My academic career has unfolded across four institutions over more than two decades, each representing a distinct chapter in a professional trajectory that has moved consistently toward broader administrative scope and deeper institutional impact. What connects those chapters is not geography or circumstance but a set of consistent priorities — enrolling and retaining more students, developing faculty who build careers they are proud of, building programs that outlast any individual's tenure, and connecting every institution I have served to the national networks and civic commitments that make regional public universities worth the investment society places in them.
I have spent my entire career at regional public comprehensive universities. That is a considered commitment, not a default. These institutions serve students that elite research universities do not — first-generation college students, place-bound learners, students who need an education that connects directly to the economic and civic life of their communities. Leading them well requires a different set of priorities than leading a research university, and a different understanding of what success looks like. I know that context from the inside, across multiple institutions and multiple states, and I would not trade that grounding for any other.
Radford University — 2021–Present
Professor and Chair of Political Science | Acting Chair of Sociology
The current chapter. From 81 majors to 409. From 78 percent retention to 87 percent. From a department with limited external visibility to one with statewide program partnerships, a nationally recognized civic engagement record, and a co-founded legislative simulation on the floor of the Virginia General Assembly.
University of West Georgia — 2017–2021
Professor and Chair of Political Science | Director of Civic Engagement and Leadership
A larger stage and a broader mandate. Sixteen faculty, two campuses, undergraduate and graduate programs across in-person and online platforms. Undergraduate enrollment grew from 115 to 284. Graduate enrollment grew from 18 to the NASPAA-accredited maximum of 75. A new online Organizational Leadership program. A rebuilt MPA. A university-wide civic engagement directorship built from scratch in the middle of Georgia's most consequential election cycle in a generation.
Fort Hays State University — 2003–2017
Professor and Chair of Political Science | Interim Graduate Dean | Interim Assistant Provost for Quality Management | Director of Liberal Education
Fourteen years and the full range of what academic leadership can ask of a person. Department chair, interim graduate dean, interim assistant provost, director of liberal education — sometimes concurrently. Graduate enrollment grew from 39 to 212. A doctoral program launched. A general education redesign led. A Faculty Senate presidency. An AQIP reaccreditation portfolio written. A Times Talk program founded that ran for fourteen years and outlasted my tenure by seven.
Prior Employment
For teaching appointments at Linn State Technical College and the University of Missouri, please refer to my curriculum vitae.