Tony has been working in the field of environmental education for over three decades with emphasis on southeastern animals and plants. During his college years and after graduating from Georgia Southern University in 1985, he worked in a variety of positions as a naturalist in state and national parks and nature centers. Tony also worked for twenty years as the outreach program coordinator for the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. His job included extensive ecological research and the development and implementation of environmental education programs for schools and the general public.
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Tony now works as the education director for the LowCountry Institute on Spring Island.  His duties include developing and co-teaching the Lowcountry Master Naturalist Program, producing and conducting educational programs for schools, field trips and teacher workshops. He has written numerous newspaper columns and magazine articles on plants and animals for the popular media and co-wrote the book “Lizards and Crocodilians of the Southeast” (UGA press June 2009). Tony writes, co-produces and hosts the award-winning nature program “Coastal Kingdom” that airs on SCETV, The South Carolina Channel and other channels. In 2018, Tony won a Southeastern Emmy Award for Best Talent/Host for this television series.

 Although Tony spends a major portion of his time teaching and writing, he continues his extensive field studies with animals of the southeast.  Past research trips have taken him on excursions into the jungles of Mexico and Costa Rica to conduct studies on snakes and lizards and into the Everglades of South Florida to collect introduced pythons and endangered crocodiles.