A Few Words About Me

I am focused on becoming a leader in the teaching community of Oregon. My area of expertise is music, specifically band, low brass instruments, and classical guitar. I am a graduate of The Military School of Music (94'), where I studied music performance on the tuba and subsequently served 4 years as a tubist as well as a guitarist; both stateside and abroad. When my tour was up I decided to move back to San Jose, California in order to pursue a degree in Psychology. In the accomplishment of this goal I was once again drawn into the military, only this time through the ROTC program at Santa Clara University; where, in 2002 I graduated with a B.S. in Psychology, along with the gold bars of a 2nd Lieutenant. Soon after graduation I was shipped off to Ft. Rucker, Alabama to attend the Army's helicopter flight school. After a year and a half of the most demanding schooling I had ever experienced I exited flight school as a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot bound for the first of what would end up being three separate tours to the Middle East and South West Asia.

College is also where I met my wife Michelle. We have been married for seven and a half years. She was also an Army officer and we were both deployed to Iraq for 15 months between 2006 and 2008. Soon after we came home we began making plans to leave the military, reinvent ourselves, begin new careers and start a family. Fast forward a few years and we now have our first child, a boy, named William, who is a little over a year old and perfect! My wife is in her second year of pre-med courses at Portland State U. and I have recently begun my Masters in the Art of Teaching at Willamette University.

 I am currently a Captain in the Army Reserves and plan on retiring from the military in about seven years. I could not be more excited about my decision to become a teacher, and I am eager with anticipation to begin.