Education and Professional Experiences

I completed my Bachelors of Arts at the University of Rochester.  My degree there was entitled "Commercial Culture," an interdisciplinary program that combined ethnographic anthropology, motivational psychology, and certificate track courses at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business.  While at University, I also secured a cluster focus in Organic Chemistry; Simon certificates in Marketing and Personnel Management; and a minor in Italian Language. 

As part of the work on my degree, I lived for five months in Milan, Italy, studying through Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Università Bocconi while researching cultural differences in mid-to-large scale business practices.  While an undergraduate, I was the reciepient of the Rush Rhees Merit scholarship, and was later awarded an Urban Scholars Fellowship to work and study in the area of inner-city housing issues. 

At the close of my fourth year at Rochester, I was selected as the recipient of a Take Five Scholars grant, which funded me for a continuing year of study in a field outside my own.  During the following year I studied Western Philosophy and researched the development of Buddhism from its roots in India through changes in China, Korea, and Japan.

During my fifth year as a Take Five Scholar, I was asked to participate in the inaugural offering of coursework through the UR Center for Entrepreneurship, and accepted, working with Gaurav Sharma and developing a theory of Entreprenuerial Action  for the capstone course, The Nature of Entrepreneurship.

After graduation I was trained to teach Italian language through Concordia Language Villages and was a credit teacher for Italian students at Lago del Bosco.  After teaching I returned to Rochester and was hired at the Memorial Art Gallery's Charlotte Whitney Allen Library & Teacher Resource Center. 

There I worked as an assistant to the Head Librarian and assisted local teachers in developing curricula that integrated Fine Arts into Secondary Math, Science, English Language Arts, and Social Studies classrooms.  While at the MAG I began full-time study of History and Politics at Monroe Community College, seeking my Associates in History. 

From MCC I relocated to Richmond, Indiana where I received my Masters of Arts in Teaching from Earlham College, and was conferred Indiana certification (reciprocal with MA and NY) in Middle and Secondary Social Studies, Highly Qualified in all Core Subjects.  There I was engaged in the practice of teaching as well as research on the use and effectiveness of narrative in the classroom.  Upon the completion of the MAT degree I moved to Boston to work for a few years in the Metrowest area.

In Massachusetts I taught as a Humanities teacher at McAuliffe Regional Charter School, an exeditionary learning school where I co-designed an integrated thematic curriculum that combined English Language Arts standards with those from World History.  The resulting block course addressed topics in literature and social studies in a cyclical, constructivist way, returning to cultures and concepts repeatedly so as continue to build on background knowledge and assist in making connections. 

In the Summer of 2009 I worked at a Pennsylvania Quaker Retreat Center, Pendle Hill, where I taught the adult course in Quakerism, was part of the core Spiritual Nurture team, and , with my wife Kristina, produced a series of web videos about Quaker History and Theology. 

After leaving the Philadephia area I returned to Rochester, NY, where I currently work as one of the coordinators of the Transformative Language Arts Network, perform with the improv comedy group, The Village Idiots, lecture and consult on the use of story and poem in educational and religious settings, and study part-time at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.