• About Us
• Who benefits?
• How you can help
• Volunteer Research Assistant Programme
• Why choose ReefDoctor?
• Our staff
• Partners and Sponsors
• Opportunities

Roderick Stein-Rostaing
32, British
Roderick has Bsc in Marine Biology from Swansea University, is a PADI divemaster and has worked previously on reef conservation projects in the Philippines and as a divemaster in the Whitsunday Islands, Australia. As co-founder and director, Rod provides the direction and impetus for all of our overseas operations.

Daniel Presman
(1964 - 2004),
Daniel sadly passed away in late 2004. He will surely be missed but his memory lives on in the work of ReefDoctor.

Robert Stein-Rostaing
33, British
Robert has been a strong supporter of ReefDoctor since its inception and became a director in 2004. He comes from a background in the technology industry where, as an entrepreneur, he built and sold his first company by the age of 24. He now has a wide variety of interests and directorships with a recent focus on the TV & Film industry where he has his own production company. Robert has a Geography Degree from King's, London, is a PADI Advanced diver, and an active member and ambassador for the Royal Geographical Society.

Shane M Abeare
USA
Shane is the on-site Director of the ReefDoctor team, and a PhD student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New Orleans. He earned a BSc in biology (chemistry minor), from the University of Michigan, an MSc in African Mammalogy at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and another MSc in Oceanography and Coastal Science (statistics minor) at Louisiana State University. Shane has assisted/led wildlife research projects all over the world, working on subjects as diverse as fungi in the Amazon, bats in Papua New Guinea and Australia, buffalo and Great White sharks in South Africa, and grizzly bears in the American West. In addition to field research skills, Shane brings to RD his experience in protected area management and sustainable development gained while a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa, then as national park manager in Togo, and while working in the management of a national park in the Republic of the Congo. For his PhD research, Shane will be addressing coastal fisheries management issues in the Bay of Ranobe, Madagascar. In particular, he will be assessing the state/productivity of the artisanal coral reef fisheries, and the role of seagrass and mangrove habitats in reef fish population dynamics.

Omri Malul
35, Israel
Omri has lived in the US for the last seven years, where he obtained his Masters in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and worked in Washington DC as a consultant. After a long hiatus from marine work, he decided to get his toes wet again. An experienced Dive Master (Australia, Southeast Asia, Red Sea, Mediterranean) and a sustainable development enthusiast, he joined ReefDoctor to learn more about the scientific aspects of marine conservation, community-based resource management, and the operational dynamics of NGO management. Omri speaks English, Hebrew, French, some Arabic, and with considerable effort can put two words together in Vezo that actually have a meaning and are not followed by finger pointing and thundering laughter.

Lova
Madagascar
A local from the city of Fianarantsoa (600km north of Toliara), Lova has a diploma from the University of Toliara. She is Fluent in English, French, and Malagasy and was hired as the organisation’s project accountant, helping the project coordinator and expedition leader, with project administrative duties, daily project management and English teaching. Lova is now ReefDoctor’s Chef de Personnel – the go to person for all staff and HR matters – and is in training as the first Communications Officer to continue our working relationships with the local hotels.

Alice Grainger
British
An international nomad, Alice has washed up on the Madagascan shoreline by way of Indonesia, Switzerland, India, Poland, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UK. She started diving in 1996, and has been working on and off in the dive industry since 1998. After completing a globalisation focused MA Hons in International Relations at St Andrews University, she followed in her father’s footsteps joining the ranks of environmental conservationists and those committed to sustainable development. Alice has worked with organisations including USAID, IUCN and ZERI, but the call of the sea proved irresistible.... Presently she is revelling in the opportunity that ReefDoctor provides; the chance to combine her passion for diving with involvement in focused, community-orientated projects and scientific research.

Emma Gibbons
British
MA in Environment and Climate Change with a speciality in tropical marine systems (in progress), BSc (Hon) degree in freshwater and marine biology, and HND in ecology, biology and animal behaviour. Emma has been working with Reef Doctor in Southwest Madagascar since 2005; in that time Emma has developed excellent communication skills vital for a successful relationship with the Vezo (indigenous coastal population) enabling the development of culturally sensitive projects, such as the assessment of the turtle fishery, which has recently expanded to encompass all 13 villages within the Bay of Ranobe. Emma’s research Masters focuses on surface sediment distribution and origins (marine or terrestrial) in order to quantify sedimentation rates in the Bay of Ranobe. In addition to characterising the physical environment, Emma will also be assessing patterns in benthic biodiversity, and how biodiversity correlates to the physical environment.

William Mitchell
British
Armed with a BSc Honors in Zoology, Will is an avid and devoted conservation biologist. His previous experience includes working for terrestrial and marine conservation projects for the RSPB and National Trust in the UK. Starting his career in tropical marine conservation through an internship at ReefDoctor’s office in London, he has now been working for RD for over two years. Having completed a science internship in Madagascar, Will has taken the role of a Science Officer and is an integral member of the RD science team. Will has been living in Madagascar for twelve months and has developed a zealous passion for coral reef fishes, tropical marine ecology and being underwater, all of which make him well suited to life on Ifaty beach.

Jonathan McKee
American
Born in Tucson, Arizona, Jon is ReefDoctor’s volunteer coordinator/ science staff intern. He has been working as a cook for about six and a half years prior to coming to Madagascar, where he hopes to develop his diving skills and learn as much as possible about the unique, endemic life of Madagascar. In addition to his role as a volunteer coordinator, Jon is always happy to unleash his divine cooking expertise on ReefDoctor’s staff and volunteers. A highly spiritual person, he practices yoga, paints, and pretends (very convincingly) to play the guitar, while adapting to non-materialistic life.

Christina Tsima
26, Madagascar
Originally from Tamatave (main port city on the east coast of Madagascar over 1000km north east of Toliara), Christina came to ReefDoctor to work with the primary school teachers in Ifaty and to develop ReefDoctor’s marine and environmental curriculum. Christina also works with the women’s association FIVETAMI, helping to develop future business projects and teaching embroidery. She also works with the villagers on developing alternative livelihoods designed to reduce fishing pressure on the marine environment and promotes conservation issues in the village including workshops on AIDS, family planning and health and hygiene practices.

Stephan Desseilles
37, French
He’s been living in Madagascar since 2000 as a local artist and musician. He brings to the organisation his skills and experiences from his own organisation ‘Ecole des Merveilleux’ which he founded the Madagascan arm from the parent company in La Reunion Island which he also co-founded. The ‘Ecole des merveilleux’ has done many successful projects with public and private schools thoughout southern Madagascar, teaching primary and secondary school children art, design, dance, theatre and music (European and traditional Malagasy) alongside large NGO’s such as Aide et Action and Alliance Francais and the local school ministries CISCO. He will be undertaking (alongside Nad) twice weekly classes with the public school children of Ifaty and Mangily in music, dance, theatre and art with an environmental theme.

Nad
27, Madagascar
Nad is a local Malagasy artist and the main partner with Stephan Desseilles for the Malagasy arm of the ‘Ecole des Merveilleux’. He brings his experiences as an artist and work with Stephan to the organisation and is in charge of conducting the art classes for the school children of Ifaty and Mangily. He is also responsible for bring in local Malagasy musicians to teach traditional music to the school children.

Hajasoa Dieu Donne
Madagascar
A toliara local, working to complete his MA degree at the Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines, University of Toliara, Hajasoa has been working with ReefDoctor since February 2010. As the organisation’s Socio-Economic Officer he maintains contact with ReefDoctor’s main stakeholders, and supports community-based natural resource management programs in conjunction with the Ranobe fishermen’s association (FI.MI.HA.RA.). Additionally, Hajasoa is assisting the science team with its inaugural turtle fishery assessment across 13 villages in the Bay of Ranobe.

Martin
27, Madagascar
An Ifaty local, Martin has brought to the organisation his local knowledge and motivation to lead the fisheries monitoring project. This project is part of ReefDoctor’s marine management program. Leading the creation, education and implementation of fisheries monitoring in all villages in the Bay, Martin trains motivated people from each village to be, like him, Community Officers who have the ability to survey their village fish catches and present results, as well as surveying their reefs using simple rapid monitoring protocols.

Manjo
Madagascar
ReefDoctor’s boatman extraordinaire, Manjo, is responsible for running boat excursions start-to-finish, assessing sea conditions for dives and surveys and for ongoing technical maintenance. His boating skills are second to none and are only exceeded by his can-do attitude and constant smile.

Azy
Malagasy
Azy, our cook, is from Ifaty and lives on the university's property with her family. She is responsible for cooking all of our meals in a traditional Malagasy style using regional produce brought in from Toliara.

Emilie
Malagasy
Emile is Azy's husband and the guardian of the University of Toliara bungalow where we eat our meals. He is also a fisherman and often provides dinner for the team.

Lebon
36, Madagascar
As the person in charge of ReefDoctor’s marine museum, Lebon guides tourists and provides them with information about the museum exhibits. Additionally, he assists the education staff with school visits and ReefDoctor’s kids club program.

Julianne
24, Madagascar
local from Ifaty village – wife of martin our community and fisheries officer and is in charge of the organisations weekly re-supply and cleaning of the University house, volunteer huts and main ReefDoctor house. She is also helping Christina with the women’s association on family planning and new business alternatives. She speaks Malagasy, French and some English despite only having some secondary education.

Finy
25, Madagascar
A native of Ifaty, her main duties are washing the laundry for staff and volunteers.

Charlie Gardner
30, British
MA Environment, Policy and Society Open University, Msc Conservation Biology from Durrell Institute of Conservation ecology University Kent, Bsc Zoology University Leeds. Acts as a technical advisor to ReefDoctor on a number of scientific research topics and also works with WWF Madagascar on their Ranobe Forest PK32 reserve project aiming to preserve the last of the Ranobe Forest the most endemically diverse primary forest in Madagascar.

Louise Jasper
25, British
Bsc Psychology and Zoology University Bristol, works alongside Charlie Gardner as a technical advisor for ReefDoctor and has helped spear head education material for the community and tourists on the spiny forest and littoral environment around the Bay of Ranobe. She has also helped Carola and Benjamin create the marine curriculum for the public primary schools. She also works for ANGAP (Madagascar national parks authority) on community and tourist education projects for parks and reserves in the south of Madagascar.