When I was a grad student, my advisor asked me what my goal was. I replied, “I want to be a politics professor at a small liberal arts college,” and that’s usually how I think of myself. It’s certainly the role that I would fight tooth and nail for, if you made me choose from among the others in my life.

I believe in the value of doing, though, too - so I was never much interested in a purely cloistered, “academic” existence.

I have broad experience in applied politics, working as a policy advisor to local, state, and federal government offices and agencies. I also have experience in election campaigns, communication, and advocacy.

I chair the Weikel Memorial Scholarship Fund, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that raises funds to endow scholarships for veterans and the family of veterans, in honor of my friend Jarrad Weikel, USMC.

I write. Academic stuff, sure, but also in non-academic areas I find interesting! My most extensive body of work isn’t in politics, but beer, with work appearing in a range of industry-leading trade publications like Craft Beer & Brewing and Zymurgy, among others. I’m also in the midst of several screenplays that in my wildest dreams would one day get discovered by some producer in some highly unlikely way, in classic Hollywood fashion.

I’m a two-time US Army veteran, having enlisted at the age of 18 as a military linguist, served and Honorably Discharged, and then gone back for round two more than 25 years later to accept a commission as a Military Government Specialist in the Civil Affairs branch.

I fulfilled a lifelong dream and competed on the game show “Jeopardy!” All those years of trivia in bars and board games finally paid off when I got to walk onto the Alex Trebek Stage in Culver City!

I run. A lot. Possibly too much. I’ve completed upwards of a dozen marathons and many other road races at various distances. Marathoning teaches you that limits on endurance are mostly artificial, and that with sufficient prep and planning you can do almost anything.

And, most importantly, I get to share all of this with my wife, Barbara, who in addition to being an amazingly accomplished person herself (and the best teacher I’ve ever met or heard of) is an outstanding coach, running partner, and roommate.

In my life I’m tried to be guided by a simple rule: do things you think are interesting and worth your time, and hopefully valuable to others. It’s led me to some wonderful places.