He has conducted award-winning natural resources work in natural resources programs of state and federal government, universities, and private industry for over 25 years, authoring over 100 publications and supervising over 80 employees. His unit won the highest award in the nation for relations with cooperators, and science respectively. He holds a B.S. degree in Science Education from the University of Evansville and a Ph.D. in Fisheries Science from the University of Washington. He has been a member of AFS since 1971.