About Me

I've always enjoyed helping people understand mathematics. I worked as a tutor for many years, and when my students would frequently say, "I wish you were my teacher," I decided to give it a try. I hold a B.S. in Physics from Kent State University, and later earned my M.S. in Mathematics and a Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics from Purdue University Fort Wayne. I also hold various software development certificates from Ivy Tech Community College, where I continue to take courses today.

My approach to education is straightforward: anyone who has a fully functional human brain can learn math. I've found that a lot of students who don't like math, hate math, or are afraid of it have just had negative emotional experiences that create a roadblock to learning. I try to work on a student's negative self-talk regarding math right alongside teaching them the math itself.

I've also always been interested in web development. I taught myself HTML back in the 90s and had some little websites on my ISP's space. I continued to dabble until I started taking those actual web development courses at Ivy Tech. Working with an amazing software development professor, Barry Sullens, really helped round out my web development and server administration skills, taking me from just HTML to full-blown dynamic web applications.

Today, when the feeling strikes me, I write programs that use my physics and mathematics background to figure out something I'm interested in. If I think it's cool or useful enough, I'll put those programs online so I can access them from anywhere. If other people enjoy them, that's great.

Outside of math, physics, and computing, I'm into books, audiobooks, walking, video games, qigong, science fiction, fantasy, board games, tabletop role-playing games, and solving puzzles of all sorts.