Gigi Gerben, Pennsylvania - After leaving a career in counseling, Gigi discovered bird banding thanks to her son who was interested in birds. He became a volunteer at Powdermill Avian Research Center, she soon followed. Within a year, she obtained her sub-permit and established a Project Owlnet station nearby, followed by a MAPS station. The MAPS station has collaborated on research projects, including Bird Genoscape, a tick study and a smoke study. Gigi assists at other stations and established nestbox trails in several parks. She frequently provides banding demos and classroom instruction for the PA Master Naturalist program, along with educational programs for the public. Gigi enjoys providing volunteer and intern opportunities at her MAPS and Owlnet stations. Other projects include building and installing nestboxes at a local park, to determine if there may be an undiscovered breeding population of Northern saw-whet owls; and a new collaboration which involves sampling for Long-eared owls and Barn owls, as well as Northern saw-whet owls. There are always new projects to be contemplated. Gigi holds two graduate degrees in unrelated fields, but the birds do not care. When not banding or crunching data, Gigi can be found cycling, hiking, kayaking and climbing.

Lena Usyk, New Jersey - Lena is a Field Research Specialist and Database Manager at New Jersey Audubon. With over 25 years of experience working with migratory birds, from tiny hummingbirds to large raptors, she has worked all over the United States and returned to her home state of New Jersey. Lena is a valuable team member and trainer during the spring Delaware Bay “Connecting the Dots” Shorebird Banding Project where we host and instruct people from Central and South America on capture techniques, tissue sampling, and data collection. She is also the co-lead of the fall Cape May Songbird Stopover Project. Additionally, Lena manages bandedbirds.org, a large database storing over 825,000 banding and resight records for marked shorebirds throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Steffanie Munguía, Florida - Dr. Steffanie Munguía is an experienced Latina environmental advocate and conservation professional working across the hemisphere to build a more inclusive environmental movement. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Florida, Steffanie's passion for conservation grew from an early love of birds and weekend camping trips into a career. Over the years, she has worked as an environmental educator, social scientist, and student engagement leader. She is now the Avian Conservation Programs Manager for ZooMiami, where she supports their existing partnerships with bird conservation programs in Latin America and the Caribbean while developing new programs in South Florida. Steffanie is also a bander-in-charge at the Cape Florida Banding Station, the longest-running, southern-most migratory bird banding station in the continental United States.

Maggie MacNeil, New York - Maggie grew up in Geneva, NY and went to Allegheny College in PA majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Environmental Writing. I was first introduced to birds by my senior advisor, Ron Mumme, and his friend Walt Koenig, who presented at our animal behavior seminar about Acorn Woodpeckers. That summer I was a field assistant in Carmel Valley, CA working with Walt and have been involved with birds ever since! I received my MS from Ball State University focusing on Cerulean Warblers in Indiana. I have completed fieldwork in NY, PA, MD, FL, IN, and CA including the infamous Farallon islands. My banding experience started at Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory under Stéphane Menu and continued with Andrea Patterson at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory. I now reside in Rochester, NY working remotely in biopharma and clinical trials, volunteering at BBBO, promoting native plants in my community, and supporting new birders.

Councilors - Class of 2028

Grace Muench, Delaware - Grace graduated from Penn State Schuylkill with a BS in biology in 2022. During her time at Penn State, she joined the avian ecology lab where she had the opportunity to study the breeding biology of Gray Catbirds. Following graduation, she worked as a field technician at Powdermill Avian Research Center in southwestern PA. She earned her NABC bander-level certification in 2023. Currently, Grace is an MSc student in the Aeroecology Lab at the University of Delaware. Her master’s project explores habitat use and post fledging survival of early successional habitat breeding birds through the use of automated telemetry. In her free time, Grace enjoys birding, spending time with her pets, and playing piano and guitar.

NABC Representative

Dave Brinker, Maryland - Dave Brinker is a past president of EBBA and serves as EBBA’s representative on the North American Banding Council. He has worked for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources since 1990 and is now the Avian Conservation Ecologist in their Natural Heritage Program where he works on biodiversity conservation. His work focuses on colonial nesting waterbirds, obligate marsh nesting birds, raptors, freshwater mussels, tiger beetles and odonates. Dave’s long history of interest in bird banding started with raptors in 1975 at the Little Suamico Ornithological Station, a migration observation and banding station just north of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Dave directs the American Goshawk Demographics Project that monitors goshawk territory tenacity, adult survival, and reproductive success, in West Virginia, Maryland, and the Alleghany National Forest. Dave founded Project Owlnet in 1994 to coordinate and increase the banding of Northern Saw-whet Owls. Dave is a founding co-director of Project Snowstorm, a collaborative effort to better understand the wintering ecology of Snowy Owls and a founding principal in the Northeast Motus Collaboration. He frequently appears on Maryland Public Television’s Outdoors Maryland, and he has been heard on National Geographic Today, on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, and on Living on Earth.

Medha Pandey, New York - Medha is a Ph.D. candidate in the biological sciences at Fordham University. Before Fordham, she worked at zoos and aquariums and in wildlife rehabilitation. Upon working with endangered species, she became intrigued with captive breeding and reintroduction programs, wildlife management, and human-wildlife interactions. She also developed a deep appreciation for birds and a particular interest in avian conservation. At Fordham, Medha’s dissertation research focuses on the role of birds in the maintenance and dispersal of ticks and tick-borne pathogens. She’s evaluating birds as possible reservoirs for three tick-borne pathogens, temporal changes in pathogen-vector interactions, changes in the occurrence of ticks on birds and the bird community, and whether birds in the U.S. are hosts of the newly invasive Asian longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis). Medha began banding birds for her dissertation research in 2019 and is excited by the insights to be gained by using advanced technologies (e.g., molecular methods) alongside classical ecology. Her broader research interests include animal behavior and wildlife conservation, especially within the field of ornithology and the intersection of ornithology, epidemiology, and one health.

Buffet Raffle Chair

Dan Zmoda, Pennsylvania - Returning to council after a short recess, Dan worked in manufacturing for over 20 years, and followed that up with another 19 years in building maintenance in a Personal Care Community. His interest in birds started early on, but really took off with a college ornithology class in southern New Jersey with field trips to places like Cape May and Long Beach Island. Dan started volunteering at a Saw whet Owl banding station with the Pocono Avian Research Center in 2001 and has helped with their MAPS stations and has banded songbirds in his backyard since 2013. He assists with Bluebird, Tree Swallow and Kestrel banding run by employees of the local landfill and monitors over 30 Bluebird boxes in the county. He has been a longtime participant of Breeding Bird Surveys, Winter Raptor Surveys and Christmas Bird Counts. He has started assisting more at Lehigh Gap Raptor Banding Station where he was privileged to be able to hold a Hatching Year Golden Eagle caught by longtime EBBA treasurer, Jerry Lahr, in the fall of 2024. He co-chairs the EBBA Bucket Raffle Committee with his wife, Robin.

Alison Fetterman, Pennsylvania - Alison has over 20 years of passerine banding and monitoring experience that began with Point Blue Conservation Science in 2001. In 2013, she joined the Rushton Woods Banding Station (RWBS) team with Willistown Conservation Trust (WCT) and is currently a Avian Conservation Biologist and Northeast Motus Project Manager. She is a lead bander of RWBS, which operates during spring and fall migration, MAPS, and Northern Saw-whet Owls as part of Project Owlnet in the fall. Alison manages the station data and analysis and runs banding training and workshops. Alison earned a Master of Environmental Studies degree from the University of Pennsylvania where she is now an adjunct professor.

Nick Liadis, Pennsylvania - Nick is an avian conservation biologist and the founder of Bird Lab, a bird-focused conservation organization based in Pittsburgh. His banding work takes him across the human landscape gradient into urban, suburban, and rural areas to better understand how birds live alongside people. He has been affiliated with the Powdermill Avian Research Center and the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (Point Blue) and is an NABC certified Trainer.

Todd Alleger, Maine - Todd has been working in bird research and conservation for over a decade. He spent many years at Willistown Conservation Trust leading songbird and owl migration banding efforts and coordinating the installation, maintenance, and operation of more than 125 Motus stations. He currently works for the American Bird Conservancy as the Atlantic Flyway Motus Technical Coordinator. In his free time he likes gardening, learning to repair an old house and travelling.

Orion Methany, West Virginia - Orion’s interest in bird banding began at 10 years old with the introduction to the Brooks Bird Club by his principal, LeJay Graffious, who he now has a sub-permit under. His interest continued, expanded, and eventually lead to bird banding at the Allegheny Front Migration Observatory and volunteering at a MAPS station. Over the last decade, Orion continued to be involved in both AFMO and the MAPS station, eventually attending workshops at Powdermill Avian Research Center to further his understanding of molt and ageing. Orion now operates a MAPS station in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, is the Volunteers and Scientific Partnership Manager for AFMO, an advisor to the Conservation committee of the Mountaineer Audubon Society, a board member of the Brooks Bird Club, and enjoys partnering with local colleges and universities to offer banding experience to their students. He also runs the West Virginia Avian Research Coalition, a social media presence aimed at sharing research efforts happening across the state with a wider audience. Orion is the Chair of EBBA's Membership Committee.

Emeritus & Non-Council Member Committee Chairs