Here are brief bios for the Maryland Birds- Ecology and Conservation Summer Program leaders.

George Radcliffe taught middle school science for 38 years in Dorchester and Queen Anne’s Counties and has been the Youth Coordinator for the Maryland Ornithological Society since 2005. He has been an active member of the Maryland Association of Environmental and Outdoor Education since its inception in 1986 and has been both a President and Trustee of that organization. He currently lives and works on his farm in Dorchester County, a property which has been in his family since 1663 and also the first property in Maryland to be given an environmental easement by the Maryland Environmental Trust.

Dr. Bell is Senior Associate and former Director of the Center for Environment and Society (CES) at Washington College.  Prior to joining the Washington College faculty in fall 2000, he was Vice President for External Relations for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), a global research facility headquartered at Horn Point near Cambridge, MD.  A native of Silver Spring, MD, Dr. Bell did his undergraduate work at the University of Miami, FL, and his graduate studies at Harvard University.  His birding includes education and outreach activities through CES, the Youth program of the Maryland Ornithological Society (YMOS), the Pickering Creek Audubon Center (Easton, MD), and the Academy for Lifelong Learning of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (St. Michaels, MD).

Dan Small settled in Chestertown, MD in 2006 after years of seasonal field work traveling around the country.  Upon his arrival, he worked at the Chester River Field Research Station, where he helped with the summer breeding bird research and banded migratory birds in the spring and the fall. More recently, he has been coordinating the Natural Lands Project which started in 2015 and is run by the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College. Dan now works with landowners on the upper shore who are interested in adding grassland habitat or wetlands to their properties to help declining wildlife populations. 

Maren Gimpel is Field Ecologist and Outreach Coordinator at the Chester River Field Research Station, part of Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society.  Her work includes banding birds for both migratory and breeding studies, training and mentoring budding biologists (AKA college interns), and coordinating research and visits to the WC River & Field Campus. A bander since 2002 and a birder for over 25 years, Maren also compiles the local Chesterville Christmas Bird Count. Before settling in Chestertown, she worked on avian research projects from Nova Scotia to Tobago.