As early as I can remember, I have been on college campuses. I was born just outside College Park, Maryland, where my father was finishing his doctorate at the University of Maryland. I grew up the son of a faculty member at an HBCU (Historically Black College and University. My father won several teaching and mentoring awards while sharing his love of botany, biology, and marine biology, while also investing in students navigating the challenges of college and life after college. He worked with the State of Maryland to research and share new ways of experientially teaching the sciences. Since he spent 30 years at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore (UMES), I was often on campus attending summer camps, playing in the student union, hanging out at the campus greenhouse and pond, and exploring my father’s office, lab, and classroom.
I grew up two blocks from Salisbury University and spent much of my first 18 years at the Salisbury University library, pool, basketball courts, and track. I attended many summer workshops and completed 36 college credits in high school, most of them at or through Salisbury U. I was a 17 year old surrounded by college juniors and seniors taking Calculus II and III in addition several psychology courses. My mother, and her mother, were both reference librarians, so I also spent much time reading books, magazines, Microfiche (tiny cards) and Microfilm (rolls of film) at Wicomico County Library.
We typically visited my parent’s alma maters (Hood College and U. of Maryland) each year for Homecoming and/or reunions. At Hood, my mother was the winner of White Blazer award for the top athlete at the university! On family vacations we often toured colleges for fun.
My college visits included tours of over 40 colleges on three trips with my father to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. The last time I visited my father before he passed in 2018, he gave me the old composition notebook with all his notes from each of the college tours. I actually have several pre-Excel, dot matrix printed, quantitative analyses of my college exploration that greatly exceeded the content in the first U.S. News College Rankings coming out around the same time (see below). In short, I have been around and learning about higher education for over 50 years.
Once leaving Maryland, I spent the next six years at the University of Virginia (UVA), where I earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in counselor education (student affairs focus). Before deciding on my counseling degree, I spent a summer at the UVA Medical School, leading an Alzheimer’s-related research project exploring the interactions of brain stems and heavy metal ions analyzed using gel electrophoresis.
After trying out my first two years and not succeeding, I made the UVA Men’s Club Volleyball Team my junior year and at the end of my senior year, in NIRSA Club Nationals, we finished 7th in the nation (I was on the bench). I also joined the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and started volunteering in the local community with Adopt-a-Grandparent and youth sports.
One winter break I worked at the National Zoo. In addition, I spent a year in Sports Information when UVA football rose to #1 in the nation (i.e. I contacted Heisman Voters weekly.)
During my master’s program in counseling at UVA, in order to get some non-UVA experiences, I completed internships at the University of Lynchburg and Florida State University.
After leaving Charlottesville, I spent 4 years at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), working in residence life, leadership development, intramurals, and university-wide assessment. I returned to the U. of Virginia in 1998 where I completed another degree (Ph.D.) while added an organizational behavior concentration at UVA’s Darden School of Business.
While earning my doctorate, I worked at the Federal Executive Institute, an on-site 4-week leadership program for U.S. Government Senior Executive (SES). After graduation, I moved to Winchester, VA where I served as the Assistant Vice President for Student Life at Shenandoah University. In 2003, after spending fifteen years along the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, my wife and two 1-year old sons moved to Boone, North Carolina, literally in the mountains at 3,400 feet! There, I worked in student life at Appalachian State University for seven years.
While at App State, I was asked to teach graduate classes in higher education to university faculty and staff at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Isothermal Community College, Cleveland Community College, and Catawba Valley Community College.
In 2010, my family and I, how with a 1 year old daughter, moved to Waco, Texas, where I served at Baylor University for 11.5 years. During this time, as the Dean for Student Learning & Engagement, I worked with the departments overseeing housing, orientation, Greek Life, student organizations, living-learning communities, faculty-in-residence, the Student Union, spirit & traditions (including the live bears and an accredited zoo on campus and the oldest Homecoming in the nation,) a ~2,000 seat performance venue, $200M in residence hall construction and renovations, and a 200-student academic minor in leadership.
My last 2.5 years at Baylor, I shifted to the Provost’s Office where I served in Institutional Effectiveness. My focus was the on helping the ~60 administrative departments plan, act, assess, and improve over time. In addition to facilitating Baylor’s 5th Year Report for our accreditation with SACS, I was invited to participate in 7 other universities’ institutional accreditation reviews.
From January 2022 to June 2023, I worked in several roles. The first was in a contract role of Consulting Advisor for Higher Talent Executive Search, where I either led or helped led staff searches. Another role that I have continued, was/is as a dissertation chair and reader for 20-25 Liberty University doctoral students a semester. I often volunteered and was sometimes paid to act as a career coach for many of the Baylor students, faculty, and staff. Every student I get to know I offer to help at any point in their career. I have met with over 100 students since their graduation and helped them think through their next steps in life.
In summer 2022, I taught an ethics and equity focused graduate course in university leadership at Texas Christian University.
From January to July 2023, I worked with a company called InGenius Prep, which assists high school students interested in admission to one of the top 50 colleges in the U.S. My role was as an admissions coach; helping high schoolers make wise choices about how they spent their time in order to open the door to top colleges.
In July 2023, I was hired as the Director of Student Success & Retention at Southern Methodist University. My role there was to work with a team to study over 100 measurable factors that influence student persistence and graduation. I partnered with others to create student success dashboards, unique outreach and coaching strategies, and foster a greater student sense of belonging. My time at SMU ended too soon in part because of my distance from family and loved ones.
I was thankful to find a new role closer to my family and loved ones in Georgetown, Texas, at Southwestern University, a gem of a small, private university 30 miles north of Austin. At Southwestern, I work as Director of Fraternity & Sorority Life, where my focus is on expanding, diversifying, and strengthening positive community within close-knit groups of men and women. When I first started at SU, I posted 10 of the most interesting facts about Southwestern U in case you want to learn more.
My story is not yet over, and I am excited to share upcoming steps. The content on this website and my Linked Profile share many other things I care about, am learning about, and want to share and discuss with others.
Deep Thoughts on Higher Ed 