repopulate their former range. In 2004, Karen was hired as the MFG’s Program Director and she served in that capacity for four years before returning to the UK where she continues to work with the MFG as Research Director. Karen oversees the MFG’s broad research program including facilitating and coordinating local and international research collaborations.

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MFG Administrative Staff

MFG National Representative | Chef du Parc Ivoloina
Bernard Iambana Richardson

​Bernard  graduated with a degree in Biology from the University of Antananarivo in 1997. That same year he was hired as a research assistant by Dr. Adam Britt who was studying the feeding ecology and behavior of the captive born black and white ruffed lemurs released in Betampona Natural Reserve.  Bernard's research, for which he earned his Master's degree, focused on the phenology of the thirty most important fruits consumed by ruffed lemurs.  In 2004 Bernard relocated from Betampona's Research Station in Rendriendry to Toamasina to become Chef du Parc Ivoloina.  Bernard oversees the zoo's animal collections and serves as the MFG's National Representative.

Administrative and Financial Officer
Franka Rasolomanantsoaelo

Franka joined the MFG in 2015.  She graduated with a degree in French from the University of Antananarivo.  Also fluent in English and Malagasy, Franka put her language skills to good use during the ten years she worked for the Peace Corps as a language and cross-culture facilitator. Prior to joining the MFG, she spent two years working as an Administrative Assistant for Ambatovy’s International School in Toamasina.

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​Betampona Natural Reserve

Jean Noel
Betampona Head Agent

Jean Noel lived in Ambodirafia when he was hired in 1997 to be part of the MFG's ruffed lemur restocking research team. He attended a military high school in Fianarantsoa and attended a year of college at the University of Toamasina when his studies were interrupted. Jean Noel's keen observational abilities were obvious from the onset and, in combination with his intense interest in amphibians and reptiles, he has become a mostly self-taught, highly skilled herpetologist. His leadership qualities led the MFG to promote him to Head Agent in 2009 and he now supervises a team of seven full-time agents, four part-time assistants, four guides, a maintenance worker and guard. The Betampona Conservation Agents are involved in multiple research projects. Karen Freeman, MFG Research Director, and the agents develop a work plan every year with the goal of accommodating new approved projects into the scheduled ongoing long-term research projects (e.g., monthly ecological and amphibian species presence/activity data at two sites since 2009, weekly fauna transect surveys in primary and secondary forest sites, annual survey of nine botanical plots). Regular duties also include patrolling the Reserve for infractions, assisting Saturday School teachers (2 agents), working with local communities on the reforestation project (2 agents), daily weather records and transferring field notes into a database. All outside researchers must be accompanied by MFG staff but the number of agents and duration of the study vary, e.g. graduate students require at least one guide for the duration of their project while lemur health surveys may require a team of agents but only for a two to four week period.

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Parc Ivoloina Zoo

George Totozandry
Head Keeper

The species exhibited at Ivoloina Zoo reflect the reality that the majority of confiscated species are lemurs and tortoises but visitors can also observe amphibian and several other reptile species as well as native wildlife that inhabit the Parc. As Head Keeper, George, supervises a staff of seven keepers who care for the animals, maintain the grounds and answer questions for guests and students. The MFG ensures that animal care standards at Ivoloina Zoo reflect those expected from modern zoos.  Zoo professionals from MFG member institutions provide the animal staff with training in areas like husbandry methods, enrichment, record keeping. Scale training lemurs (below photo) is done to monitor weight as one measure of health.

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Center for Environmental Education

Tsiry Harison
​Center for Environmental Education Manager

Tsiry Harison, who has a Master's Degree in Communication from University of Antananarivo, joined the MFG in 2016 as CEE Manager. In addition to Tsiry, the staff includes one full-time and three part-time educators and two teachers for each of the three Saturday Schools in the Betampona area. Other employees also play an important role in the MFG’s education programs such as when a camp program includes children learning how keepers take care of the animals, or when school children are given tours of the agriculture model station or learn about the tree nurseries devoted to propagating endangered Malagasy tree species. Vero has developed programs introducing young children to microscopes and in 2013 spearheaded the first girl’s leadership camp that is now held annually.

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Ivoloina Conservation Training Center

Veronique Ravololonarivo ​
ICTC Manager

 ​Veronique (or Vero) had just earned a post graduate certificate in natural resource management from the University of Toamasina, when she was hired under an Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) grant awarded to Dr. Christof den Biggelaar. The goal of the grant, to increase local capacity in ecoagriculture research and practice, included equipping ICTC's lab to do qualitative soil analysis and training an intern how to use and care for the specialized equipment, analyze soil samples for ongoing research projects and assist students. Vero proved to be a very competent lab manager and at the end of the grant, was hired to continue in that role. Vero’s responsibilities expanded over the years and in 2016 she was promoted to ICTC Manager.  

Ecoagriculture Demonstration and Research Site

Christian Rambaloson
Model Station Manager

 Christian graduated from the University of Mahajanga with a degree in agriculture in 2001 and worked with several development NGOs before he was hired in August 2004 by le Centre Technique Horticole de Toamasina.  At CTHT Christian worked with farmers throughout the region to plant and care for their cash crops in ways best adapted to the eastern climate and soil conditions.  In June 2007 Christian accepted a position as a research intern (funded through a grant from AZA) to extend agroforestry field trials at Parc Ivoloina under the supervision of Dr. Christof den Biggelaar.  At the end of the grant, Christian was hired to manage the Model Station and to continue the ecoagriculture and agroforestry research and training activities initiated through the grant.  The ecoagriculture team includes Sostene Randrianarison  (middle in left photo below) and Jacquis Misilahy (right photo).  

Ivoloina Forestry Station

Jean Francois
Forestry Station Manager

Jean Francois began his MFG career working in the tree nursery. He was instrumental in the Missouri Botanical Garden/ MFG collaboration to propagate threatened plant species from the Toamasina region. Twenty endangered species were successfully propagated and subsequently planted out in the Forestry Station and, in a few cases, were used to reinforce wild populations. The adjacent photo shows Jean Francois holding a tree species, Schizolaena manomboenis, propagated from seeds of the only remaining tree of its kind that was later destroyed when a cyclone passed through the forest!  Jean Francois’ expertise in plant cultivation, knowledge of tree species and leadership skills led to his promotion as Forestry Station Manager.  He is assisted by Michelin, however, in reality, the agriculture and forestry station teams work collaboratively as needed. Like other MFG staff, Jean Francois assists graduate students with aspects of their research and participates in education outreach programs.    

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Buvette Team

The buvette (gift shop and refreshments) is where visitors are directed to purchase entrance tickets for Ivoloina Zoo. The Bbuvette team is, in essence, the MFG's  Guest Services. In addition to selling tickets they provide visitors with information about the zoo, walking trails, demonstration model stations, education programs and answer questions. An important objective of the buvette is to generate revenue to help support zoo operations thus the team needs to evaluate which products sell well in this region. To that end, Bruno Randriarimalala (left photo), who showed great initiative in generating new ideas, was mentored by former intern, Charlotte Gressin-Welsch, in computer skills, bookkeeping, inventory management and guest services. He mastered it all and, promoted to Buvette Manager in 2010, he oversees two employees Alfred Ihira (below) and Patrice Saby (red t-shirt). Bruno's ideas were central to the design of the new Buvette kitchen.