David Ervin is a Professor Emeritus of Environmental Management and Economics and a Senior Fellow in the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University. His prior appointments include Professor and Head of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Oregon State University, Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Chief of Resource Policy Branch in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, Visiting Scholar at the Office of Technology Assessment, and Director of Policy Studies for the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture. He holds BS and MS degrees from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from Oregon State University. 

He has taught courses in environmental economics, economics of sustainability, and business environmental management. His current research areas include ecosystem services and urbanizing regions, business environmental management, and the sustainability of genetically engineered crops. He is the Principal Investigator of a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) project “Ecosystem Services for Urbanizing Regions.” During 2008-2010, he chaired the National Research Council’s Committee “Impact of Biotechnology on Farm Sustainability in the United States.”  He also directed two multidisciplinary research projects: "Public Goods and University-Industry Relationships in Agricultural Biotechnology” funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and “Oregon Business Decisions for Environmental Management” supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  His consulting assignments include work for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Commission, and the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. He speaks to local, national and international audiences on business environmental management, ecosystem service management issues, and university-industry biotechnology research topics.