David O'Brien

Deputy Director

David O'Brien is the Deputy Director of the NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture. David joined the office in 2006 where he served initially as Program Coordinator and later as International Coordinator. Since 2012 he has been the Deputy Director.

O'Brien started his career at NOAA in 2000 as a John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow and served for six years within the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources implementing listing and recovery provisions of the Endangered Species Act. A fishery biologist by training, O'Brien worked for two years as an aquaculture extension agent as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, West Africa prior to his graduate education.

O'Brien has an M.S. in Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland, and a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Massachusetts.