Charles Duncan joined Manomet in 2003 as Director of the Shorebird Recovery Project. He also serves as Director of the Executive Office of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, a coalition of 83 sites in 13 nations committed to the conservation of shorebird species and their habitats across the Americas.
Charles had a long career in academia at the University of Maine at Machias (UMM). Along the way, his passion for birdwatching in the Americas grew in more rigorous directions. In fact, he describes his conservation work simply as “a hobby that got wildly out of control.”
He founded and ran the Institute for Field Ornithology at UMM for many years and served as president of the Association of Field Ornithologists from 1998-2000. In 1999, he made a career shift and joined The Nature Conservancy’s Migratory Bird Program as conservation ornithologist. In 2002, the American Birding Association honored him with their “Chandler Robbins Award for Education and Conservation,” and in 2003, he began working at Manomet.
He holds a B.A. in Organic Chemistry from Rice University and a Ph.D. from Yale University. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia.
Charles is fluent in Spanish, and is fond of many kinds of dance, most especially Argentine tango. He lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife Laura Blutstein, a physician specializing in family medicine.
