David is Professor of Horticulture in the Agriculture Department at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. He grew up with his twin brother Dean on a 200-acre tree and shrub nursery in northern Illinois. He received an associate degree from McHenry County College in Crystal Lake, Illinois in 1991, his bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness-Ornamental Horticulture with a minor in Business Administration from Illinois State University in 1993, and his master’s and doctorate degrees in Horticulture from the University of Georgia in 1995 and 1999, respectively. He has held positions as a Vegetable Specialist with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, as an instructor and Chairperson of a community college horticulture department, in private industry as a vegetable crop consultation and research specialist, and faculty teaching positions at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and Illinois State University. In his career he has taught 17 different horticultural or agricultural courses ranging from Introductory Horticulture to Landscape Design and Weed Science to Pest Identification and Management. He has received over 20 different teaching awards at the departmental, college, university, community and national levels including the American Association of State Colleges of Agriculture and Renewable Resources Distinguished Young Educator Award in 2011 and the American Society for Horticultural Science’s (ASHS) Outstanding Undergraduate Educator Award in 2015. He is currently serving on the ASHS Executive Board as the Education Division Vice-president for the society. David was also recently awarded the 2019 Non-land-grant Universities of Agriculture and Renewable Resources (NARRU) Distinguished Educator Award.