I was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, graduating from San Marino High School in 1971. I received a B.A. in History from the University of Oregon, an M.Ed. from the University of Vermont, and my Ph.D. in Education is from Claremont Graduate University in California. I’ve had the privilege of living, working, and/or doing research in India, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Sweden. I’ve worked at Colgate University, IUPUI, Muskingum University, and St. Norbert College, as well as Nagoya Shoka Daigaku in Japan and a branch campus of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. In addition, I have enjoyed short-term appointments at Claremont Graduate University, Chapman University, and UC Riverside in California. I have also taught younger children at PreK-12 public and private schools in Detroit, Portland OR, and Claremont, CA.

My research interests involve scholarship primarily in the history of special education in the United States, but I also do work in the general history of U.S. Education and comparative international studies of special education. I am also a scholar-practitioner of service-learning and civic engagement as it is practiced in the United States and international settings. My teaching responsibilities have centered on the foundations of education and of special education, early childhood education, elementary social studies methods, as well as courses in first-year and core curriculum programs. On the graduate level I have taught specialized courses in my research areas, and I have served on multiple masters thesis and dissertation committees. I have held administrative positions such as department chair, program director, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In the near future I will serve as a Fulbright Teaching Scholar at the University of Latvia as well as an Ambassador’s Distinguished Scholar at Dilla University in Ethiopia.

My spouse Elisabeth and I have been married more than 32 years, and we have a daughter, 30 and a son, 26, both of whom have also lived and worked overseas. We love to travel overseas as a family and independently. We currently reside in Green Bay, Wisconsin.