My career has been an unusual intersection of academic work, educational travel and entrepreneurship.  

1) As an undergraduate I focused on the most ancient records of the Indo-European languages.  I learned the ancient languages Sanskrit, Ancient Greek and Latin and earned a B.A. in Historical Linguistics with a focus on the history of the Indo-European language family from Rice University and then a Post-Baccalaureate in Classics from the University of Pennsylvania.  1992-1997.

2) After my post-baccalaureate degree I suspended formal study to face the intellectual and emotional challenges of deep immersion in foreign cultures and mastering spoken languages.  Inspired by the tradition of the Grand Tour, I lived successively in England, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.  In addition to the learning German, French, Spanish and Italian, I also learned the exotic non-Indo-European minority language of northern Spain and southwestern France, Basque.  I am a published translator of Basque poetry.  1997-2004.

3) After settling in Italy, I returned to formal study in Rome and Salerno.  I mastered the nearly lost art of speaking Latin with papal Latinist Fr. Reginald Foster OCD.  I earned an M.A. in Patristic Sciences from the Pontifical Patristics Institute "Augustinianum," paying my way by working as a docent for exclusive small-group walking tours in Rome and environs.  I won a special doctoral stipend from the University of Salerno designed to attract foreigners and completed a Ph.D. in Medieval Philosophy focusing on the Carolingian era.  I also translated Italian scholarly works into English.  2004-2013.

4) Seeing no prospects for finding gainful employment in academia, I became an educational entrepreneur.  I co-founded the Paideia Institute for Humanistic Study, a non-profit promoting active oral production pedagogy for Latin and Ancient Greek.  I served as its Executive Director and head of its Rome office for ten years as it grew from start-up to an important institution in the field of classics.  In 2016 I and my co-founder received from the Society for Classical Studies their "Presidents' Award," a special award given by nomination only on rare occasions to outsiders for outstanding service to the field of classics.  2011-2020.

5) I took up a position teaching Ecclesiastical Latin and Biblical Greek at the seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a Roman Catholic religious order, in Wigratzbad, Germany.  I taught these languages in both German and French.  In my spare time I co-founded the Veterum Sapientia Institute, a non-profit promoting knowledge and use of Latin and Greek within the Roman Catholic Church, and served as its part-time director until it had grown enough to hire a full-time executive.  I also created Polymnia Education to organize educational travel to Europe for American high school groups. 2020-2026.

6) The mission and vision of the Washington Center and the unique qualities, virtues and strengths of WVU and West Virginia enticed me to return from Europe to the United States after twenty-nine years of residence abroad.  My family is preparing for their upcoming move by playing and singing, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," in an arrangement that my musically talented wife created for the various instruments she and the five older of our six children play. Summer 2026.