Dad First

Long before I think about being a school board trustee, educator, or administrator, I think about being a dad. We are raising four daughters, and now that our children attend Oakley schools, the decisions we make as a Board directly affect my own family too.

I want my children to have excellent teachers, become strong readers and learners, feel safe and supported at school, and receive the right help when they need it. I want exactly the same thing for every child in our community.

I Didn't Plan on Becoming a Teacher

I was finishing my BS degree in business with a focus on human resource management when a professor encouraged our class to take a career aptitude test. Years earlier, the same test had told him his best career match was college professor. He thought it was ridiculous. Then he became one. 

I took the test expecting to see careers in human resources, employment law, or something similar. Instead, my number-one match was special education teacher. Nearly every career near the top of the list was connected to education. 

I didn’t believe it either. 

At the time, my understanding of special education came mostly from growing up in a small town in Vermont. I had family members with significant disabilities, but I had very little understanding of learning disabilities, interventions, accommodations, or the many different ways students can need support. 

The more I learned about special education, the more that aptitude test made sense. Eventually, I decided to find out whether it was right.

I Never Stopped Going to School

Somewhere along the way, I became the person who finishes one educational program and immediately starts another. 

I earned my teaching credential, cleared it, earned my administrative credential, and then went directly into specialist-level graduate study in school psychology. None of that was part of some master plan. Each step came from something I encountered in my work that made me realize there was more I wanted to know.

School psychology was a perfect example. As a special education teacher, I wondered how we determine what students need, why some qualify for special education while others do not, and how we make sense of all the information we collect about a child. I could ask questions and read about it, but eventually I decided I wanted to understand the process for myself. 

That program has answered a lot of those questions—and given me plenty of new ones. I think that’s probably why I’m always going to be a student in some form. When I don’t understand something well enough, I keep learning until I do. 

Learning to Govern

When I joined the Oakley School Board in 2021, I brought the perspective of an educator and someone who wanted to help strengthen our schools before my own children reached them. Today, with my children attending Oakley schools, that responsibility feels even more personal. 

Over the past five years, I have also learned that serving on a school board is very different from being an educator or administrator. A trustee does not run the district. We are five individual members who, together as a Board, set direction, establish priorities, approve resources, monitor progress, and hold the superintendent accountable for the district's work. 

I have taken that responsibility seriously by continuing to learn through governance training, conferences, and professional development with the California School Boards Association. Just as my work in education has evolved, so has my understanding of what effective governance looks like. 

One of the things I value most about our Board is that we can bring different perspectives, ask difficult questions, and still work together. A school district's accomplishments never belong to one trustee. They come from a Board establishing direction and a superintendent, educators, staff, families, and community working together to move our schools forward.

When I'm Not Doing Something Education-Related...

I grew up in Vermont, so fall has always been my favorite time of year. I love cooler weather, changing leaves, pumpkin patches, and pretty much everything that comes with the season.

One thing I love about Northern California is that fall seems to last forever. In Vermont, there could already be snow by Halloween. Here, I can head to Half Moon Bay for the Pumpkin Festival, enjoy the cooler weather, and still see fall colors well past Thanksgiving. 

I do miss the snow, though. There is something about snow that makes the holidays actually feel like the holidays. 

I’m also completely fine admitting that I love a cheesy Hallmark movie. The plot is usually predictable: someone leaves the big city, moves to a small town in Vermont, takes over a bakery, and somehow finds exactly what they were missing. Having grown up in a small town in Vermont, that particular Hallmark universe feels a little personal. 

Most of my free time, though, is spent with my family. With four kids, there’s usually somewhere to go, something to do, something to bake, or another memory being made.

So, That's Me...Basically

If there’s one thing you’ve probably figured out by now, it’s that I don’t do much halfway. I ask a lot of questions. Sometimes too many. When something interests me, I want to understand it. When I care about something, I’m all in. And when I decide I’m going to do something, I tend to stick with it until I figure it out. 

My life looks very different from what I imagined it would when I was younger. I certainly didn’t plan on becoming a special education teacher. I didn’t expect that career to lead me into school administration, school psychology, or serving on a school board. I didn’t know I would be raising four daughters or that being their dad would change the way I look at just about everything. 

But I like where all of those unexpected turns have taken me. 

I’m curious. I’m stubborn. I care deeply about the things that matter to me. I probably take on too much; I’m always thinking about whatever comes next, and I have a very hard time accepting an answer that doesn’t make sense to me. 

That’s probably the simplest way to explain who I am. I care, I ask questions, and I keep showing up.