In Alaska David taught in many rural locations including schools in Barrow, Akiachak, Eagle, and Fairbanks. David has demonstrated teaching excellence in technology and cross-cultural awareness as illustrated by his Breadloaf Rural Teacher Network fellowship paid for by the Annenberg Foundation and documented in the Breadloaf Rural Teacher Network Magazine article, "Walking in Two Worlds" and covered in Electronic Networks Crossing Boundaries/Creating Communities. David's use of technology in the classroom has been evident from the nascent days of the Internet to his current efforts at TailWind Solutions, the software company he founded. David also supports the Foster City High Tech High foundation, an ongoing effort to bring a next generation high school to Foster City, California.
David's work with mainstreaming Down syndrome students has continued throughout his career. As an educator he was often responsible for mainstreaming Down syndrome students in the classroom. David modified the day-to-day curriculum of each and every classroom so that his students could participate in all aspects of middle school and high school. In the private sector David's work with special needs students continues. David contributes on a regular basis to Special Olympics of Northern California and attends as many of their events as possible.
David is a committed naturalist. As a freshman in college David helped start the Cedar Key Seabird Rescue unit as an independent study project. During the summer David worked at the EPA in the Office of Marine and Estuarine Protection in the Department of Water. David's affection for the wild developed over his lifetime. In Alaska, David started an eco-tourism business based on a grant from Alaska's North Slope Borough. The eco-tourism company, Extreme Tours, guided adventurers, archaeologists, birdwatchers, and biologists alike out across the expanse of the Arctic Tundra. David stays involved with local non-profits interested in ecology and he works closely with Berkeley's "Daylighting Strawberry Creek" organization. David works with the nonprofit organization, Taproot, an organization committed to providing technical services to local nonprofits. As part of his work he donates time to Slide Ranch: "Slide Ranch uses food to teach about sustainability and to demonstrate a vision of humans in balance with nature." Also, David spent a week in retreat at the eco-arts abode, Rockmirth, in Sapello, NM.
In the technology space, David has worked for Remedy Corporation, Aurigin Systems, AvantGo, Satmetrix, and TailWind. As TailWind's founder, David Koehn's background as academic, entrepreneur, information developer, Web developer, and director of services provides a well rounded foundation for leadership. At AvantGo, David spearheaded their information development and educational services efforts, founding both internal groups and leading their growth.
While at AvantGo David taught at San Francisco State University (SFSU), hired many of his students, and even hired the head of the Technical Communication program from SFSU. In addition, David managed AvantGo's intellectual property efforts, working with Sterne Kessler Fox & Goldstein to guide more than a dozen patents into the USPTO.
At TailWind, David authored the original business plan, product requirements document, patent application and market analysis. In addition, David secured TailWind's flagship customers: Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, the Army, and the Navy. David recruited TailWind's core talent including its chief architect, the current executive team, advisory board, board of directors, and board observers. David is also primarily responsible for securing TailWind's initial institutional investor, Nokia.
David's speaking history includes presentations at several universities, and to many corporate customers including Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Astra Zeneca, Aventis, McKesson, Luminant, Onyx, Baxter Healthcare, Deutsche Bank, and various SI's. Additionally, David has presented to a wide array of angel investment groups such as Alaska InvestNet, Deloitte Accelerator, Fundraising Forum, Golden Capital Network, the International Angel Investors, and The Angels Forum. David has presented to dozens of venture capital funds including Lightspeed, Trinity, Sequoia, Menlo, Diamondhead, August Capital, Hummer Winblad, Adobe, Garage, Geneva, Horizon, Outlook, Sigma, Walden, and others. David has also delivered product focused presentations at SFSU Multimedia & Information Technology Corporate Training Digital Exchange Seminars Series: Wireless, Internet+Mobile expo 2001, Wireless Developer 2001: AvantGo - Dynamic Mobility--Building the Mobile Web, Mobile Marketing Association Seminar, Single Sourcing Content Management: Mobile Delivery, DEMO 2004, Mobiltrax Mobile Showcase 2004, WINMEC Wireless 2004 Spring Conference, 2004 California Equity Capital Symposium, Software Developers Best Practices 2004 Boston, Technology Ventures Corporation Investor Forum 2005, and other assorted evangelist events.
David's commitment to the arts is longstanding. In high school he attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts and returned there later during college for two consecutive summers as an Assistant Teacher and Resident Assistant. Throughout college and graduate school David wrote and published widely. He had the good fortune of working with Jim Daniels, Debora Greger, William Logan, and Donald Justice. In the years to follow David would have the opportunity to study with many more poets, writers, and artists including Dean Young, C.D. Wright, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass, Sharon Olds, Andrew Hudgins, Arthur Sze and others. Writer's conferences in which David participated on scholarship, on fellowship, or as attendee include Fishtrap, Ropewalk, Squaw Valley, and Napa valley Writer's Conference. David has been offered residencies at Vermont Studies, Leighton Studios at Bannff, and the Red Cinder Creativity Center of Hawaii.
In 1998 David won the Midnight Sun Chapbook Contest, and in 2006 the chapbook, COIL, has been re-issued in a second edition. For more information or to purchase the chapbook (see: http://davidkoehn.com/announcement.htm).
Currently David is working on translations of Catullus with Rebecca Resinski of Hendrix University. David translates poetry from French, Chinese, and Latin and has published some translations of that poetry. This year David was awarded a Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language Grant to lead a Catullus Translation Workshop/Reading at Hendrix College; the project's title was
"Reclaiming Catullus."
He recently started an online arts and poetics blog called The Great American Pinup, (see: http://greatmericanpinup.blogspot.com) David also writes plays for the stage and has worked with Dare Clubb and corresponded with Edward Albee on his stage plays. His play, The Accident, is in development in San Francisco. He is working on a collection of his published and unpublished poems for publication. David also belongs to the San Francisco Based workshop "Thirteen Ways," a group of San Francisco based poets. David lives in Foster City, California with his wife Christa and their three children: Arianna, Anna, and Andrew.