Chincoteague Island, Virginia

Mark Damian Duda is the founder and executive director of Responsive Management. A Certified Wildlife Biologist® and social scientist, Mark holds a master’s degree with an emphasis on natural resource policy and planning from Yale University, where he attended on two academic scholarships. During the past 35 years, Mark has managed more than 1,200 studies on how people relate to the outdoors. He is the author of more than 200 journal and popular articles as well as four books on wildlife and outdoor recreation.

His work has been featured in many of the nation’s top media, including NPR’s Morning Edition, Fox News, CNN, The New York Times, Newsweek, and the front pages of The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today. For 7 years, Mark served as a columnist for North American Hunter and North American Fisherman magazines.

Mark also holds a B.S. Magna Cum Laude in Wildlife Biology from West Virginia University and has taught at Yale, Texas Tech, and the University of Florida.

Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Mark has been a keynote or opening session speaker at almost all of the major wildlife and natural resources conferences, including the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Annual Meeting, Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Annual Conference, Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Annual Conference, Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Annual Conference, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses Sportsman-Legislator Summit, Southeast Deer Study Group Annual Meeting, National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Shooting Sports Summit, National Association of Conservation Law Enforcement Chiefs Annual Meeting, and the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports National R3 Symposium. He has also presented at nearly all the state fish and wildlife agencies’ commissions and boards.

Virunga National Park, Rwanda

Mark has been named Conservation Educator of the Year by the Florida Wildlife Federation and National Wildlife Federation, was a recipient of the Conservation Achievement Award from the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and was named Wildlife Professional of the Year by the Virginia Wildlife Society. He also received the Conservation Achievement Award in Communications from Ducks Unlimited and an award from the Potomac Ducks Unlimited Chapter for his contributions as a researcher and writer. Mark was also honored as Qualitative Researcher of the Year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Hunters’ Leadership Forum.

Mark is an avid birdwatcher, hunter, sport shooter, angler, and boater.