ABA Staff - American Birding Association (original) (raw)
- About
PO Box 3070
Colorado Springs, CO 80934
Email: info@aba.org
Phone: (800) 850-2473 or (302) 838-3660
Donate today to support our mission to make birding better - Birding Resources
- Programs
Imagine a world where the joy of birding knows no boundaries – and where urban landscapes become vibrant havens for birders and nature enthusiasts of all backgrounds. - Connect
- Membership
Monthly magazines, member-only content, partner discounts, and more. - Donate
ABA StaffGreg Neise2025-04-17T20:27:31-04:00
ABA Staff
Meet the ABA's full-time staff, part-time staff, and contractors, responsible for all programming and operations of the association.
Wayne KlocknerExecutive Director
Wayne joins the ABA after a long career in conservation with The Nature Conservancy. Professionally, Wayne has lived and worked in Maryland, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, and Indonesia, fulfilling his dream to work conserving natural lands and waters for all life. Wayne has been a lifelong birder; as a pre-teen in New Jersey, his spark bird was the Dark-eyed Junco. He has since pursued birds in 19 countries and counting but most enjoys documenting the seasonal changes in birdlife in patches close to home. Wayne lives in Ocean City, Maryland with his wife, Lisa, and a springer spaniel named Lizzy. His best yard birds so far are White Ibis and Red Crossbill.
Carl BendorfDirector of Development
As Director of Development, Carl works closely with staff, volunteers, and donors to build philanthropic resources in support of the ABA programs and mission. He has extensive fund-raising and non-profit management experience with higher education, healthcare, and birding organizations. Carl grew up in small town Iowa and started birding around age ten. At age 12, he rigged up a toy parabolic reflector from Sears to a Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder, strapped it to his bicycle, and rode out to record bird songs (Eastern Bluebird was the first!) He joined the ABA in the late 1970s and four decades later served three terms on the ABA Board of Directors. After moving to Colorado in 2015, he founded Colorado Birding Adventures and has guided hundreds of birders to their lifer White-tailed Ptarmigan and Mountain Plover. Carl is also a past president of the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union and founder and past executive director of Iowa Young Birders. Carl and his wife, Lin Marie, live with their two (indoor only!) cats in Longmont, CO.
Jennie DubersteinYoung Birder Programs
Jennie Duberstein volunteers her time as the ABA's Young Birder Liaison and Camp Colorado Director helping connect young birders with opportunities to engage in the birding and conservation world and with each other. Her favorite place in the world is Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and all the birds and habitats that go along with it. Jennie lives in Tucson, Arizona, where her “day job” is coordinating the Sonoran Joint Venture, a binational bird conservation partnership to conserve the unique birds and habitats of the southwest U.S. and northwest Mexico.
Maggie FitzGibbonCommunications and Membership Manager
Maggie is an environmentalist, animal lover, and outdoor enthusiast living in Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. In her role as Communications and Membership Manager with the ABA, she brings with her a wide range of experience that includes immersive theater and performing arts production, as well as fundraising for animal welfare and conservation organizations. From theater to working in a Zoo to birding advocacy, the thread that weaves her work together is the belief that immersive experience leads people to love and care about the world around them, and the stories it has to tell.
Ted FloydBirding magazine, Publications
Alongside Frank Izaguirre and Michael Retter, Ted Floyd proudly serves as Editor of Birding magazine. He also contributes to the ABA website, the American Birding podcast, and the ABA’s young birder programs. Ted is the author of five bird books, with three more on the way. He has published more than 200 articles on birds and other aspects of nature, and he is a frequent speaker at bird festivals and ornithological society meetings. The Cal Ripken of eBird, he has submitted at least one complete eBird checklist per day for 6,378 consecutive days (17.46 years) as of June 17, 2024. Ted and his family live in Boulder County, Colorado.
Laura GuerardDirector of Youth Programs
Laura facilitates and develops ABA’s celebrated programs that nurture young birders. Laura has a deep-rooted passion for environmental education that has grown from her own childhood exploring the Chesapeake Bay. She is driven to help young people develop a strong sense of place with the natural world and inspire environmental stewardship. Laura has worked with young birders for the majority of her career—she founded the Coastal Maine Bird Studies teen camp at the Audubon’s Hog Island Camp in Maine, coordinated the highly successful Ohio Young Birders Club, and served as a mentor for the Young Birders Network. Laura lives with her nature-loving family in Cape May, NJ.
Asher GorbetAssociate Editor
Asher Gorbet, a long-time member and volunteer with ABA, is Associate Editor and Photo Editor for North American Birds and Special Issues of Birding, a regular instructor for Camp Colorado, and a former member of the Recording Standards and Ethics Committee. They grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and have spent the last few decades studying wildlife ecology and banding birds across the U.S. Asher holds an M.S. in Natural Resource Management from Utah State University and sits on the boards of the North American Banding Council and Bird Alliance of Central New Mexico. An avid traveler, explorer, and occasional bird guide, Asher is usually just back from a trip or planning the next. In between, Asher resides in Albuquerque with their three indoor kitties and a colorful community of birding comrades.
David HartleyIT & Database
David is the ABA's IT & Database manager. He plays an integral part in many facets of the organization, including membership development, communications, data management, and web development. David has been birding for much of his life, and loves working with the ABA to build the birding community and its conservation impact. He lives in Davis, CA with his daughter Mia.
Frank IzaguirreEditor, Birding magazine
Frank Izaguirre is an Editor of Birding magazine. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA, with his wife, Adrienne, and daughter, Maya.
John LowryMarketing & Advertising
ABA sales and marketing manager John Lowry works with business, government, and non-profit partners to promote products and services to the birding community. John’s creativity, integrity, and extensive birding market knowledge ensure ABA customers maximize their investment while supporting the ABA mission. Whether feeder-watching at home, traveling to tanager-laden neotropical destinations, or scanning the budding oaks at a spring migration hotspot, John seeks the clarity, focus, meditative peace, and mental challenge of birding. John lives in Southeast Michigan where his office and audio production studio operate. Spotted Towhee was his best yard bird.
Rebecca MinardiBooks and Media Reviews
Rebecca Minardi is the Books and Media Reviews Editor at Birding magazine. She’s passionate about connecting young people with nature, backyard habitat restoration and supporting rewilding and preservation efforts across the country. She joined the board of Detroit Audubon in 2015, where she is now VP and then earned her MS in Community Sustainability from MSU in 2019. While living in NYC, she facilitated Free Forest School sessions for children in Central Park. Since 2020, Rebecca has been a mentor for the ABA’s Young Birder of the Year Mentoring Program. She now resides in Peoria, Illinois with her family where she enjoys birding with her two young children.
Greg Neise developed his interests in birds, photography and conservation as a youngster growing up in Chicago, across the street from Lincoln Park Zoo. At the age of 13, he worked alongside Dr. William S. Beecher, then Director of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and a pioneering ornithologist, and learned to photograph wildlife, an interest that developed into a career supplying images for magazines, newspapers, institutions and books, including National Geographic (print, web and television), Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Boston Globe, Nature, Lincoln Park Zoo, Miami Zoo, Jacksonville Zoo, The Field Museum and a host of others. He has served as President of the Rainforest Conservation Fund, a volunteer organization dedicated to preserving the world's tropical rainforests. Greg is Web Master for the ABA, helps manage social media, sits in on the ABA Podcast on occasion, and of course, is a fanatical birder.
LeAnn PilgerMembership Services Coordinator
LeAnn Pilger is Membership Services Coordinator with the ABA. A longtime ABA employee and lifelong Coloradan, she loves getting outdoors to watch birds and other wildlife as much as possible. LeAnn also loves reading and volunteering with various animal rescues in the region. She is very happy to answer any questions you might have about membership services and any other offerings of the ABA.
Michael RetterNorth American Birds and Birding magazines, Publications
Michael L. P. Retter is Editor of North American Birds magazine, Special Issues Editor of Birding magazine, and past editor of Birder’s Guide magazine. He is also author of the ABA Field Guide to Birds of Illinois and the upcoming Princeton University Press Photographic Guide to Birds of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Michael runs QBNA, the continent’s email list and informal club for LGBTQ+ birders. He currently lives and gardens in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ed Rother has been handling the design and production of the ABA’s publications since 2003. He also lends a hand where ever he can with other ABA creative needs. Ed currently works from his basement in Atlanta, where he occasionally sees the light of day to be with his wife, college son, and misc. dogs, cats, gerbils, conures, canaries and fishes.
Ioana SeritanBirding magazine, Publications
Ioana Seritan has been one of the Associate Editors for Birding magazine since 2015, and a birder for longer. As one of the Associate Editors, she compiles the Celebrations column, writes the Birding Online digest, and helps production run smoothly. She was one of the Young Birders of the Year in 2013, and has remained involved in young birder programs since then. Outside of the ABA, Ioana has also been an aquarium educator, a wildlife rehabilitator, and a research assistant.
Kelly SmithDirector of Conservation & Outreach
Many members may recognize Kelly as the ABA representative at various bird festivals and conferences around the ABA area. A research and conservation-minded naturalist, she has volunteered or served on the board of many nature organizations for the last fifteen years including the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival and Balcones Songbird Festival, the South Texas Border Chapter Texas Master Naturalists, the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor and the Friends of Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, Texas Pelagics, the Texas Ornithological Society, and the Brandywine Zoo Kestrel Monitoring Program. She has also spent years assisting raptor and songbird banding projects in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Kelly puts her business degree to work for the ABA as the Finance and Operations Manager, program lead for the relaunched Birders’ Exchange initiative, and online store manager. When not at work or volunteering, Kelly spends her time hiking and kayaking around San Antonio, Texas and scuba-diving in the Caribbean.
Nathan SwickDigital Communications, Social Media
Nate Swick is the Digital Communications manager for the ABA and the host of the American Birding Podcast. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Danielle, and two young children. He is the author of A Beginner's Guide to Birding and The ABA Field Guide to Birds of the Carolinas.
Noah StryckerBirding magazine, Publications
Noah Strycker is Associate Editor of Birding magazine, conducts the Birding interviews, and serves as Copy Editor for Birder’s Guide. He has authored five books about birds (Birding Without Borders, National Geographic Guide to the Backyard Birds of North America, Birds of the Photo Ark, The Thing with Feathers, and Among Penguins), works as a naturalist guide on expedition cruises to Antarctica and Norway's Svalbard archipelago, and set a world Big Year record in 2015.
Close product quick view×