A native of Santa Rosa, California, Dan received a PhD in Zoology from the University of Washington and his BS in Biology and BA in Art History, Criticism and Conservation from Stanford. Prior to his fellowship, he was a Senior Conservation Scientist with the American Museum of Natural History. Dan is currently the Coordinator of the Coastal Training Program at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. He is also an Associate Researcher with the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.