David Faulkner

David Linzey Faulkner was born in Oneonta, Alabama in 1956. He studied at Auburn University and received a bachelor's degree in agricultural education in 1978. He subsequently served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Belmopan, Belize, Central America from 1978-1980 teaching agriculture. He returned to the the USA to attend graduate school at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI) studying agricultural economics. He graduated from VPI with a master's degree in 1983 then began work in the foreign service with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as an agricultural economist. He served 1.5 years in Washington, D.C. then 3 years in Lima, Peru, South America. In Peru he managed a natural resource management and environmental planning project, conducted an evaluation and reprogramming of resources for a nation-wide pilot soil conservation project and worked to promote non-traditional agricultural exports and trade development, mainly with farmer associations in the irrigated coastal valleys. In 1987 he transferred to the U.S. Civil Service to work as an natural resource economist with the United States Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in Davis, California. He served the SCS for almost 2.5 years in Davis, then transferred in 1989 to Richmond, Virginia where he continues today serving as a natural resource economist (for the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service; the agency name changed from SCS to NRCS in 1994).

David and his wife Betty reside in Midlothian, Virginia and are the proud parents of two Eagle Scouts and a Gold Award recipient (the equivalent of Eagle among Girl Scouts). David served as Assistant Troop Leader for the 1st Belmopan Scout Troop in Belmopan, Belize, C.A. (affiliated with the Boy Scouts of England) from 1978-1980; was Assistant Scout Master of Troop No. 1 in Lima, Peru, S.A. (affiliated with Boy Scouts of America) from 1986-1987; and was Assistant Scout Master of BSA Troop 806 from 1997-2009 (member of the Order of the Arrow from 2005-2009).

He served as an elected member of the Woodlake Community Association's Board of Directors from 2010-2013 and as a member of the Woodlake Environmental Committee from 2009-2013. In May of 2012 David was recognized as one of 10 individuals nationwide to receive the joint USDA/Organization of Professional Employees of the Department of Agriculture "Unsung Hero Award" for public service. Fun-fact that I am most proud of: I served as the leader/catalyst to develop and install an historic marker in the Town of Louisa, Virginia in honor of the founding Chief of the Soil Conservation Service, Hugh Hammond Bennett.