Source: Beaufort Lifestyle Magazine

Dr. Andy Jones is a lifelong naturalist, with a passion for the biodiversity of the southeastern United States. Andy originally hails from Kingsport, TN, and Raleigh, NC, where his natural history interests began at an early age (his first field notes – counting toads in the front yard – were written when he was 5 years old). He studied biological sciences at the University of Tennessee, and completed his PhD on the evolutionary history of Philippine birds at the University of Minnesota.

From 2006 until early 2022, he worked as curator of ornithology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. There, he continued research on birds using genetic tools, spanning topics such as the taxonomy of terns of the world, identifying newly discovered hybrid combinations in the wild, and the evolutionary history of boreal bird species. He also became one of the team leads on Lights Out Cleveland, a group working with building managers to turn lights off during migration as well as coordinating volunteers to recover injured and dead birds that collided with buildings.

Along the way, Dr. Jones has been active in nonprofit leadership. He has served as a board member and on the research committee of Black Swamp Bird Observatory, as a board member of Winous Point Marsh Conservancy, and as Secretary of the American Ornithological Society. He has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society for his contributions to ornithology. In May 2022, he joined the Spring Island Trust and Lowcountry Institute as Executive Director.