David Byers has thirty years’ experience in administering church programs as senior staff at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the professional association of the Catholic bishops of the United States. During those years, he also directed a grant-making agency that helped rural Catholic dioceses organize and administer a wide range of projects. Finally, he edited the official minutes of the bishops’ national meetings for twenty years, gaining a deep familiarity with the administrative structures and governing relationships of the Church.

For many years, Dr. Byers served simultaneously as executive director of four episcopal committees with diverse agendas, preparing budgets, reports and publications, and running their daily operations. These included the Committees on the Home Missions, World Missions, Evangelization, and Science and Human Values. The last-named committee organized a series of formal dialogues (1986-2003) between bishops and leading scientists (including two Nobel Prize winners and several members of the National Academy of Sciences) on such subjects as cloning; stem cell research; the relationship between brain, mind and spirit; and general and human evolution.
In the 1980s and 90s, Dr. Byers also directed committees that planned two special national assemblies of the bishops, was a founding director (1982-94) of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, and served two terms on the Advisory Committee for Dialogue of Science and Religion of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Since retiring from the USCCB in 2007, Dr. Byers has become a consultant to non-profit organizations wishing to build a bright future based on sound planning, to revitalize their spirit, and to modernize their operations. He is presently serving as Secretary to the Planning Commission of the Diocese of Salina, Kansas. He has also designed an effective, affordable and sustainable communications system for rural dioceses in cooperation with Advertising Media Plus of Baltimore, and articulated a plan for restructuring the Glenmary Research Center of Nashville.

Dr. Byers joined Plexus Consulting Group in February 2009 to enhance its services to the non-profit sector, with particular reference to organized religion.

Dr. Byers, whose Ph.D. is in English, is an expert writer/editor. His publications include
New Directions for the Rural Church, The Catholic Way of Life (ed.), Justice in the Marketplace (ed.); Religion, Science, and the Search for Wisdom (ed.); Opening Doors: Ministry with Persons with Disabilities (ed.); and numerous essays, articles and church statements in the areas of Catholic missions, science and religion, energy, agriculture, climate change, and disability.