AFO’s committees are established by the governing council under the society’s bylaws to perform certain areas of work critical to AFO’s function and purpose. Committees are often chaired by councilors and populated by members of the society. Committees are an excellent way for members to ensure the relevance and function of AFO to the field of ornithology, and we welcome participation from a broad range of members, including students, earl-career professionals, and senior career members. Details on AFO’s current suite of committees are below, with information on each committee’s chair and members. If you are interested in participating on a committee, please contact us.
Click on a committee below for more information.
2025 – Ogden, UT, USA
- Chair: Rebecka Brasso
2024 – Peoria, IL, USA
- Joint meeting of the AFO, the Wilson Ornithological Society (WOS), and the Society of Canadian Ornithologists (SCO-SOC)
- AFO Chairs: Matthew Shumar and Julie Jedlicka
2023 – 2nd Ornithological Congress of the Americas, Gramado, Brazil
- Joint meeting of the AFO, Brazilian Society of Ornithology (SBO), and the Neotropical Ornithological Society (NOS)
- AFO Chairs: Valentina Ferretti, Carla Suertegaray Fontana, Cecilia Kopuchian
2022 – Plymouth, MA, USA
- AFO Centennial celebration
- Chair: Julie Jedlicka
2021 – Virtual Northeast Natural History Conference
- Joint meeting of the AFO, the Wilson Ornithological Society, and the Northeast Natural History Conference
- AFO Chairs: Valentina Ferretti and Julie Jedlicka
2020 – Virtual NAOC VII
- Steering Committee representatives: Jennifer Smith & Matthew Shumar
2019 – Cape May, NJ, USA
- Joint meeting of the AFO and Wilson Ornithological Society
- AFO Chair: Paul Rodewald
2018 – Chattanooga, TN, USA
- Joint meeting of the AFO and Wilson Ornithological Society
- AFO Chair: David Aborn
2017 – Ornithological Congress of the Americas, Puerto Iguazu, Argentina (August 8-11, 2017)
- Joint meeting of the AFO, Brazilian Society of Ornithology, and Aves Argentinas
- AFO Co-Chairs, Valentina Ferretti and Alex Jahn
- Pedro Devely, SBO President
- Cecilia Kopuchian, Aves Argentinas
2016 – NAOC VI in Washington DC, USA
- Steering Committee representative: Dan Cristol
Skutch Medal Committee
- Alex Jahn (Chair)
Best Student Publication Award Committee
Responsibilities: To identify the student-generated paper in each volume of the Journal of Field Ornithology that best exemplifies quality research and scholarship.
- Diane Neudorf (chair)
Travel Awards
Responsibilities: Organize and oversee awards for travel by students, post-doctoral fellows, and avocational ornithologists to annual meetings.
- Rebecka Brasso (Chair)
Student Presentation Awards
Responsibilities: Organize awards and judge student presentations at annual meetings; serve as representatives or co-chairs on student presentation award committees at joint meetings.
- Maureen McClung (Co-chair)
Responsibilities: To deliver the most timely information to our members and the wider ornithological community by utilizing email-based dynamic newsletters, the AFO website, and social media accounts. The committee oversees the following tasks: website administration, email-based newsletter administration, social media, content creation & solicitation, and language translation.
- Agustina Torretta (chair, Communications & Marketing Specialist)
- Rebecka Brasso
- Evan Jackson (AFO Book Reviews Editor)
- Juan Manuel Rojas Ripari
- Matthew Shumar (ex-officio, webmaster)
- Judit Ungvári
The following individuals have assisted with translating content into Spanish and Portuguese: Pilar Benites, Leonardo Calle, Pedro Develey, Valentina Ferretti, Carla Suertegaray Fontana, Cecilia Kopuchian, Alex Jahn, Molly McDermott, Ivan Celso Carvalho Provinciato.
Responsibilities: The Development Committee assumes the primary responsibility for raising funds to support AFO’s mission and programs.
- Dan Ardia
- John Day
- Natasza Fontaine
- Jessica Hightower
- Julie Jedlicka
- Scott Sutcliffe
Responsibilities:
- Jen Smith (Co-chair)
- David Aborn (Co-chair)
- Dan Ardia
- Cecilia Kopuchian
- Angela Tringali
- Edwin Njuguna
- Matthew Shumar (ex-officio)
Responsibilities: Since professional ornithologists should share a common code of ethics, members of the AFO Ethics Committee also represent other societies and share our progress with these other societies. Our long-term goal is to shape a common code of ethics that governs all members of our respective societies.
- Valentina Ferretti (Chair)
- Kathryn Purcell, U.S. Forest Service (retired), past AFO President (AFO)
- Jennifer Smith, University of Texas at San Antonio, TX (AFO)
- Matt Reudink, Thomas Rivers University, BC, Canada (SCO)
- Young Ha Suh, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles CA (AFO)
Responsibilities: Responsible for oversight of the endowment funds. Develop an investment plan, identify investing trustees, who will then advise on investment firms. Review the performance of the investment company at least once per year, report to the AFO Council on performance and recommend continuation or otherwise with the current professional manager and the current investment guidelines.
LLC Board
- Dan Ardia (Chair)
- Sarah Sargent (Secretary)
- John Day
- Bob Hoguet
- Scott Sutcliffe
- Rebecka Brasso (ex-officio)
- Matthew Shumar (ex-officio)
- Dave Cerasale (appointed AFO Council observer)
Investing Trustees
- John Day (Chair)
- Daniel Ardia
- Bob Hoguet
- L. Scott Johnson
Chair: Judit Ungvári
Bergstrom Grants Sub-committee
Responsibilities: Advertise Bergstrom Grant, evaluate proposals, award gifts.
- L. Scott Johnson (Chair)
Skutch Research Grants Sub-committee
Responsibilities: Advertise Skutch Research Grant, evaluate proposals, award gifts.
- Cecilia Kopuchian (Co-chair)
- Adrián Di Giacomo (Co-chair)
Skutch Keystone Grant Sub-committee
Responsibilities: Advertise Skutch Keystone Grant, evaluate proposals, award gift.
- Elissa Landre (Chair)
Responsibilities: Coordinate AFO’s Neotropical initiatives, including recruitment of members from the Neotropics, and informing ornithologists in the Neotropics of AFO meetings, awards and other activities.
- Carla Suertegaray Fontana (Chair)
- Ian Ausprey
- Adrián Di Giacomo
- Alex Jahn
- Cecilia Kopuchian
- Gustavo Londoño
Responsibilities: Traditionally the Vice President takes the lead on working with the council to identify a slate of new council members and officers to be presented at the Annual Meeting. The committee has a minimum of 3 individuals.
- Rebecka Brasso (Chair, Vice President)
- Matthew Shumar (President)
- Julie Jedlicka (Immediate Past President)
Responsibilities: a) Work with Resilience Alliance on issues related to publishing the Journal of Field Ornithology. b) Work to increase the quality and “impact” of JFO.
- Mark Deutschlander (Chair)
- Mark Hauber (Co-Editor-in-Chief of JFO)
- Rafael Rueda-Hernández (Co-Editor-in-Chief of JFO)
- Caren Cooper
- Valentina Ferretti
- Julie Jedlicka
- Susan Pagano
- Matthew Shumar
More information on the entire editorial board of the Journal of Field Ornithology can be found on the journal’s website HERE.
Graduate Students & Early Professionals Committee
Responsibilities: The Graduate Student and Early Professional Committee was formed to provide support and resources for students in Masters and PhD programs and early career professionals from around the world. The committee is dedicated to identifying and addressing the challenges graduate students and early career professionals face in the field of ornithology. Our website provides a list of resources on a variety of topics geared towards career development, creating inclusive communities, and field work. Our committee works hard to provide opportunities for networking events, virtual panels and discussions on a variety of topics, and workshops geared towards professional development and learning new skills. We welcome participation from members who are interested in serving on the graduate student and early professional committee.
- Keith Andringa (Chair)
- Ian Ausprey
- Natasza Fontaine
- Jessica Hightower
- Allyson Jackson
- Nicolás Lois
- Elise Morton
- Dorian Rose
Undergraduate Affairs & Outreach Committee
Responsibilities:
- Nico Lois (Chair)
- Allyson Jackson
- Dan Ardia
