Experience & Education
- Naturalist, ornithologist. conservationist, writer, photographer, speaker, illustrator, graphic artist.
- Field experience includes Arizona, Texas (north-central, Gulf Coast, lower Rio Grande Valley, Trans-Pecos), Belize & Tikal (13 trips, 9 as tour leader), Mexico (eastern and northwestern, including six trips to Copper Canyon as tour leader), Ecuador (three trips as tour leader), Trinidad & Tobago (three trips as tour leader), Alaska (Pribilof Islands, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica.
- One of fewer than 200 hummingbird banders in the U.S.; handled more than 12,000 individual hummingbirds since 1990, contributed to the 2019 edition of the North American Banders’ Manual for Hummingbirds (North American Banding Council).
- Co-founder and director of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (SABO), 1996-present.
- Garden manager at Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary, 2019-present.
- SABO representative to the Western Hummingbird Partnership, an international network of government agencies, NGOs, and researchers working to develop and implement effective and sustainable hummingbird conservation programs.
- Co-founder and past instructor of Cochise Master Naturalist program.
- Co-founder and past board member of the Southwest Wings Birding & Nature Festival.
- Co-manager of The Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon Preserve, 1988-1996.
- Past tour leader for Naturalist Journeys, Audubon Naturalist Society, Elderhostel/Road Scholar, High Lonesome Bird Tours, Betchart Expeditions, Southwest Wings, Southeast Arizona Birding Festival, Wings Over Willcox Sandhill Crane Celebration.
- Speaker for Southwest Wings, Hummer/Bird Celebration (Rockport, Texas), Southeast Arizona Birding Festival, Wings Over Willcox, Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, Salton Sea Birding Festival, Morro Bay Birding Festival, Cape May Bird Observatory, and various Audubon Society chapters, ornithological societies, and bird clubs.
- Docent and wildlife rehabilitator, Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, 1977-1988.
- Zookeeper/aquarist, Fort Worth Zoo, 1976-1979.
- Past officer of Huachuca Audubon Society, Fort Worth Audubon Society, North Texas Herpetological Society.
- B.S. in Biology from University of Texas at Arlington, 1986.