My wife, Kendra, and I have two children -Brandt a graduate of Dallas Baptist in History, and Kristiana a graduate of Mary Hardin Baylor in Nursing.  I enjoy home brewing beer and collecting hats from all around the world. Before moving to Dallas, I taught at Lutheran schools in southern California and Iowa. As a UCLA alumni, I still have a soft spot for Bruin football and basketball (my freshman year was John Wooden's last year of coaching). I was an AFS foreign exchange student to Germany my senior year of high school and still speak pretty good German.  As an internationally certified team handball referee, I have traveled the world to officiate tournaments in Europe and South America, including the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg Russia, the Women’s World Championships in Vienna, and the Olympic Games in Atlanta.  I enjoy bringing this international experience to my classroom.

I have a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from UCLA. I completed the Lutheran teaching Colloquy at Concordia University - Irvine, California.  I also received a Master's degree in Education from Concordia University Irvine. I have obtained National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification as a middle school generalist.  I received Master Teacher certification in Physics from SMU. I am a QuarkNet Teaching Fellow in Physics and a STAR teacher with UT Southwestern. I am also a Siemens Institute STEM Fellow.

At Zion, I serve as Student Council advisor and the coach for the Metroplex Math contest. Outside of my classroom, I am actively learning and leading in the education community. I was selected by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to attend the International Conference on Mathematics Education in Tokyo, Japan.   I was selected to represent the US at the ISE Conference in Marathon, Greece. I have given professional development workshops for educators in both math and science at the national, state and regional levels; both for Lutheran and public school educators.  I am a judge for the annual CODiE Educational software awards.  I'm also on the advisory board of the Infiniscope Project empowering educators to collaborate, create and customize learning activities.   I am also one of two Scientix Ambassadors in the US for EuroNet International Science Educators.

As a teacher, I consider myself a lifelong learner who models this passion for inquiry to my students.  I am an avid reader and bring current events into the classroom whenever possible.  I believe in making connections between the curriculum and what is going on in the world.  I encourage my students to ask questions like – “Why are we learning this?" and "How will we use this in real life?”  I believe that if I do not have a good answer for those questions, I shouldn’t be teaching it.