About me
Helping others learn has been an important part of my life since my first experience as a volunteer basketball coach in high school. Later, I served as an tutor in college, helping struggling peers with English composition, music theory, and music composition. After graduating from The New School for Jazz in 2002, I taught music privately and eventually took a job as a musical keyboard teacher in an after-school cultural arts program. Working with children inspired me to pursue teaching on a full-time basis.
In 2007, I helped to found a charter school in South Los Angeles. Our mission was to develop and evaluate a holistic approach to teaching which integrated academics, the arts, and non-cognitive development through project- and service-learning.
After a few years, I accepted an opportunity to move to Japan and begin teaching in international schools. At that time, I discovered my passion for instructional design and technology. I began coursework in a Masters program for international educators, participated in several MOOCs, and embraced the instructional and learning experience design aspects of teaching. I also organized and hosted Edcamp Tokyo three times, which exercised my interest in facilitating adult learning.
This was also when I started a family with my wife which now includes two children.
From 2015-2023, I taught at the top performing IB international school in Japan. After settling in, I expressed my interest in organizing a Professional Learning Community, which began in the Fall of 2019. Due to the COVID pandemic, we were unable to complete our first year. For the next school year, I adapted a method based on Design Thinking to guide our professional development which we used for the following three years. The results were high engagement, active innovation, and continuing reflective practice.
Although my intention to pivot to Learning & Development was already clear in 2019, teaching online during the COVID pandemic provided the opportunity I needed to gain valuable experience with instructional design, digital collaboration, and e-Learning authoring tools. I joined the Association for Talent Development and diligently review the latest articles in publications including Applied Instructional Design and Thinking Skills & Creativity.
What has most ignited my passion is Learning Experience Design for creativity, social learning, and engagement. Teaching in progressive schools, innovative design is a crucial capacity that I have studied and developed in practice as well as academically by earning a Master’s Degree in 2019 emphasizing Instructional Design & Technology. Additionally, I actively participated in online learning communities such as the first Learning Creative Learning course by The Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT MediaLab and the Connected Learning MOOC, among others.
My family and I repatriated to the United States in July of 2023 and I am eager to explore projects and opportunities that will apply my unique perspective and skills sets.