David McConnell is a professor in the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at NC State University.

He runs a geoscience education research team that has produced a post-doc, 6 PhDs and 4 MS since 2014. These graduates work as in a variety of academic, museum, and K-12 settings. His research has been continually supported over the last 18 years by ten research grants (7 PI, 3 Co-PI) from the National Science Foundation. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles or books. A 2017 article by McConnell et al., Instructional utility and learning efficacy of common active learning strategies received the Journal of Geoscience Education outstanding paper award (2018). Dr. McConnell has received multiple teaching awards and was recently named an alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor for NC State. He is the co-author of an introductory textbook (The Good Earth: An Introduction to Earth Science) and the creator of the Geoscience Videos YouTube channel. Dr. McConnell is a Geological Society of America fellow and is the past president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT).