This is my fifth year at Jackson Prep. I seem to have more fun every year. My AP chemistry students get funnier, smarter and harder working, the parents that I work with on events around the school get more organized, tolerant and efficient, the Board gets wiser, and my colleagues get easier to work with and more insightful all the time. How did I get so lucky to find this place?

It’s a long story so I’ll have to start somewhere in the middle. I sandwiched a year as an exchange student in Bangkok, Thailand into my high school years in a suburb of Milwaukee. I spent the next four years at Rice University in Houston which I exited with a BA in Religious Studies. I then attended graduate school at The Institute of Paper Chemistry where I received an MS and PhD working primarily in carbohydrate chemistry. My desire to explore other cultures led me to find a job in Kakogawa, Japan where I worked as a researcher in the R&D center of a medium sized chemical company. I returned to the U.S. for another stint at school, this time pursuing an MBA at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. I was lucky enough to be able to study a semester at the Stockholm School of Economics while at Wharton. After leaving Wharton, I joined a small company based in Pensacola, Florida that manufactured chemicals for the paper industry. I held positions as a product manager, plant manager and finally as manager of manufacturing and R&D. The rewards of this job did not make up for the travel and stress, however, and I found myself looking for something more fulfilling. Amazingly, a school named Jackson Prep needed a finance and operations person who could also teach AP Chemistry. I guess it was meant to be.

I golf more than I should and still don’t play as well as I think I should. I read on a wide variety of subjects and try to keep expanding the music I listen to. Finally, I cook and eat. One of my great pleasures here at Prep has been cooking meals auctioned off at the PAT event.