John Morgan, a recognized name in bobwhite restoration and a leader in the efforts of the 25-state National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI), will become the new director of the University of Tennessee-based NBCI effective Oct. 1. He replaces Don McKenzie, who retired last October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known John for a long time and have always been impressed with his \u2018get things done\u2019 attitude, strong work ethic and ability to bring people together,\u201d said Paul Johansen, chair of the NBCI Management Board and chief of the Wildlife Resources Section of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. \u201cJohn has an almost contagious energy and is absolutely the right person at the right time needed to solidify the NBCI foundation and grow it in new directions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m so excited to have John Morgan at the helm of the NBCI,\u201d said Robert Perez of Texas, recent past chair of the National Bobwhite Technical Committee, \u201cespecially during these transitional and uncertain times. John is a proven leader in the conservation community with a strong sense of vision and purpose. I can\u2019t think of anyone more qualified to take the NBCI mission to the next level. John has the skills needed to strengthen the initiative, bring new partners to the table and blaze new trails,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morgan, from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, spent the last 17 years as the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources\u2019 small game program coordinator and was, in addition, an adjunct assistant professor for UT for the past 11 of those years. Prior to moving to Kentucky, Morgan worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Penn State Cooperative Wetlands Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His visibility in the bobwhite world came about as the result of his two most recent roles in Kentucky and his volunteer leadership in the national restoration effort. As small game coordinator he led the development and implementation for Kentucky\u2019s high priority 10-year bobwhite restoration plan, as well as a wide variety of partnerships with private conservation groups and government entities for the plan\u2019s implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a UT adjunct he built a partnership to conduct the Peabody Research Project, one of the largest bobwhite telemetry projects in the history of the Mid-South, capturing over 2,000 bobwhites during a five-year period. Morgan also was instrumental in launching the Bluegrass Army Depot Patch Burn Grazing Project, the first experimental design of native warm-season grass pastures in the East under a patch-burn framework, including grassland bird and cattle weight gain surveys. Subsequently, he led the development of the Grasslands Conservation Initiative, a partnership built around another groundbreaking quail research project, one designed to reveal the relationship of cattle and bobwhites in the East, and a proactive collaboration with adjacent landowners to advance working lands conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his Kentucky tenure Morgan served in multiple roles on the National Bobwhite Technical Committee, the technical advisory body to NBCI, including chair, secretary\/treasurer, and annual meeting co-chair. Morgan also served as chair of NBCI\u2019s Ad Hoc Monitoring Committee, which developed the monitoring protocols for NBCI\u2019s science-based bobwhite focal area program. He is also a founding member and secretary of the Kentucky Prescribed Fire Council, a member of the East Gulf Coast Joint Venture management board, member of the Central Hardwoods Joint Venture, advisor to the Kentucky Quail Specialty License Plate Board, a member of AFWA\u2019s Resident Gamebird Working Group, the Kentucky Chapter of the Wildlife Society and the USDA\u2019s NRCS State Technical Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo many talented, knowledgeable and hardworking people have brought wild bobwhite restoration and NBCI to where it is today,\u201d Morgan said, \u201cso it\u2019s an immense honor to help lead what has become one of the nation\u2019s premiere grassland conservation initiatives. NBCI is poised to capitalize on the elevated focus on conserving and restoring America\u2019s imperiled native grasslands, northern bobwhite, and a host of other birds, pollinators and other wildlife species will benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morgan has a Bachelors in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from The Pennsylvania State University, a Masters in Wildlife Ecology and Management from the University of Georgia and is a graduate of the Certified Public Program Manager curriculum at Kentucky State University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Morgan, a recognized name in bobwhite restoration and a leader in the efforts of the 25-state National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI), will become the new director of the University of Tennessee-based NBCI effective Oct. 1. He replaces Don McKenzie, who retired last October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82,5],"tags":[287,260,291],"articletype":[15],"institute":[],"topics":[],"entities":[10,26,40],"class_list":["post-2065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-human-animal-health","tag-bobwhites","tag-conservation","tag-grasslands","articletype-highlight","entities-agresearch","entities-forestry-wildlife-fisheries","entities-utia"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 20:19:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2065"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"articletype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articletype?post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"institute","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institute?post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"entities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entities?post=2065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}