Dave Wilson Jr.

After beginning his career in journalism in the mid 1990s, Dave Wilson spent 18 years (1997-2015) working for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program—the first 10 as their public relations guru and the past eight as the Executive Director of this National Estuary Program, based in Ocean City, Md. As Director, Wilson helped put nature tourism and wildlife front and center by securing funding for a variety of nature parks and trails including 1,000 acres of new county nature parks and the conversion of the Ocean City dump to a kayak launch. Wilson was named Tourism Person of the Year in Worcester County in 2005.

Fluent in Spanish, he sits on the Maryland Sea Grant External Advisory Committee and is the current President of the Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership. He is an adamant volunteer in numerous bird, reptile and amphibian projects. Wilson loves playing ultimate Frisbee, cycling, fishing, kayaking, talking politics, and birding all over the world. He holds a BS from Penn State University and an MA from Boston College. He lives just outside Berlin, Maryland with his wife, Keota, a professor in the Geography Department at Salisbury University.