Dave Schlenker spent 33 years as a writer, editor and columnist, mostly for the Ocala Star-Banner, Gainesville Sun and Ocala Style magazine. He has won two New York Times Chairman’s Awards – one for environmental reporting and the other for humor columns. His columns have won top honors with Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and Florida Magazine Association.  A professional photographer, Schlenker co-founded the Ocala non-profit Cameras With A Cause and serves as an Area Coordinator and volunteer photographer for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.  He is currently a communications manager with the College of Engineering at the University of Florida.

He is the author of the books “Little Man, Big Mouth, 30 Years” and “Columns, Confessions and a Brain Cyst.”

He married his high school crush, Amy, and they have two grown daughters, Katie and Caroline. They have two cats (Katniss Poundcake and Cargo the Destroyer) and a big, floppy Golden Doodle named Rigby Floyd. Dave loves reading, tennis, kayaking, falling asleep in front of Netflix and writing about himself in the third person.