Meet the Amphibian Team

Chelsea Thomas (left) is the Amphibian Program Coordinator at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Before joining the Garden in 2016, she studied Environmental Psychology at Oberlin College and worked at an educational farm where she trained animals and assisted a therapist working with children on the Autism spectrum to overcome animal phobias. Her work includes projects with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to repatriate genetically significant representatives of two species of Panamanian frogs, maintaining biosecure collections for research, display and education, providing many environmental education programs, designing a lab to breed striped newts with more live plants and a broader diet than previously implemented in captivity, and releasing hundreds of those newts into the wild as part of ongoing reintroduction efforts. Chelsea enjoys kayaking, tabletop games, gardening and spending time with her pets.

Joshua Bilonta (center) is the Amphibian Program Assistant at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. He works with the Frog Lab, helps care for public exhibits, and hosts public feedings. He joins the team after 20 years as an amphibian hobbyist. In his free time, Josh enjoys tending his personal collection of uncommon reptiles and amphibians in live-planted naturalistic enclosures, as well as keeping both freshwater-planted and saltwater reef aquariums. His collection includes bumble bee toads, spearpoint leaf-tailed geckos, and Japanese rice fish. Josh’s favorite critter to care for is his son, who's growing up learning to appreciate animals ranging from the warm-and-fuzzy to cold-and-scaly. His other hobbies include fishing and hiking, as well as creating, drawing and sculpting creatures inspired by his love of sci-fi, fantasy and horror.

David Ruland (right) joined the Atlanta Botanical Garden in 1999 as part of the Conservatory team after a period of volunteering in the Desert House. After working with all aspects of the Garden's public indoor plant and animal collections, David move behind the scenes in 2010. He is now the Greenhouse Manager, responsible for managing a significant portion of the Garden's indoor plant collections, as well as overseeing the day-to-day function of the Garden's support greenhouse facility. David's team includes the greenhouse and amphibian teams. His experience taking care of plants, aquariums, assorted reptiles, amphibians and arachnids stretches back to high school. David's personal interests range from ghost stories and folklore to growing unusual plants and raising a small assortment of terrarium pets and fish. He shares his living space with a fine cat, Mr. Skittle.