OC welcomes new USGS Director - The Ornithological Council

OC welcomes new USGS Director

November 17, 2025November 17, 2025ocbirdnet

The new Director of the USGS, Ned Mamula, was recently confirmed by Congress. The Ornithological Council sent Director mamula a letter welcoming him to his new role and highlighting USGS programs of interest to the OC.

Mamula began his career at the agency in the 1970s and then held positions at the Department of Energy and the Central Intelligence Agency. During the previous Trump administration, Mamula worked at the Department of Energy as the critical minerals program director. His was one of more than one hundred nominations approved by the Senate on October 7. Mamula was nominated in February.

As USGS Director, Mamula will oversee the Ecosystem Mission Area, which the President had identified for elimination. However, both the House and Senate have provided funding for in their draft budgets for the current fiscal year (although that funding has not been finalized, as the USGS is currently operating under a continuing resolution). The Ecosystem Mission Area is home to both the Breeding Bird Survey and the Bird Band Laboratory. In our welcome letter, the OC highlighted the value of both of these programs to the ornithological community.

Todd Underwood earned a PhD in Zoology from the University of Manitoba in Canada and is a Professor of Biology at Kutztown University in southeastern Pennsylvania. Here he teaches undergraduates courses, including animal behavior and ornithology, and studies the behavior and ecology of birds. His main research has focused on host defenses against brood parasitism and, more recently, tracking Veeries to their overwintering sites in South America. He mentors undergraduate students in research on various projects, including the behavior and ecology of birds that breed in nestboxes. Todd is the Chair and founder of Kutztown University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and is the Chair of Kutztown’s Environmental Advisory Commission. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society, a Life Member of the Wilson Ornithological Society, and a member of the Association of Field Ornithologists.

Jameson Chace is a professor of biology and is chair of the interdisciplinary majors in the Department of Cultural, Environmental, and Global Studies at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. He is an active participant in professional Ornithological societies including serving as President of the Wilson Ornithological Society (2019-2021). Jim’s research is based on creating opportunities for undergraduates to gain experiences in field ecology and environmental sciences. He spends a significant amount of time in the field, locally in the forests and wetlands of Aquidneck Island studying bird behavior, along the coastline of Narragansett Bay studying sea ducks and osprey, measuring water quality in ponds, streams and the coastal environment, and on field trips to New Hampshire, Cape Cod, Belize and Brazil.

Jeff Spendelow is an Scientist Emeritus at the Eastern Ecological Science Center in Laurel, MD. From 1982-1984 he worked as a Wildlife Biologist/Ecologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) National Coastal Ecosystems Team in Slidell, LA after receiving his Ph.D. (1980) and B.S. (1972) degrees in Biology from Yale University. In 2008 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union, and he has been a Life Member of the AOU and several other ornithological societies since the 1970s. He has been the Director of PWRC’s Cooperative Roseate Tern Metapopulation Project (the CRTMP) ever since organizing it in 1987, and is the USGS member and Chair of the Technical Working Group of the USFWS’s Recovery Team for the endangered NW Atlantic breeding population of Roseate Terns.

Amelia DuVall joined the Ornithological Council as a Pacific Seabird Group (PSG) representative in 2025. She has been an active PSG member since 2017, serving as Washington/Oregon regional representative on the Executive Committee and as Editor of Pacific Seabirds.

Amelia holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the conservation of seabirds, one of the most endangered groups of birds in the world. She combines fieldwork—including banding, satellite tracking, acoustic monitoring, nest surveys, and camera traps—with quantitative population ecology and decision-analytic approaches to inform management and conservation. Her work spans the Pacific Ocean, from the California Channel Islands to French Polynesia and southern Japan.

Fernando Medrano has had a lifelong interest in wildlife. Throughout his career, he has been involved with the Chilean NGO “Red de Observadores de Aves y Vida Silvestre de Chile” (ROC), where he has actively worked on bird monitoring and conservation projects. At this NGO, he also led the first Chilean Breeding Bird Atlas (the very first using eBird as the primary data source, and the first in continental South America). Fernando was part of the discovery of the first breeding colonies for Markham’s storm-petrel, Ringed storm-petrel, and Elliot’s storm-petrel in the Atacama Desert, and he worked with several other species of storm-petrels in Cabo Verde, Mexico, and the Canary Islands as part of his PhD. He is currently leading Birds of the World for Latin America, serving as the editor-in-chief of the journal “La Chiricoca,” and is the secretary of the Neotropical Ornithological Society.

I consider myself a generalist biologist with a passion for birds and research. I am fascinated by investigating the mechanisms that explain animal behavior. From my undergraduate thesis to today, including doctoral research, I have transitioned from projects in biophysics and neuroscience in laboratories to more holistic projects, generally with an experimental aspect, in natural environments where evolution occurs. The research topics that perhaps fascinate me the most today are bioacoustics, vocal communication, nest-building behavior, and citizen science in birds. However, I see myself as disturbingly curious and unafraid to face new challenges in search of answers. At the same time, I greatly enjoy birdwatching, an activity I have been practicing since childhood.

Dr. Todd Hass is an ornithologist known for his innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to studying birds. His research focuses on the ecology of petrels at sea. Todd earned his PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying animal communication and signal detection theory.

Todd helped found the Washington Ornithological Society. As a postdoctoral researcher and scientist at the University of Washington, he co-authored field guides and protocols for COASST (Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team), the world’s largest beached bird monitoring network.

For more than a decade, Todd has taught ecology and conservation science in the University of Washington’s College of the Environment, where he is an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs.

Todd is also a museum associate and affiliate curator of ornithology at UW’s Burke Museum. He maintains professional affiliations with the American Ornithological Society, the Pacific Seabird Group, and the Ornithological Council, where he represents BirdsCaribbean internationally.

Maureen McClung is a Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Hendrix College where she teaches courses in ecology, animal behavior, and conservation. Her research focuses on how wildlife communities respond to human disturbance, including land development, noise pollution, and ecological restoration. Supporting undergraduates as they explore field biology is at the center of her research and collaborations with partners such as the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, and National Audubon Society. She has been running a MAPS bird banding station since summer 2020 and works to expand banding opportunities for students and conservation professionals in central Arkansas where these opportunities are uncommon.

Brian Washburn has served as one of the Raptor Research Foundation representatives on the Ornithological Council since 2023. He is currently a research wildlife biologist with the USDA, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center (and has been since 2003). Brian works with a variety of partners (e.g., US Fish and Wildlife Service, state wildlife agencies, NGOs) on efforts to understand and reduce raptor-human conflicts and to ensure the humane treatment of migratory birds. He is also an adjunct professor at several universities.

Brian holds a Ph. D. in Animal Sciences from the University of Kentucky, a M.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from the Pennsylvania State University, and a B.S. in Environmental and Forest Biology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He lives on Lake Erie in Ohio with his family (including many furry children).

Clint Boal is leader of the U.S. Geological Surveys’ Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and research professor at Texas Tech University where he supervises graduate students. He has served as a president, board member, and other roles with the Raptor Research Foundation, and in other capacities with other ornithological and wildlife professional societies.

Clint is a veteran, and after his service received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Arizona and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Minnesota. His research has focused primarily on conservation of birds of prey, but also other nongame bird, small mammals, and carnivores. He currently lives in Texas.

Dr. Feria joined the OC in 2013 while serving as the Co-Chair of CIPAMEX. Her research focuses on understanding species distribution using Ecological Niche Modeling and Geographic Information Systems. She is passionate about teaching and mentoring high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, mentoring about 110 students conducting research in her lab.

Her primary area of research is Global Change Ecology, focusing on endangered, invasive, and vector-borne disease species, habitat restoration, food security, and climate change. She has earned several recognitions, including the Outstanding International Female Faculty Award, the Faculty Excellence in Community Engagement Award, and the University of Texas (UT) System Regent’s Outstanding Teaching Award. More recently, she was inducted as a UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers Fellow, the most prestigious recognition at UT System.

Dr. Feria is the Director of the School of Integrative Biological and Chemical Sciences. She is currently serving as the Chair of the Ornithological Council.

David Aborn is originally from the Washington, DC area, which is where he developed his interest in birds. That interest was turned into a passion when he took Ornithology at Clemson University with Dr. Sid Gauthreaux. David returned to Clemson for his Master’s degree where he studied American Kestrels. David went on for his Ph.D at the University of Southern Mississippi studying stopover biology with Dr. Frank Moore.

He is currently a Professor in the Department of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he has been studying the suitability of urban greenspaces at stopover sites, the breeding biology of Tree Swallows, and the wintering biology of Sandhill Cranes. David has authored over 25 papers and has supervised over 30 graduate students. He currently serves as one of the OC representatives for the Association of Field Ornithologists.

Laura Bies has served as the Executive Director for the Ornithological Council since 2020. Before that, she worked at The Wildlife Society for ten years in the government affairs department. During her time at The Wildlife Society, and sporadically since then (in a freelance) capacity, she also developed and led their Leadership Institute.

Laura has a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Delaware and a law degree from George Washington University, and has been working in the conservation policy/non-profit world for nearly 20 years. She lives in Maine with her family, where they enjoy spending lots of time outside, all year long.