I am a Professor of Geography at Western Illinois University. I have been a member of the WIU faculty since 1998. I served as the department's graduate program coordinator from 1999 to 2002 and the department's chairperson from 2002 to 2007. 

Prior to coming to WIU, I taught at Northwestern State University (NSU) in Natchitoches, LA (1995-1998). I earned my Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Denver. I am an active teacher and scholar. I edited Goode's World Atlas, 23rd Edition. I authored the Student Atlas of World Geography, 8th Edition, co-authored the Student Atlas of World Geography, 7th Edition, the Student Atlas of World Politics (9th and 10th editions), and Global Studies: The Middle East, 14th edition. I have published several research articles in leading journals including Annals of the Association of American Geographers, The Geographical Review, Journal of Transport Geography, Journal of Latin American Geographers, and Urban Geography. I serve as cartography editor for the journal Illinois Geographer and have had maps published in various books and articles including The Iron Road in the Prairie State by Simon Cordery, Jerusalem: From the Ottomans to the British by Roberto Mazza.

In 2017, I was named Western Illinois University's renamed Distinguished University Professor (called the Distinguished Faculty Lecturer at the time) the university's highest faculty honor. Other honors I have received include being named the 2012 Distinguished Geographer by the Illinois Geographical Society, the 2011 John Hallwas Liberal Arts Lecturer (WIU College of Arts and Sciences), and am a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow. I earned two WIU Provost Awards of Excellence (University/Community Service, Teaching with Technology) and have earned five Professional Achievement Awards from WIU. Prior to my time at WIU, I was twice named Professor of the Year by the Northwestern State University Student Government Association and my PhD dissertation won the 1996 Dissertation Award in Transportation Geography from the Transportation Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers.

I am a Faculty Associate (cartography & geovisualization) for the WIU GIS Center and served for five years as a Research Faculty Associate at the WIU Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research.

I am a member of the American Association of Geographers, National Council for Geographic Education, the North American Cartographic Information Society, the Illinois GIS Association, and the Illinois Geographical Society an organization for which I have served two terms as President (2009-2010, 2017-2019). I also am a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Cartographic Association.

Between 2010 and 2018 I served as a judge for the Illinois Geography Bee and have served as the Bee's moderator for the final and championship rounds 2014-2018. For the past several years, I have been a moderator for several Scholastic Bowl tournaments including IHSA Regionals, IHSA Sectionals, IHSA State Championships, Masonic Sectionals, and the Macomb Rotary Scholastic Bowl Invitational.

My wife Emily is an attorney in private practice and we have five children in our wonderful blended family.