As the U.S. leader for this program, I bring over 25 years of experience studying the birds of North America, with a particular passion for neotropical migrants and the avifauna of the Eastern United States. My extensive travels have taken me across the US, Alaska, Europe, Australia, South America, and Cuba. As a Registered Maine Guide, I have guided professionally for many years, focusing on avian ecology in the Gulf of Maine bioregion.

My fields of expertise include wetland ecology, ornithology, environmental education, and developmental biology. I spent many years studying various aspects of the Gulf of Maine while employed at the Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. I hold a BA in Biology from Earlham College and an MS in Developmental Biology from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. In my spare time, I maintain Three Pines Bird Sanctuary in Town Hill, Maine, studying the micro-habitats utilized by neotropical migratory birds on Mount Desert Island, Maine, and winter ecology in various neotropical countries. Recently, Yankee Magazine selected me as Maine’s Best Birding Guide. I am also the president of Down East Nature Tours in Bar Harbor, Maine, and the founder of the Acadia Birding Festival.