MBCP Board of Directors
The Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership is comprised of the Board of Directors, Science Advisory Council, and volunteer program coordinators. In addition, we could not do what we do without the dedication of more than 250 volunteer community scientists.
Diane Benyus
Diane joined the MBCP Board after serving as President of the Anne Arundel Bird Club for two years. She also served on the Board of Maryland Ornithological Society and was the Conference Registrar for 3 years. Her love of birding started on snowbird trips to Sanibel Island, Florida where spent many captivating hours at the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.
Diane’s working career spanned 35 years in the Banking Industry as a VP of Financial Analysis. She is currently retired and lives in Annapolis, where she enjoys her other passions in concert with birding – sailing, traveling, and gardening. She is a member of the Chesapeake Catalina Yacht Club where she served as Treasurer for 7 years and as Vice Commodore and Commodore. She is a member of the Garden Club of Annapolis and has been asked to serve as Co-President in 2021.
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Dave Wilson
Dave Wilson has spent 25 years working for birds in Maryland. After cutting his teeth in public policy as a journalist, he spent 18 years working for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program—the first 10 as their public relations guru and the last eight as the Executive Director of this non-profit, multi-million-dollar National Estuary Program overseen by EPA. He has served on the executive boards of a variety of governmental and non-profit entities including, the Association of National Estuary Programs, Delmarva Low Impact Tourism, Focus Conservation Fund in Central America, and the Maryland Sea Grant External Advisory Committee where he sits with Maryland’s top environmental leaders. His strengths lie in navigating local, state, and federal governments.
Wilson is known for 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. He was named Tourism Person of the Year in Worcester County in 2005. His penchant for bringing together diverse factions helped set in motion a DNR and US Army Corps of Engineers island restoration partnership in the coastal bays.
Many of you probably know him from Delmarva Birding Weekends. He and Jim Rapp have been running birding trips on the shore for 25 years. They run the Baltimore Birding Weekend for Patterson Park Audubon and the I Bird, I Vote summit as part of their extensive work with Dave Curson at Audubon Maryland-DC. Dave and Jim starting their Conservation Community Consulting business in 2015.
Fluent in Spanish, Wilson loves birding all over the world, playing ultimate Frisbee, cycling, fishing, kayaking, and talking politics. He holds a BS from Penn State University and an MA from Boston College. He lives just outside Berlin with his wife, Keota, a professor in the Geography Department at Salisbury University.
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Barbara Johnson
Barbara Johnson’s involvement with MBCP dates back to its beginning. As a 5-year member of the executive council of the Maryland Ornithological Society (MOS), two as its president, she worked with the MBCP board and advocated for the crucial ongoing funding from MOS. She joined the MBCP board in September 2019.
Barbara has a lifelong interest in natural history and conservation and began birding during college in the Flint Hills of Kansas, her home state. She earned a Bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of Kansas. She worked at three zoological parks, two in Kansas and the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. She was employed as an eco-tour guide and as a gardener near Annapolis, MD, her longtime home, and for ten years as an education consultant for homeschooling students and their families. She now lives in Chattanooga, TN.
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Jared Parks
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Amanda Poskaitis
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Colin Rees
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Nico Sarbanes
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Chris Eberly, Executive Director
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