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.
2023 – 2nd Ornithological Congress of the Americas, Beni, Bolivia
- Joint meeting of the AFO, Aves Argentinas, Brazilian Society of Ornithology (SBO), the Bolivian Ornithological Society (ASBOR), and the Neotropical Ornithological Society (NOS)
- AFO Chair: Valentina Ferretti
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
Bergstrom Award Committee
Responsibilities: Advertise Bergstrom Award, evaluate proposals, award gifts.
- Cecilia Kopuchian (Co-chair)
- Adrián Di Giacomo (Co-chair)
Skutch Research Award Committee
Responsibilities: Advertise Skutch Award, evaluate proposals, award gift.
- Elissa Landre (Chair)
- Gabriel Colorado
- Dan Lebbin
- Manuel Marin
- Jason Mobley
- Jessica Oswald
- Ken Rosenberg
- Gary Stiles
- Carla Suertegaray Fontana (Portuguese & Spanish proposals)
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)
- Robert Aldredge
- Jessica Oswald
- Matthew Reudink
Travel Awards
Responsibilities: Organize and oversee awards for travel by students, post-doctoral fellows, and amateur/avocational ornithologists to annual meetings.
- Rebecka Brasso (Chair)
- David Aborn
- Cecilia Kopuchian
- Matthew Reudink
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.
- Claire Varian-Ramos (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.
- chair TBD
- Rebecka Brasso
- Evan Jackson (AFO Book Reviews Editor)
- Julie Jedlicka (ex-officio)
- Juan Manuel Rojas Ripari
- Jeff Ritterson
- Matthew Shumar (ex-officio, webmaster)
- Judit Ungvári
- Mars Walters
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.
- Angela Tringali (Chair)
- Dan Ardia
- Ian Ausprey
- Scott Johnson
- Scott Sutcliffe
Responsibilities:
- Yula Kapetanakos (Co-chair)
- David Aborn (Co-chair)
- Dan Ardia
- Emily Choy
- Cecilia Kopuchian
- Jennifer Smith
- Angela Tringali
- Valentina Ferretti (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.
- Samantha Apgar (Chair) Ph.D student, University of Connecticut, Storrs CT (AFO)
- Craig Gibson (Secretary), Nuttall Ornithological Club, Boston MA (WOS)
- Reed Bowman, Archbold Biological Station, FL, past AFO President (AOS)
- Lizzi Meisman, Dudek, Eureka CA (RRF)
- 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
- Valentina Ferretti (ex-officio)
- Julie Jedlicka (ex-officio)
- Dave Cerasale (appointed AFO Council observer)
Investing Trustees
- John Day (Chair)
- Daniel Ardia
- Bob Hoguet
- L. Scott Johnson
Responsibilities: Develop and implement strategies to increase the number of AFO members. This includes developing effective ways of communicating with existing members to keep them informed of AFO’s activities and value and recruiting new members.
- Valentina Feretti (Chair)
- Dan Ardia
- Ian Ausprey
- Diane Neudorf
- Matthew Shumar
- Scott Sutcliffe
- Christy Classi (ex-officio)
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.
- Matthew Shumar (Chair, Vice President)
- Julie Jedlicka (President)
- Valentina Ferretti (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.
- Jennifer Smith (Chair)
- Reed Bowman (Co-Editor-in-Chief of JFO)
- Mark Hauber (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.
- Jessica Hightower (Chair)
- Ian Ausprey
- Allyson Jackson
- Nicolás Lois
- Lucy Zipf
Undergraduate Affairs & Outreach Committee
Responsibilities:
- Nico Lois (Chair)
- Allyson Jackson
- Dan Ardia
- Emily Choy
- Claire Varian-Ramos
