I am an alpha taxonomist and phytogeographer of Pacific Northwest vascular plants. In support of this research I conduct field work across the Pacific Northwest with an emphasis on the flora of Washington. Research projects have included documenting the floras of small islands in the San Juans Archipelago, Mount Rainier and North Cascades national parks, aquatic habitats, and most recently the alpine flora of the Washington's Cascade Range. I am lead editor and co-author of the Flora of the Pacific Northwest, 2nd edition, maintain the Washington Flora Checklist (https://burkeherbarium.org/waflora/checklist.php), Plants and Fungi of Washington Image Gallery (https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/), and co-manage the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria online database (https://www.pnwherbaria.org/data/search.php).

David is the the Collections Manager and Research Botanist at the University of Washington Herbarium, Burke Museum, which holds over 700,000 specimens across its vascular plant, nonvascular plant, macrofungi, lichenized fungi, and marine algae collections. Ongoing projects in the Herbarium focus on digitizing the collections, overseeing the development of Web-based applications that allow professional and amateur botanists to access and utilize collections data, and incorporating emerging Web technologies to share data with search portals regionally, nationally, and internationally. David received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, his M.S. from the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources, and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.