Peter Quinby, AFER's founder has been Chair of the Board of Directors and Chief Scientist since 2004.  Dr. Quinby has studied landscape ecology and conservation for the past four decades.  He received his masters degree from Yale University, his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and he was formerly a Certified Senior Ecologist through the Ecological Society of America.  For his doctorate, he studied old-growth forests in Algonquin Park, and he has conducted ecological field studies throughout Ontario, the northeastern U.S., in the Canadian arctic and in Central America.
 
He was a professor at numerous universities including Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Quinby has published many scientific articles (see below) and technical reports addressing the topics of old-growth forest and landscape ecology, natural areas management, wildlife habitat assessment, wildlife corridor design, and species-at-risk. He is co-author of the book, Ontario's Old-growth Forests, now on its 2nd edition. His/AFER work has been cited in at least 60 different refereed journals and many other publications by researchers throughout the world.