Dave is a Wildlife Biologist at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center where he serves as the program ornithologist for the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). He has been actively involved in wildlife research for over 20 years, both in the states and abroad, and worked on topics spanning the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, biogeography, toxicology, and population monitoring. In his current position, Dave works to strengthen the coordination and management of the scientifically rigorous, citizen-science based BBS program including: building research and multi-level inter-agency partnerships, strategic planning to ensure the survey’s continued relevance for informing bird conservation, connecting with thousands of highly-skilled volunteer observers, designing and managing web-enabled database applications, assuring a high data quality in the ever-growing 80-million record database, and publication of results written for both scientists and the general public. Although the majority of Dave’s day to day work is focused on birds, his broad expertise in natural history finds him frequently engaged in other field research projects oriented at measuring and better understanding our diverse plant and animal assemblages.

biodiversity biogeography ecological competition ecological processes ecosystem diversity