Professional Service and Personal Interests
At SUNY New Paltz, I serve as a faculty senator for the Liberal Arts and Sciences Senate. In addition, I am involved in New Paltz Transition, which is an effort to officially sign up the village/town of New Paltz as a Transition Town. The Transition Town movement is a global network seeking to prepare for the twin challenges of fossil fuel depletion and climate change by redesigning local neighborhoods, towns, and regions so that they are far more resilient. The motto of The Transition Network is “from oil dependency to local resilience.” See this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education about the tremendous steps the town of Oberlin and Oberlin College have taken in transitioning Oberlin — via The Oberlin Project — from oil dependency to local resilience.
I was previously a professor for six years at Kalamazoo College — where I was awarded tenure — from 2002 until 2008. There I was on the Board of the Southwest Branch of the with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan as well as serving on the Taskforce of the Great Lakes Affiliate of PeaceJam.
On the K College campus, I volunteered as the co-instructor of the ultimate frisbee class (PED082) during the Fall and Spring Quarters each year from Fall 2002 and played/practiced with the men’s team and women’s team. I served as one of the co-founders and organizers of the Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League (KUDL), which has organized summer leagues and fall leagues since June 2006.
I served as the Kalamazoo College Pre-Law Advisor at K College for all six years and am currently serving as one of two Pre-Law Advisors at SUNY New Paltz. I am also currently the webmaster for the Department of Political Science & International Relations.
When I’m not involved with research, teaching, or the above service activities, I’m spending time with Doree and my three year old son. Besides being a dad, my other interests include being politically active in local, regional, and national politics on issues of racial justice and environmental sustainability. In addition, I enjoy exercising (Nordic skiing, hiking, running, tennis, ultimate frisbee, and bicycling for transportation) and playing lots of guitar and banjo together with my son.