I grew up in the Fox Valley Region of Wisconsin, reared on cheese and brats in a house of 7 children. From my Midwestern, Irish Catholic roots I soon encountered the wonders of a more diverse world. I spent seven years living in Washington, D.C., first as a student studying religion, sociology, and anthropology at Catholic University of America.
It was here that I found my vocation working in education. I began tutoring children living in the heart of the city. Spending more time living and working with youth, I decided to pursue a career as a teacher and joined a volunteer teaching corps after graduation. For three years I taught in urban Catholic elementary schools and earned a Master’s of Education degree.
In 1995, I moved to the San Francisco Bay area to continue my life as a teacher while my wife pursued graduate studies. I was a teacher and Vice Principal at a multi-cultural Catholic Elementary School, and my focus was on experiential based learning. I worked with students on everything from building a schoolyard garden, to engaging in stream restoration and monitoring, to working with the Engineering Department at UC Berkeley to build solar cars. In my free time I became an avid sailor.
Then I moved to Madison in 1999, and for the last seven years I have continued my career in elementary school teaching and administration working at an elementary school sponsored by the Sinsinawa Dominicans as well as with a dual-immersion charter school. In December, 2005 I completed my doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. My dissertation was a multicase study of Catholic elementary schools serving traditionally marginalized children.
I bring to Marquette an abiding commitment to pursue social justice in education. My research focuses on issues of equity and excellence with a particular focus on bilingual education, disability studies, and Catholic schools. I am currently launching two multicase studies. One is exploring early childhood centers serving children in poverty and with disabilities in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Cleveland. The other is an investigation of dual-immersion bilingual schools in Denver, Washington, D.C., and Madison. I am thrilled to be moving into the position of assistant professor at Marquette. In particular, I look forward to the focus on social justice that guides the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership and the Jesuit spirituality that imbues the campus.
