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The following is a brief biography including my work and family history.
Work Experience
1987-1989
My first real job at Hamot Hospital in Erie, PA
In my second and third year of college I realized I needed to earn some money or I was not going to be in school very long. Since I wanted to work in a laboratory one of my professors in college suggested working for a hospital laboratory. I soon found myself working at in the laboratory at Hamot hospital as a phlebotomist and later as a histology technician.
Yes, I worked in Hamot's laboratory as a blood sucking mosquito. I quickly learned no one wanted to see the phlebotomist, they all knew what I was after....blood. I learned to enjoy being a phlebotomist even though I was greeted daily with, "awe here comes the vampire." See I knew my purpose for getting their blood was to check for possible problems, their blood could be the key to finding out what is wrong with them. So you see, I had no intention of using their blood for myself, I was no vampire in the true sense, I just wanted to help them. For example, I was on the code blue team. Whenever the hospital would call CODE BLUE in the ER, I would run to the laboratory as swift as a cheetah through the hospital halls, pick up a pint of O negative blood from the blood bank, then grab my phlebotomy tray and sprint to the ER. I needed to get a sample of blood as soon as possible (ASAP) so I would squirm in-between the nurses, doctors and other technicians so I could get access to an arm , leg or something with a vein. I dropped the O negative blood off with the nurse and darted towards the lab. See that patient in a way was relying on me to get their blood samples as quickly as I possibly could and take it back to the laboratory, there the technicians could run a few tests to help the physician in his evaluation of the patient. If the patient was losing blood the pint of O negative would provide needed red blood cells to help the patient survive until the doctors could piece all of the test results together to get a picture of what is wrong with the patient. So I did not mind the patients taking pokes at me for sticking them with my needles, it was really the needles they didn't like . I just kept reminding myself, how this vampire was part of a team to save peoples lives.
The administrative staff in the laboratory saw how efficient and hard working I was so they decided to train me to work in the histology lab. This was new and exciting , my main job was to process tissues so pieces of them could be put on slides so they can investigated by the pathologist. I learned about different diseases and how they affected the different parts of the body. I also learned many beneficial techniques I could use later in my career.
I learned a lot at Hamot and my job there helped pay some of my expenses while I attended classes. But as in most jobs I learned many new things that helped me grow as a person and a human being. Knowing I was helping others gave me comfort and fulfilled me with a sense of purpose.
1989-1997
Cellular and Molecular Biology Technician
A few months before I was to graduate from college I was in search of a job doing biomedical research. The job market for entry level researchers in western Pennsylvania was bleak. With some luck I came across some job postings in the biology department, the National Cancer Institute was looking for entry level technicians to work in their laboratories. I applied, interviewed and found myself heading to Frederick, MD after I graduated. In Frederick I worked with human viruses, studying ways to prevent them from infecting cells. I got hands on experience growing cells and virus stocks in tissue culture, doing biochemical studies and performing immunological studies. Learning about viruses gave me a unique perspective on them. Although I found the mechanics of how they infect cells and propagate to be interesting I also learned how devastating they can be.
My virus work led me to a job at Georgetown University in the retrovirology laboratory. This laboratory was well funded by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and played a vital role in evaluating
patients who were undergoing experimental treatments of antiviral agents. My focus on research changed a little, I now found myself working with this powerful new technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). At Georgetown we used PCR to detect viral DNA that was integrated into human DNA, if viral DNA was found in the DNA the patient was considered to have an active infection with the virus. PCR could detect one infected cell out of 100,000 normal cells. As I grasped the knowledge of PCR I was becoming interested in this new field called molecular biology. I continued to grow with the laboratory and actually was involved with writing a scientific article using PCR.
PCR was not the only thing I found interesting in the laboratory at Georgetown, little did I know at the time but I met my future wife there. After dating for a couple years she went off to school at the University of Virginia, two years later we decided to tie the knot (get Married) and I moved to Charlottesville, VA . I readily found a job at the University in the Psychiatric Medicine department, "maybe this is were I needed to be the whole time". In fact many of my friends told me, "the psychiatric department should have never have let you go". My actual research had little to with abnormal behaviors; I studied the molecular and immunologcal affects Alzheimer's disease had on patients.
Moving to Washington, PA and working at the University of Pittsburgh
Although Charlottesville is a beautiful place to live with it's rolling hills and the back drop of the Appalachian mountains, our time there was limited. My wife graduated from the University of Virginia (UVA) and needed to enter a residency program, she found a position at Washington Hospital in Washington, PA. We packed our belongings into a moving van and tucked our memories of this wonderful place deep in our minds, so we would not forget them. Charlottesville is the first place my wife and lived after getting married and we have some found memories like our first house together and the birth of our beautiful daughter, Jocelyn. We headed to our next destination with our found memories and looked forward to the next page in our lives.
Washington was much different than Charlottesville, our first impression, was a city in decline with abandoned factories deteriorating around it. Washington was a city that thrived due to the steel and mining industry in southwestern Pennsylvania, but these fledgling industries brought economic hardships to the city. My wife felt the area was depressed due to the loss of its industrial base. I, on the other hand, learned to thrive in this environment because I grew up within fifteen miles of Washington. The people are very hard working and the job base is mostly blue collar. I felt at home because my family is based on the blue collar mentality, my father is an electrician and my brother was a carpenter. As a family we dealt with our new surroundings and actually started to feel part of the community.
My wife was extremely busy working 80-100 hours a week, residency programs are notoriously known for over working their students. I started to look for a job and decided I had the best chance to land a job at the University of Pittsburgh that was about 35 miles away. With my experience in molecular and cellular biology I landed a job in the Neurosurgery Department at the University of Pittsburgh. I became a member of a growing laboratory that was doing research on the cutting edge of science. We could actually isolate neural precursor cells from adult animals; these cells are important because precursor cells are like stem cells and can be differentiated into different neural cells (like neurons). We did studies with mice and rats and were able to inject these cells into animals with brain tumors and the cells migrated to the tumors. This is a significant finding if you think about the damage tumors cause or maybe it will prove to be a method to deliver anti-cancer drugs only to the site of the cancer.
Now if you have made it this far in my biography you now have a chance for extra credit. Write a one page paper on the use of precursor cells and the treatment of brain tumors. You need to include at least two scientific references on your paper. If you can think of alternative method for extra credit using your talents and knowledge about precursor cells, present your idea to me for consideration. For example if you are artistically inclined then I may let you use your talents to create something about precursor cells for our room (you will still need the two scientific references).
All goods things have to come to an end sooner or later, after three years in residency my wife owed the United States Air Force (USAF) fours years of service. I had to leave the job I coveted
because the USAF assigned my wife to Maxwell, AFB in Montgomery, AL. You might be wondering why does she owe the USAF four years? See my wife was a very dedicated student in high school and college, she studied intensively and earned well above average grades. She valued her education and challenged herself to do as well as she could, to reach her potential. To make a long story short she did, she actually never received a grade lower than an A throughout her high school and college education. When she wanted to continue her education she did not have the money to pursue her dream, the USAF offered scholarships to bright students and to repay their courtesy she owed them four years of service. So we loaded up the moving van and ventured to Montgomery, Alabama.
Our second child, Bradley, was born just after arriving in Alabama. My wife was now a Captain in the USAF and I was left to search for another job. With the job market bleak around Montgomery for molecular and cellular biologists, I decided to pursue other interests. One of the interests I decided to pursue is teaching, I applied to Auburn University of Montgomery
and began taking classes in hopes of earning a Master's degree in Education.
After four years in the smelting heat of Alabama and the end of my wife's commitment to the USAF, we decided to move to a smaller town closer to our parents. My wife found a position with DuBois hospital and I was lucky enough to land a position here at DuBois High School. We are hoping to stay put here in DuBois and become active members of the community.
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