About Me

I grew up in Ferndale, MI, a suburb of Detroit. High school in Ferndale was a very musical experience for me, as I participated in various orchestras, bands, choirs, and the musical theatre and I composed my own works. College, however, was more scientific.  After a brief flirtation with majoring in biotechnology and then pre-pharmacy, I eventually earned my B.S. in Applied Mathematics and my B.A. in Chemistry from Ferris State University in 2004.

For graduate school, I moved to Raleigh, NC where I learned to say "y'all" and earned my Master of Operations Research degree from North Carolina State University in 2006.  I wrote my thesis, "Exploring the Inverse Problem with Infectious Disease Models," while working under the direction of Dr. Alun Lloyd, completing my Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics with a minor in Statistics in 2010. 

My wife, Dr. Mindy Capaldi, and I met while in graduate school.  We were married in the library of Georgetown College, her alma mater, in 2009.  We moved to Valparaiso, IN in 2010 and worked at Valparaiso University together in the Mathematics and Statistics Department for 11 years. We then spent two years in Alexandria, VA while Mindy served as a rotating program officer for the National Science Foundation and I worked remotely for VU.  We are happy to now both work at James Madison University in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley where the two of us went on our first vacation together.

We have two energetic and curious children, Henry and Edward.  Our family enjoys spending time together outdoors camping, hiking, and especially birding.  I spent 2022 pursuing a Virginia Big Year; I saw 333 species of birds in the state!  I also love travel, gaming, and lifelong learning.