Born with Down syndrome, David is an eager advocate and leader for people with intellectual disabilities at the local, national, and international level. 

David has always dreamed big. When he was eight years-old, he started out as a Special Olympics swimmer and dreamed about winning competitive races. In his adolescent years, his dreams grew beyond sports. He aspired to have a job and find ways to change attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities. David achieved his dreams and along the way inspired others to live theirs.  A Special Olympics athlete and International Global Messenger, he has traveled extensively and delivers speeches to audiences around the world. He has had a competitive job for over two decades starting as a clerk at Booz Allen Hamilton and then later at CBRE. David also was a Community Relations Coordinator at SourceAmerica near his home in Vienna, Virginia.

David served as a Special Olympics Sargent Shriver International Global Messenger (IGM) class of 2014-2018 where he spoke to audiences and various media outlets to help spread the message of inclusion and dignity.  In 2015, he was selected as the first person with an intellectual disability to serve as a Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Public Policy Fellow on Capitol Hill.  As a Fellow, David worked for the Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee on Capitol Hill and with the National Down Syndrome Society.  He has testified about employment at the Senate HELP Committee, spoke about Human Rights at the United Nations, and briefed the NIH/NICHD Advisory Council. He is an active participant in research and he represents self-advocates with the National Institutes of Health Down Syndrome Consortium. David is also the author of “More Alike Than Different: My Life with Down Syndrome.” He inspires his audiences to see our shared humanity and possibilities rather than limitations.

Outside of work, David plays and competes in soccer, basketball, softball, and swimming. In addition to winning many medals over the years, David has traveled nationally and internationally. In 2000, he was elected to represent the State of Virginia at the first Global Athlete Congress in the Netherlands, and in 2010 he held the same role at the Global Athlete Congress in Morocco. Starting in 1999, he has been involved in community outreach when he began volunteering at the Special Olympics World Games in Raleigh, North Carolina, and in 2011 in Athens, Greece, and in 2019 in AbuDhabi, Dubai.  As an International Global Messenger, David cheered the crowds at the Opening Ceremony for the 2015 World Summer Games in Los Angeles, as well as the World Winter Games in Austria in 2017.

David serves on several boards to promote abilities and collaborates with different advocacy groups. He currently serves on the Arc of Northern Virginia and the Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia (DSANV). He was first to be elected to serve on the national Down Syndrome Affiliates in Action (DSAIA). He is one of the National Down Syndrome Society Ambassadors (NDSS). David serves as a Special Olympics Global Messenger. He served as a Board Member of Special Olympics Virginia (SOVA) where he succeeded in putting forward a motion to have a person with disability hired on the staff.