I was raised sort of rough. There was a lot going on around me-

-in my home, my family, and my community. 

I valued the values of my environment and made choices that were of a very narrow selection of bad to worse. That was what it was like in the Albina area of Portland during the '80s & '90s when I grew up there. In the family and community I was socialized in, the police, and government institutions generally, were largely considered an occupying force.

I started getting locked up by the police when I was 11. I was on probation by the time I was 12. I joined a gang when I was 13. I went to juvenile prison at 14.  Out on parole at 15. Back in before my 16th birthday. At 17 I became a father. By 18, I caught my first non-violent adult offense for which I was sentenced to imprisonment in state prison.  

Besides several county jail facilities I've been a guest at in a number of jurisdictions since, I've spent a lot of time in juvenile, adult, state, and federal prisons. And although I was never convicted of a crime of violence, I spent most of that time in high-security, locked-down, or solitary confinement situations.  

My last release from prison was more than a decade ago in November of 2012. By January of 2013, I was attending Portland Community College where I would eventually earn a transferable associates degree two years later. 

By 2015, I successfully completed my three year term of federal supervised release, without any violations whatsoever. I focused intensely on raising my children, while also volunteering as a youth gang mentor for a local non-profit. 

During the Summer of 2020, at a time of exploding racial tensions and intense social unrest, both here in Portland and throughout the nation, I felt compelled to challenge the systemic status quo and for me, simply protesting was no longer enough. I needed to do more.

However, I felt I needed to learn more so I could effectively do more towards enacting  meaningful social change. It was then I decided to resume my academic journey and I applied to Portland State University, where I began in the Fall of 2020. 

Since that time, I have been involved in a number of groups and activities both on and off-campus and with local government agencies, including the City's Office of Violence Prevention and the County's Local Public Safety Coordinating Council. 

In 2022, I graduated summa cum laude from Portland State University with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Social Science with a Civic Leadership Minor. As a Ronald E. McNair Scholar my aim is to earn a PhD in Sociology and to make contributions to the social sciences that can be measured by actual social change. 

I'm currently a Master of Urban Studies student at the Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning, and I've also been accepted into the PhD in Sociology program at Portland State where I'll begin in the Fall of 2024. 

I'm a published author, consultant, speaker, and activist. I'm also a convict and a gang member from the urban interstices who has survived a lifetime of trauma and hardship, much of it through social and systemic failures. 

Portland State University's motto is Let Knowledge Serve the City. I seek knowledge I hope will help serve the people of the city that the city ignores. In that spirit, I aim to let knowledge serve the city streets-Where service of knowledge is inarguably needed the most.