David is the founding director of the John A. Dutton Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence and former Director of Education at Esri. He came to Penn State in 1989 after earning bachelor and master of science degrees in cartography at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. David led development of the World Campus Postbaccalaureate Certificate and Master of Geographic Information Systems (MGIS) degree programs. Now a part-time instructor, his specialties include GIS context and professional ethics. He has earned Penn State's Wilson Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mitchell Award for Innovative Teaching, the Association of American Geographers' Media Achievement Award, Esri's Special Achievement in GIS Award, URISA's Horwood Distinguished Service Award, and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science's Educator of the Year award. In 2019, David was named an inaugural Fellow of the American Association of Geographers.