Deputy ​Secretary​​

Dave Goshorn was appointed in March 2023 as Deputy Secretary of Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Previously he was DNR's Senior Bay Restoration Coordinator from 2017-23, coordinating efforts to restore Maryland’s Chesapeake and Coastal Bays among units of the department and with sister state agencies, federal and local partners, and non-governmental organizations. From 2013-17 he was DNR's Assistant Secretary for Aquatic Resources.​

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.​​​