Deputy ​Secretary​​

Dave Goshorn served as the Assistant Secretary for Aquatic Resources for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources since May 2013. He was responsible for the monitoring and assessment of the State’s water and geological resources; the policy and management of the state’s recreational and commercial fisheries; the restoration of the Chesapeake and Coastal bays; boating services; and the Department’s Integrated Policy and Review Unit.

Goshorn has worked at the department since 1992, serving initially as a member of the Fisheries Service Striped Bass Project, and later as Chief of the Living Resource Assessment Program, where he was responsible for Submerged Aquatic Vegetation restoration, fish community assessments, Coastal Bays monitoring, and harmful algal bloom response.

In 2003, Goshorn was named Director of the Department of Natural Resources Resource Assessment Service where he managed programs responsible for the monitoring and assessment of all state waters, the Maryland Geological Survey, and the Power Plant Assessment Program. From August 2007 through May 2013, Goshorn directed the agency’s Office for a Sustainable Future, with responsibility for moving the department in particular and Maryland in general toward a sustainable future.

A Towson native, Goshorn received his Bachelors degree in biology from Bucknell University in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the University of Delaware in 1989. He spent the next three years at the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, Ga., as a post-doctoral faculty member conducting research on juvenile Flounder and Drum.

Goshorn lives in Anne Arundel County with his wife and their three sons.​​​