SUMMARY

Education is a second career, being engaged with education for only nine years (since 1993); and three of those years were spent in school obtaining a Teaching Certificate in Secondary Mathematics (108QH) at Georgia State University (1993) in Atlanta. I had perviously earned a Bachelors of Business Administration degree, J. Mack Robinson College of Business (1985 - Marketing); in addition, I have also earned a Master of Education degree, College of Education (1999 - Mathematics), all at GSU.

My past professional experience includes spending more than ten years in the apparel industry - seven years with Rich's Department Store of Atlanta, Georgia; and three years as a sales representative for Jerell Incorporated of Dallas, Texas - a clothing manufacturer specializing in women's apparel. In between these two positions, I spent one year as a sales representative for Bell South Incorporated; and one year as a partner in a home-furnishings store (for a more detail description of education and professional experience see Resume).

Upon turning thirty-one years of age, one could say that I had my mid-life crisis (about ten years early). My crisis was based on how I identified myself as a human. I realized that much of who I am is derived from my professional life. Therefore, I needed to determine a profession in which I could make significant contributions that have long-term effects--becoming an educator was the answer (In all honesty, I was just answering my calling. However, I am a white middle-class male that graduated from high school in 1979 and we were all suppose to go to business school--remember the Reagan years). Therefore, I returned to school in order to obtain certification; after which, I was employed for five years at Westlake High School, the Math and Science Magnet School of Fulton County of Atlanta, Georgia.

In August 2000, I began the Ph.D. program in Mathematics Education at the University of Georgia, Athens. As a graduate student, I am assisting on project PRIME (Partnership and Reform In Mathematics Education). My objective for entering the Ph.D. program is stated below (for a complete description of purpose see Statement of Purpose, which was provided to UGA during the application process):

To be a leader in the development of a public education that embraces and celebrates diversity and difference; inspiring children, adolescents, and adults to be reflective and critical thinkers, to think the unthought, and to use knowledge, while critiquing its nature and worth, in expanding relations with others and the environment that are more humane and just than the ones that currently exist.

Also included on this site is a Philosophy of Education essay written for EMAT 8020 (Advanced Study of Mathematics Teaching and Teacher Education), a course taken Spring semester 2001 at UGA.