Dr. Mike Ward is originally from Jacksonville, IL and received his PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2004.  He is currently the Stuart L. and Nancy J. Levenick Chair in Sustainability in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, in the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois and an Ornithologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey. Dr. Ward conducts research on avian ecology and conservation throughout the Midwest as well as in Texas, Florida, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Cuba. He is a global leader in the use of automated telemetry to investigate the movements (e.g., migration) and behavior of birds. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and won multiple awards for his research. He is also on many technical committees most of which are charged with informing management and policy to better conserve the environment. Dr. Ward studies the ecology and behavior of birds in natural and modified ecosystems in order to inform conservation and management.