"A Century of Commitment to Research, Education and Conservation"


Who's Who

Officers are elected by the membership at the Annual Meeting in September. Day to day business is conducted through a Board of Directors which meets approximately four times a year.

Current officers are:

President
Brian Dam
president@awcf1911.org

Brian is one of the non-wildlife professional among the ranks of AWCF board members, being a life-long educator, having done his undergraduate and graduate work at SUNY Oswego then teaching in New Hartford for 34 years. (And often jokes, while fishing from his big water boat; had there been the present Lake Ontario fishery we have today, back in the 60s while I was at Oswego, he’d still be a student!) While teaching he was instrumental in starting a pre-engineering program that resulted in students graduating from every college engineering program in the northeast, including MIT.

 His interest in wildlife started with his family, which has enjoyed a long hunting heritage as witnessed by the large family photo from the early 1900’s you can find hanging in each Cabela’s store.

His interest in wildlife research was sparked while an informal student, listening to Bill Severinghaus, Greenleaf Chase, Stuart Free and others associated with New York’s Adirondack Deer Forums. This interest led to the position of Hunting Editor for the New York Sportsman magazine and Northwoods Publications then senior editor for a magazine company in Colorado, where he edited and wrote material spanning the globe from Botswana, Africa, north to Alaska and down to Australia; widening his interest in the scope of problems facing todays free ranging wildlife. Having hunted from the Arctic Ocean to New Zealand and becoming a licensed guide in New Mexico and Kansas, he has enjoyed and appreciated the fruits of the hard work done by wildlife professionals across America and is excited to help further their work as a member of AWCF. If you are reading this and have an interest in being a member join the quest to promote wildlife research!

 

Vice President
Bill Schwerd
vicepresident@awcf1911.org

 

 

 

 

Secretary
Paul Curtis, Ph.D
secretary@awcf1911.org

Dr. Paul D. Curtis, Professor, Department Extension Leader, and Coordinator of the Wildlife Damage Management Program for Cornell Cooperative Extension, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University.

Dr. Curtis is a professor in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University, and he has coordinated the Wildlife Damage Management Program for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences during the past 29 years. His research interests include human-wildlife conflicts in suburban, forested, and agricultural landscapes, wildlife fertility control, and resolving community-based wildlife issues. He currently supervises research projects dealing with white-tailed deer, colonial waterbirds, urban goose management, and bird damage to fruit crops. His extension programming has included a variety of wildlife-related booklets, videos, and fact sheets.

He is a co-author of the National Wildlife Control Training Program books and online course. Dr. Curtis also helped develop the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management, and he is a Certified Wildlife Biologist with the Wildlife Society.

Dr. Curtis has authored/coauthored more than 75 journal articles and several book chapters. Much of his research has dealt with community-based wildlife management, especially associated with white-tailed deer and Canada geese. Dr. Curtis has served as a consultant, advisor, or contractor to several agencies including the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Wildlife Services, Cleveland Metro Parks, and the Department of Defense. He was the founding chair of the Wildlife Society’s Wildlife Damage Management Working Group, and served as a board member on the Urban Wildlife Working Group. He has also collaborated with faculty and staff from the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Center at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, during the past few years.

Treasurer
Daniel Wentworth
treasurer@awcf1911.org

Dan is the treasurer in AWCF from 2018 to present. He is a graduate of Environmental Science and Forestry Ranger School in Forest Technology and ESF's Environmental Science Program at Syracuse University.

Dan has worked in the Foresty field and the Environmental Education field as a Naturalist. He has always had a great love for the outdoors and conservation of the environment. He currently lives in Union Springs, NY and is working at Wells College as the Director of Information Technology.

Grants Chairperson
grantschair@awcf1911.org
 
Directors at large
Mark Brown
Mike Cavanaugh
Ronald Giegerich
Joseph Lamendola
Gary Will