Rate My Professor Dave Hayes

Dr. David Hayes is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Eastern Kentucky University. He earned his Ph.D. from Arkansas State University, M.S. from the University of Louisiana Monroe, and B.S. from Juniata College. His research interests encompass conservation biology, DNA-based biomonitoring, and invertebrate systematics, with particular emphasis on freshwater mollusks including crayfish, bivalves of the order Unionida, and gastropods of the family Pleuroceridae. Hayes investigates phenotypic plasticity, genetic structuring, species delineation, and distribution patterns within North American freshwater ecosystems.

At Eastern Kentucky University, Hayes received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2015 and advanced to Full Professor in 2023. He has distinguished himself in teaching through the development of new courses, implementation of varied instructional methods promoting technical skills and critical thinking, adaptation to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic via innovative technologies—which elicited positive student responses—and persistence with these approaches in post-pandemic in-person classes. Hayes mentored three graduate students to completion of their M.S. theses and guided several undergraduate research initiatives. His research productivity includes three publications in international peer-reviewed journals, acquisition of three grants totaling $31,000, and ten conference presentations during the period under review for promotion. In university service, he chaired the Space, Facilities, and Equipment committee, managed the department's transition to the new Science Building with oversight of expenditures exceeding $1 million for equipment, and serves as Curator of Invertebrates at the Branley Branson Museum of Zoology. In this role, he expanded the collection's accessions and digitized holdings data for public access, modernizing the resource and amplifying its scientific value. Key publications feature 'Description of a new species of crayfish in the genus Faxonius (Decapoda: Cambaridae) from the Lower Ohio River Drainage, with evidence of glacial influence on the distribution of some crayfish species throughout the Ohio River basin' (2022), 'The Pleurobemini (Bivalvia: Unionida) revisited: molecular species delineation using a mitochondrial DNA gene reveals multiple conspecifics and undescribed species' (2018), and 'Genetic structuring in the Pyramid Elimia, Elimia potosiensis (Gastropoda, Pleuroceridae), with implications for pleurocerid conservation' (2017).