Dr. Bruce Means is Executive Director of the Coastal Plains Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving the rich biodiversity and elevating public awareness and appreciation of the vast Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. He is an Adjunct Professor of Biological Science at Florida State University where he teaches courses the ecology of upland, wetland, and coastal environments of the southeastern United States, through FSU’s Center for Professional Development. He has also taught courses on vertebrate biology, ichthyology, mammalogy, herpetology, general biology, tropical ecology and conservation biology. His research includes a wide variety of topics ranging from fire ecology, biogeography, conservation, endangered species, and the evolution and natural history of amphibians and reptiles. In 1989 he was appointed a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution. From 1998 to the present, he has been associate producer of documentary films for National Geographic Explorer (King Rattler; Quest for the Rainbow Serpent).