David is a naturalist and television host with the National Wildlife Federation. He holds a degree in Human and Natural Ecology from Emory University and is an expert on wildlife and our environment. He’s dedicated to using his knowledge and his enthusiasm to help others understand and protect wildlife. David regularly appears in the media to promote wildlife conservation. He hosted and co-produced Backyard Habitat, a television series on Animal Planet that showed people how to transform their yards and gardens into thriving habitats for birds and other local wildlife. He appeared in the Animal Planet mini-series Springwatch U.S.A. that looked at the effect seasonal change has on wildlife, from salamanders and flying squirrels to great horned owls and black bears. He’s appeared on NatGeo WILD on series such as Are You Smarter Than, How Human Are You, and Unlikely Animal Friends and co-hosted the network’s prime time television series Pet Talk. David is the author of the gardening how-to book Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife, winner of the 2005 Publisher’s Marketing Association Benjamin Franklin Award, which was reissued in an expanded second edition in 2019. He has contributed to Gardening How-To and Birds and Blooms magazines. He’s blogged for Animal Planet, Huffington Post, Boing Boing, and the National Wildlife Federation. David is a graduate and board member of Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders, an exclusive, two-year leadership training, networking and mentoring program. He was one of twenty young conservationists to be nominated and selected for the inaugural class of this competitive program. He joined the board in 2008. David has also sat on advisory groups for the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, Biodiversity Council, Alliance for Workplace Excellence, OurEarth.org, and Mother Earth News magazine. He had the honor of being included in the 2005 Out 100 list, Out magazine’s greatest and most well-known tradition: a prestigious compilation of the year’s most impactful and influential LGBTQ+ people. He has been interviewed and profiled in a number of print and online publications, including Entertainment Weekly, Out, Parade, Sunset, Organic Gardening, National Wildlife, Newsweek and Time magazines as well as The New York Times, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, along with the Associated Press, and Reuters. He is a regular speaker at environmental conferences and events, both on the national and local levels.