I’ve had a diverse career path, largely centered around communication, education, and ministry. My professional journey began in high school, working in the newsroom of my Dad’s newspaper, the Northwest Florida Daily News. I also gained experience as sports editor of the student newspaper at Stetson University and later, while attending Florida Community College at Jacksonville, I was the editor of The Campus Voice, where we even won some awards.

After serving in the Air Force as a public affairs specialist, mostly working on the base newspaper at Barksdale Air Force Base, I moved to Jacksonville to be near my Mom and eventually pursued a Communications degree with an emphasis on Journalism at the University of North Florida.

My first post-college job was as a copy editor at the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, Texas. I then moved to Atlanta and worked for my stepfather at Episcopal Renewal Ministries (later ACTS 29 Ministries) as the Vice President of Communications and editor of ACTS 29 magazine until 2006. Following that, I spent about a year and a half as an associate editor at Georgia Magazine for Georgia EMC.

From there, I transitioned to St. Jude’s Episcopal Church in Marietta, Ga., where I served in multiple roles as parish administrator, minister of youth and children, and day school director until 2015.

Currently, I’m teaching 8th and 9th grade English and high school journalism at Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts here in Jacksonville, where I’ve been since 2017.

Honestly, I’m probably happiest when I’m writing, and that’s what I set out to do as a young man. As a not-so-young man, I’ve found that I have a second calling in teaching the next generation about the beauty of the written word. So much attention is being focused on making sure they’re great at match and science, but without literature, life loses so much of its meaning. And if they can’t read and write, then how will they excel at the sciences we want them to learn?

I can always write on my own, but I hope that this adventure in education is one that I can stay on for many more years. I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I’m finding it very fulfilling.