Contact Webmaster En Español

AFO Council and Committees

The AFO's Council consist of both amateur and professional ornithologists, in recognition of the contributions that both make to ornithology. If you are interested in assisting with the governance of AFO, or if you would like to nominate a candidate for the AFO council, email the nominations committee.


Officers and Councilors

President
L. Scott Johnson

Vice President
Kathryn Purcell

Secretary
Lee H. Robinson

Treasurer
W. Gregory Shriver

Journal Editor
Gary Ritchison

Past President
David N. Bonter
 Councilors: Class of 2011
Reed Bowman
John Cavitt
Tom Gardali
J. Daniel Lambert
Diane Neudorf

Councilors: Class of 2012
Andrew Farnsworth
Michael Lombardo
Victoria McDonald
Paul Rodewald

Councilors: Class of 2013
Daniel R. Ardia
Paul B. Hamel
J. Dylan Maddox
John P. McCarty
Andrea K. Townsend

Recent Past Presidents
David N. Bonter (2009-2010), Cecilia Riley (2007-2008), Eugene Morton (2004-2006), Scott Sutcliffe (2003-2004), Jerry Jackson (2000-2002), Charles Duncan 1997-1999), Elissa Landre (1995-1997), Gregory S. Butcher (1993-1995), Edward H. Burtt Jr. (1991-1993).

AFO Committees


AFO Representatives on the Strengthening Orhithology Initative Committees

Steering Committee: Scott Johnson and Kathryn Purcell

Publications Committee: Gary Ritchison and David Bonter

Meetings Committee: Michael Lombardo

AFO Representatives for Other Organizations

OSNA: Scott Johnson and Paul Rodewald

Ornithological Council: Scott Johnson and John McCarty

North American Banding Council: Ian Ausprey and Jerry Jackson

American Bird Conservancy: Michael Braun

Finance Committee:

Responsibilities: Preview the annual budget prepared by the Treasurer before to Council (as an oversight function, but also to ensure that there is more than one person on Council with a thorough understanding of the finances). Ensure that there is an Endowment Policy and an Investment Policy, and that these are adhered to over the years.

Nominating Committee

Responsibilities: Works to identify a slate of new council members and officers to be presented at the Annual Meeting.

Skutch Award Committee:

Responsibilities: Advertise Skutch Award, evaluate proposals, award gift.

Skutch Medal Committee:

Publications Committee

Responsibilities: (1) Work with Wiley-Blackwell Publishers on issues related to publishing the Journal of Field Ornithology. (2) Work to increase the quality and "impact" of JFO.

Best Student Publication in JFO

Responsibilities: To identify the student-generated paper in each volume of the Journal of Field Ornithology that best exemplifies quality research and scholarship.

Website Development and Maintenance:

Responsibilities: Design and manage all aspects of AFO's web site.

Neotropical Outreach Committee

Responsibilities: To coordinate AFO’s Neotropical initiatives, reach out to ornithological leaders in Latin America, publicize AFO meetings, and seek out potential council nominees from the Neotropics.

Bergstrom Award Committee:

Responsibilities: Advertise Bergstrom Award, evaluate proposals, award gifts.

English Readers:

Spanish Readers:

Portuguese Readers:

Student Outreach Committee

Responsibilities: Organize student get-togethers with career ornithologists at the annual meeting, and increase student involvement in AFO.

Annual Meeting Committee:

2010 - Ogden - Lead Individuals

2011 - Kearney - Lead Individuals

2012 – Vancouver NAOC

Student Travel Awards:

Responsibilities: Organize and oversee awards for student travel to annual meetings.

Student Presentation Awards:

Responsibilities: Organize awards and judge student presentations at annual meetings.

Mist Net/Banding Supply Committee:

Responsibilities: Oversight and backup knowledge of mist net and banding sales

Portuguese Editor:

Responsibilities: To translate AFO materials and serve as a liaison to Portuguese-speaking members, researchers, and students.

Biographies and Addresses

Officers

L. Scott Johnson (President)
Department of Biological Sciences
Towson University
Towson, MD 21252 USA
(410) 704-2587
sjohnson@towson.edu

Scott is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Towson University, where he specializes in Animal Behavior, Ornithology, and Behavioral Ecology. Over the past 20+ years, he has studied a wide variety of topics including: function of song, nestling growth and development, role of calcium availability in limiting reproductive output, extra-pair mating, and effects of ectoparasites on nestlings/parents. Scott conducts field work during the summer on a site in northern Wyoming along the east slopes of the Bighorn Mountains near the town of Sheridan, focused primarily on one model species, the House Wren, although he has done some work with a second species, the Tree Swallow, and recently started studies on Mountain Bluebirds.


Kathryn Purcell (Vice President)
Research Wildlife Biologist
US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station
Sierra Nevada Research Center
2081 E. Sierra Avenue
Fresno, CA 93710
(559) 868-6233
kpurcell@fs.fed.us

Kathryn Purcell is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the Sierra Nevada Research Center, USFS, Pacific Southwest Research Station. She has studied birds primarily in California, from low-elevation oak woodlands to high elevation conifer forests. Her research interests include life histories of open- and cavity-nesting birds, habitat and nest-site selection, source-sink dynamics, responses of birds to habitat alteration, and invasive species. She also has an interest in the design of monitoring programs for detecting population trends and response to habitat change. In addition, she heads up research on fishers in the Kings River Project in the southern Sierra Nevada.


Lee H. Robinson (Secretary)
Wildlife biologist, Washington
9672 NE Timberlane Place
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110-1358
(206) 842-0774
lhrobinson9672@earthlink.net

Since 1994, from April through September, Lee volunteers for her former employer (USFWS) on a nestbox monitoring project for Pigeon Guillemots on Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). In addition to her work on seabirds, Lee has conducted field research on Monarch Butterflies in the highlands of Mexico and endangered butterflies and Aleutian Canada Geese in California. She worked for several years for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their Washington, D.C. Wildlife Permit Office and at the San Francisco Bay NWR.

She is an avid birder and has participated in Project Feederwatch since 1991. Currently Lee is Treasurer of the Bainbridge Ometepe Sister Islands Association (BOSIA), which distributes shade grown, premium coffee in the US and returns all profits to Ometepe island in Lake Nicaragua for public health and education projects. Lee has assisted the Carlos Diaz Cajina cooperative in setting up a small ecotourist business on the dormant volcano where the shade coffee is grown.


W. Gregory Shriver (Treasurer)
Assistant Professor Wildlife Ecology
257 Townsend Hall
Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology
University of Delaware
Newark DE 19717-2160
(302) 831-1300
gshriver@udel.edu

Greg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Maine, a M.S. in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Massachusetts, and a PhD in Environmental Forest Biology from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Since 1998, Greg has conducted research on tidal marsh birds where he coordinated an inventory of 250 New England salt marshes from Connecticut to Downeast Maine, conducted breeding ecology research on sharp-tailed sparrows, and developed monitoring recommendations for tidal marsh birds. Greg’s research has focused on mating systems, habitat selection, landscape ecology, and conservation. He has studied Grasshopper Sparrows, Bachman’s Sparrows, Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrows, Saltmarsh Sparrows, Seaside Sparrows, Wood Thrush, and Galapagos Rails.


Gary Ritchison (Journal of Field Ornithology - Editor)
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Eastern Kentucky University
521 Lancaster Avenue
Richmond, KY 40475
(859) 622-1541
Gary.Ritchison@EKU.edu

Gary Ritchison is Professor of Biological Sciences at Eastern Kentucky University. Gary's research interests include avian mating strategies, specifically examining factors that influence mate choice (and choice of extra-pair partners) by female songbirds, avian vocal behavior, the ecology and behavior of grassland birds (including Henslow's and Grasshopper sparrows as well as Northern Harriers), raptor behavior and ecology, and, recently, the possible impacts of West Nile virus on Eastern Bluebirds.


David Bonter (Past-President)
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca NY 14850
607-254-2457
dnb23@cornell.edu

David is an ornithologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology working as project leader for Project FeederWatch, a continent-wide survey of the abundance and distribution of birds that visit feeders in winter. FeederWatch enlists more than 14,000 citizen scientists to collect data from all U.S. states and Canadian provinces. David is also the Director of Research and vice-president of Braddock Bay Bird Observatory in Rochester, NY, where he studies the stopover ecology of migratory songbirds. More than 70,000 birds have been banded at Braddock Bay in the last decade. In the summer, David teaches field ornithology at Cornell's Shoals Marine Lab on Appledore Island, Maine.

Councilors: Class of 2011

Reed Bowman
Avian Ecology Lab
Archbold Biological Station
P.O. Box 2057
Lake Placid, FL 33862
(863) 465-2571
rbowman@archbold-station.org

Reed Bowman is an Associate Research Biologist and head of the Avian Ecology Lab at Archbold Biological Station. He holds graduate degrees in wildlife and biology from McGill University and the University of South Florida. Over the last 25 years he has studied the ecology, demography, and conservation of several threatened and endangered birds, including the White-crowned Pigeon, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, and the Florida Scrub-Jay. One of his primary interests is the many affects, both locally and worldwide, of increasing urbanization on birds, focusing on understanding many of these anthropogenic ecological changes and their impact on birds at a variety of scales, from physiological and behavioral responses to population and community responses. His lab uses a combination of longitudinal, observational studies and controlled experiments to identify ecological patterns and then to test the effects of specific variables He is the author of more than 60 scientific papers and book chapters and the co-editor of two books, including the recently published "Avian Ecology and Conservation in an Urbanizing World".


John Cavitt
Dept. of Zoology
Weber State University
2505 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408-2505
(801) 626-6172
JCAVITT@weber.edu

John received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Illinois State University and his Ph.D. from Kansas State University. He currently serves as Professor of Zoology and Director for the Office of Undergraduate Research at Weber State University. For the past six years, John has been working exclusively on the ecology and behavior of shorebirds and waterbirds breeding at Great Salt Lake, Utah. This research includes the effects of selenium on breeding American Avocets, and the impacts of land management activities on breeding productivity of Snowy Plover.


Tom Gardali
Associate Division Director
Terrestrial Ecology Division
PRBO Conservation Science
3820 Cypress Drive #11
Petaluma, CA 93710
(415) 868-0655 ext. 381
tgardali@prbo.org

Tom’s work focuses on the long-term dynamics of bird populations in relation to natural and human caused changes in the environment. These include, for example, weather, climate, plant succession, and restoration. Tom has over 18 years of experience studying birds, their habitats, and the factors that limit their populations. In addition to contributing regularly to the scientific literature, Tom strives to make conservation research more widely available through conservation plans, newsletters, periodicals, and via face to face interactions. He recently co-edited a monograph on California’s most at-risk birds – California Bird Species of Special Concern.


J. Daniel Lambert
Northeast Bird Monitoring Coordinator
American Bird Conservancy
c/o Vermont Center for Ecostudies
PO Box 420
Norwich VT 05055
802-649-1431
dlambert@vtecostudies.org

Dan is an ornithologist and research associate of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. Between 2000 and 2008 he developed and directed Mountain Birdwatch, a long-term monitoring program for songbird that breed in high-elevation forests of the northeastern U.S. From 2005 through 2008, he led the Northeast Coordinated Bird Monitoring Partnership for American Bird Conservancy. Dan is taking a leave from day-to-day ornithology to help raise his two sons, but is pleased to serve on the AFO Council as chairman of the Student Travel Awards Committee.


Diane Neudorf
Associate Professor of Biology & Director of the Texas Bird Sound Library
Department of Biological Sciences, Box 2116
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX 77341
(936) 294-1548
Neudorf@shsu.edu

Diane Neudorf is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Sam Houston State University and Director of the Texas Bird Sound Library. Diane’s research interests include avian mating systems (particularly female extra-pair mating tactics), parental care, brood parasitism, vocal communication, and most recently conservation of birds in urban landscapes. She has worked with several forest-nesting songbirds including Hooded Warblers, Dark-eyed Juncos, Northern Cardinals and Carolina Wrens.


Councilors: Class of 2012

Andrew Farnsworth
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850
1-800-843-BIRD (1-800-843-2473)
af27@cornell.edu

Andrew is a recent graduate of Cornell University, where he received his doctorate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology studying warbler flight-calls from phylogenetics and ecological perspectives. He has been a keen birder since age 5, in recent years combining his extensive field experience with academic pursuits focused on nocturnal bird migration, flight-calling behavior and radar ornithology. In the last six years, Andrew has conducted his field work on flight-calling in numerous locations across the United States, Mexico, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles. He plans to expand his current research on flight-calls to include greater taxonomic and life history diversity, such as a broader array of bird families migrant and non-migrant populations, respectively. In 2007 he will be working for the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, pursuing conservation-oriented goals that apply flight-call research to monitoring bird populations.


Michael P. Lombardo
Professor of Biology
Department of Biology
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, MI 49401-9403
(616) 331-2501
lombardm@gvsu.edu

Michael is a Professor of Biology at Grand Valley State University. For most of his career his ornithological research focused on the ecology and evolution of social behavior and reproductive biology, including copulation behavior, extra-pair mating behavior, intraspecific brood parasitism, nest building, parental effort, and sperm competition. He has primarily published papers about the biology of Tree Swallows, but also about Eastern and Mountain Bluebirds, European Starlings, and House Sparrows. Theoretical papers include those about the evolution of cooperation, the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of sexually transmitted diseases in birds, and the role of microbes in the evolution of social behavior.


Victoria McDonald


Paul Rodewald
375A Kottman Hall
2021 Coffey Rd
Columbus OH 43210
(614) 292-9795
rodewald.2@osu.edu

Paul is an Assistant Professor of Wildlife Ecology in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State University. His research has primarily emphasized questions concerning the ecology of landbirds during migratory stopover periods, and particularly habitat selection, movement behavior, diet, energetic status, and seasonal interactions. Paul is also interested in avian biogeography and pursues this interest while serving as Director of the second Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas (2006-2010).


Councilors: Class of 2013

Daniel R. Ardia
Assistant Professor, Franklin and Marshall College
Department of Biology
Biological Foundations of Behavior Program
PO Box 3003
Lancaster, PA 17604
717-291-3949
daniel.ardia@fandm.edu
http://edisk.fandm.edu/daniel.ardia/index.html

Dr. Ardia’s research is focused on evolution of life histories in birds, particularly at the interface of physiology and behavior. He is especially interested in the how environmental conditions drive life history tradeoffs. He is currently involved in studies of the evolution of clutch size in Tachycineta swallows as well as the causes and consequences of variation in egg temperature and incubation behavior in such swallows. Dr. Ardia also does substantial work in the area of ecoimmunology, i.e., studying immune activity within the framework of how organisms interact with their environment and how immune activity tradeoffs with other life history traits.


Paul B. Hamel
Research Wildlife Biologist
USDA-Forest Service
Southern Hardwoods Laboratory
P.O. Box 227
Stoneville, MS 38776-0227
662-686-3167
phamel@fs.fed.us
Research Wildlife Biologist
www.srs.fs.usda.gov/staff/262

Dr. Hamel’s research examines impacts of forest management and landscape processes on the biology, conservation and management of Neotropical migratory birds. He is also involved in inventory and monitoring for Neotropical migrants and other nongame birds and the impacts of forest management on birds and other animals. Additional interests include the ecology of old-growth forests and winter habitats of Neotropical migratory birds, in both Caribbean and mainland Central and South American landscapes.

Dr. Hamel’s present focus is the biology of Cerulean Warbler, including the use of geographic information systems technology for analysis of the distribution and abundance of this species in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.


J. Dylan Maddox
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Ecology and Evolution
University of Chicago
411 Zoology Building
1101 East 57th St.
Chicago IL 60637
www.jdylanmaddox.com

Dr. Maddox's research focuses on the ecology, behavior, and evolution of birds. Specifically, he is interested in the ecological and evolutionary consequences of interactions between organisms. These interactions may be between mothers and their offspring (i.e., maternal effects), how organisms respond to species introductions or among similar species in competition for limited resources.


John P. McCarty
Professor of Biology and Director of Environmental Studies
Department of Biology
University of Nebraska at Omaha
6001 Dodge Street
Omaha, NE 68182-0040
(402) 554-2849
jmccarty@unomaha.edu
www.unomaha.edu/environmental_studies/JPM_Home.html

Dr. McCarty’s current work is focused on the ecology, behavior, and evolution of birds. He is especially interested in designing research that meets the needs of policy-makers and resource managers, while also addressing basic questions in ecology. A major focus of his lab's research has been on grassland birds breeding in ecosystems heavily modified by agriculture. The research program combines population-level studies of Dickcissels (Spiza americana) with community-level work looking at the grassland bird community in relation to vegetation and food supply. A second main focus of his research is the stop-over ecology of shorebirds migrating through the Great Plains in the spring. He is focusing on how rare Buff-breasted Sandpipers use agricultural lands while resting during their spring migration between South America and their arctic breeding grounds.


Andrea K. Townsend
Postdoctoral Fellow
Cornell Lab of Ornithology / Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
at256@cornell.edu
www.andreatownsend.com

The goals of Dr. Townsend's work are to understand how a rapidly changing environment will affect the evolution of animal behavior, and to link behavioral variation among individuals to patterns observed on a landscape scale. Her research topics have included the effects of urbanization and infectious diseases on the costs of inbreeding in American Crows, and the mating tactics of Threatened Florida Scrub-Jays across sites with different habitat structures and inbreeding frequencies. Currently, as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, she is examining how climate interacts with the behavioral strategies of Black-throated Blue Warblers to drive population dynamics. Additionally, she is exploring island-wide patterns of genetic divergence of the birds of Hispaniola, with particular emphasis on the critically endangered, endemic populations of Haiti.


© 2010 Association of Field Ornithologists. Banner photo of Golden-winged Warbler by Charles Eiseman.