From Serengeti to Galapagos – Saving our great world treasures

Dave has been traveling the world for the past forty years. He lived in East Africa for seven years, two as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda, two as a freelance writer and photographer Kenya, and three developing a social studies program for the travel industry at Utalii College in Nairobi. The program uses texts, multi-media, role playing, an original stage drama, and a board game to illuminate social and cross-cultural aspects of tourism. Still ongoing after thirty years, it’s been featured in the Journal of Applied Anthropology, Annals of Tourism Research, and Cornell Quarterly.

In 1983, Dave founded Voyagers International, a well-known nature and photo tour company whose clients included leading museums, universities, conservation organizations, and professional photographers. Voyagers merged with a larger company after twenty years.

In 1995, he founded the International Galapagos Tour Operators Association (IGTOA) which brings together leading tour companies to promote responsible tourism. IGTOA has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Galapagos. www.igtoa.org

In 2010, he co-founded Serengeti Watch, a nonprofit whose goal is to build a permanent coalition of support for the threatened Serengeti ecosystem and those living around it. www.savetheserengeti.org/home

Dave has produced and directed several films, including a series on the Galapagos Islands. www.igtoa.org/save