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.

AFO Officers and Councilors

AFO Committees

Publications Committee
L. Scott Johnson (Chair)
Gary Ritchison
Reed Bowman
Jennifer Lynch

Responsibilities: Work with Wiley-Blackwell Publishers on issues related to publishing the Journal of Field Ornithology.

Outreach Committee
Bridget Stutchbury
Lee Robinson
Andrea Jones
Adrienne Leppold

Responsibilities: Organize student/avocationals get-togethers with career ornithologists at the annual meeting. Get free-standing membership display to all appropriate places. Work with students to involve them in AFO

Skutch Award Committee:
Elissa Landre (Chair)

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

Bergstrom Award Committee:
John Arvin (Chair)
Andrew Farnsworth
Anrea Jones
Eugene Morton
Lee Robinson
Scott Sutcliffe

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

Student Travel and Presentation Awards:
L. Scott Johnson (chair)
W. Gregory Shriver

Responsibilities: Oversee student presentation awards at annual meetings; organize and oversee student travel awards to annual meetings.

Annual Meeting Committee:
Andrew Farnsworth - 2009 Annual Meeting chair/liaison
Adrienne Leppold - 2009 Annual Meeting
Mike Braun (member-at-large)

Nominating Committee:
David Bonter (chair)
L. Scott Johnson
Gene Morton
Lee Robinson
Mike Braun

Responsibilities: Work with Council to identify a slate of Council members and officers to be presented at the Annual Meeting.

Finance Committee:
W. Gregory Shriver (chair)
L. Scott Johnson
George Mock

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.

AFO Editor:
Kimberley Young
Lee Robinson (assistant)

Responsibilities: Design, produce, and distribute AFO Afield whenever appropriate (at least twice/year).

Web Site Development and Maintenance:
David Bonter (Chair, webmaster)
Andrew Farnsworth
Cecilia Riley

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

Mist Net/Banding Supply Committee:
Brian Harrington (Chair)

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

AFO Representatives for other organizations:

OSNA: W. Gregory Shriver, Andrea Jones

Ornithological Council: Sandra Gaunt, Michael Braun

North American Banding Council: Jerry Jackson

American Bird Conservancy: Michael Braun

Biographies and Addresses

Officers
David Bonter (President)
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: 607-254-2457
Fax: 607-254-2104
Email: 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.

B.A. (Political Science) University of Miami, FL
M.A. (International Relations) University of Miami, FL
Ph.D. (Natural Resources) University of Vermont

Lee H. Robinson (Secretary)
Wildlife biologist, Washington
9672 NE Timberlane Place
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110-1358
Phone: (206) 842-0774
Email: 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.

B.A. (Biology) Pomona College
M.Sc. (Wildlife Biology) Humboldt State University

W. Gregory Shriver (Treasurer)
Greg Shriver
Assistant Professor Wildlife Ecology
257 Townsend Hall
Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology
University of Delaware
Newark, Delaware 19717-2160
Telephone: (302) 831-1300
Email: 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
Phone: (859) 622-1541
Fax: (859) 622-1399
Email: 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.
M.A. (Biology), Minnesota State University - Mankato
Ph.D. (Biology), Utah State University

Cecilia Riley (Past-President)
Director-Gulf Coast Bird Observatory
103 West Highway
Lake Jackson, TX 77566
Phone: (979) 480-0999
Fax: (979) 480-0777
Email: criley@gcbo.org

Cecilia Riley is the Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory (GCBO) located in Houston, TX. A native Texan, biologist and avid bird watcher, Cecilia has committed her life's work to avian research and natural history in both North America and Latin America. Cecilia's educational background includes a B.S. in Ecology from the University of Texas at Arlington and an M.S. in Zoology from the University of Arkansas. Prior to her position at the GCBO, Ms. Riley spent 2 years as the state coordinator for Texas Partners in Flight and 8 years as a research associate of marine studies at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. Currently, Cecilia's professional activities at the GCBO focus on the conservation issues and partnerships associated with migratory songbirds and the ecologically important coastal zone of the Gulf of Mexico, from Florida to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

M.S. University of Arkansas, 1986 (Zoology). B.S. University of Texas at Arlington, 1983 (Biology)

Councilors: Class of 2009

John C. Arvin
Gulf Coast Bird Observatory
103 West Hwy 332
Lake Jackson, TX 77566

Email: jarvin@gcbo.org

John has been studying the birds of South Texas since childhood. He received his B.A. from the University of Houston and did his graduate work in Zoology at the University of Texas. He had a 25 year career leading birding tours throughout the Western Hemisphere with a heavy emphasis on Latin America, where he has traveled through most of the countries studying birds. Since 1996 he has spent four to six months each year working as a seasonal naturalist in Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve in Peru. Recently he worked for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as an avian biologist in the Lower Rio Grande Valley before joining the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory in early 2005, serving as Research Coordinator. In this capacity John heads up the annual Smith Point Hawkwatch, and has developed two large scaled programs, the Texas Ivory-billed Woodpecker Range-wide Reassessment, and the Avian International Monitoring Project.

Andrew Farnsworth

Email: 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.
B.S. Cornell University
M.S. (Zoology) Clemson University
Ph.D. (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) Cornell University

Sandra Gaunt
Borror Lab of Bioacoustics
Ohio State University
1315 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH 43212
Phone: (614) 876-5829
Email: gaunt.2@osu.edu

Sandra Gaunt is curator emeritus of the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics at The Ohio State University. Her thesis work at University of Vermont on pheromone communication in mice launched a career in the study of animal communication. With her husband, Dr. Abbot S. Gaunt, she studied the functional morphology of the avian vocal system, the syrinx. Recent studies include vocal dialects in hummingbirds in the genus Colibri and Chinese Paridae.
B.Sc. Zoology, University of Kansas
M.Sc. Zoloogy, University of Vermont

L. Scott Johnson
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Towson University
Email: 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.
B.A. (Biology) St. Olaf College
M.S. (Zoology) Northern Arizona University
Ph.D. (Ecology) University of Calgary

Andrea Jones
Important Bird Areas Program Director
Audubon California
601 Embarcadero, Ste. 14
Morro Bay, CA 93442
Email: ajones@audubon.org

Andrea Jones works for Audubon California as the Director for the Important Bird Areas Program and is serving as the Conservation Chair for the Morro Coast Audubon chapter. Prior to California, she worked at the Massachusetts Audubon Society from 1993 to 2005. Most recently at Mass Audubon, she served as the Director of the Coastal Waterbird Program for the past 4 years. She worked on a variety of avian conservation programs at Mass Audubon, including serving as a coordinator for the Important Bird Areas (IBA) and Coordinator for the Grassland Conservation Program, where she focused on regional monitoring and research, and developing conservation strategies with private landowners throughout New England. She led native grassland restoration projects on Mass Audubon sanctuaries and consulted with landowners on grassland management and restoration. She received her master's of science degree in the Metapopulation Dynamics of Grasshopper Sparrows at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2000.

Councilors: Class of 2010

Michael J. Braun
Dept. of Zoology
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
4210 Silver Hill Rd
Suitland, MD 20746
Phone: (301)238-3430
Email: braun@lab.si.edu

Mike grew up in Texas with an avid interest in natural history from an early age. He is now a research scientist at the Smithsonian using molecular genetic technology to study avian diversity. His research is focused in 4 areas: Hybrid zones and speciation- Molecular, morphological, behavioral and experimental approaches are integrated to assess the origin, structure and maintenance of avian hybrid zones within the conceptual framework of speciation. Molecular phylogenetics-Mike has been involved in developing new genes that are particularly well suited as probes of phylogeny, and is now engaged in Early Bird, an NSF-funded, multi-lab project to assemble the avian tree of life. Genetic structure and diversity of natural populations- A series of projects examine variation within and among avian populations in relation to biogeographic history, environmental change, life history parameters and conservation concerns. Neotropical biogeography- Regular fieldwork throughout the Neotropics advances our understanding of avian diversity and distribution in this complex region. An important goal of this fieldwork is to build and diversify the Smithsonian's genetic resource collection to support comparative molecular research. For the past 7 years, Mike's fieldwork has been focused on conducting an in-depth survey of the birds of Guyana.
B.A. (1977) Cornell University
Ph.D. (1983) Louisiana State University Medical Center
Postdoc (1983-1985) National Cancer Institute

Adrienne Leppold
Powdermill Avian Research Center
1847 Route 381
Rector, PA 15677
Phone: 724-593-752
email: aleppold@gmail.com

My main research experience has been with long-term population monitoring
through bird banding, with a particular interest in boreal bird
conservation. I am also interested in studies of molts and plumages and
understanding more about how events during one stage in the life cycle of a
bird affects another, particularly related to winter habitat quality. I
have worked with many species of songbirds and raptors, White-winged
Scoters, Common and Thick-billed Murres, Atlantic Puffins, Black
Guillemots, and Common, Arctic, and Roseate Terns.

Kimberley Ellen Young
32 Charter Oak Drive
Wilton, CT 06897
Phone:
Email: K108108@aol.com

Kimberley is a member of the Wilton Conservation Commission, Wilton, CT and a member of the Wilton Deer Committee, which has worked on the problem of deer over population in Wilton. She is also a member of the Weir Preserve Committee. The Weir Preserve is a 110 acre preserve managed by the Weir Preserve and the Nature Conservancy. When she lived in Washington, DC, she edited the proceedings of a migratory bird symposium held in Quito, Ecuador for the International Council for Bird Preservation. The book covered austral, local and neotropical strategies and conservation. She served as Treasurer, International Council for Bird Preservation, US Section and Secretary, International Council for Bird Preservation, Inc. From 1988-1992 she worked with the International Council for Bird Preservation, Inc as Director, United States Office. She helped to coordinate a coalition that passed the Wild Bird Exotic Conservation Act and assisted in increasing federal funding for non-game migratory birds in fiscal years 1989-1993.

Councilors: Class of 2011

Reed Bowman
Avian Ecology Lab
Archbold Biological Station
P.O. Box 2057
Lake Placid, FL 33862
Phone: (863) 465-2571
Fax: (863) 699-1927
Email: 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".

BA/BS 1980 (English Literature and Wildlife Management), SUNY @ Plattsburgh
MS 1984 (Wildlife Biology) McGill University
Ph.D. 1991 (Biology) University of South Florida

John Cavitt
Director, Office of Undergraduate Research
Professor of Zoology
Dept. of Zoology
Weber State University
2505 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408-2505
Phone: (801) 626-6172
Email: JCAVITT@weber.edu

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

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
Phone: (936) 294-1548
Email: 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.

B.Sc. (Zoology) University of Manitoba
M.Sc. (Zoology), University of Manitoba
Ph.D. (Biology), York University

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