I’m originally from a small family farm about 70 miles east of San Francisco in the San Joaquin Valley of California, just outside the town of Escalon. I started my undergrad at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO) in 2011, and graduated cum laude with a double-major in history and philosophy in 2015. In Fall 2015, I began my M.A. in philosophy at San Francisco State University. During my time in San Francisco I was a lead graduate teaching associate, running pedagogy workshops and mentoring other graduate instructors. My M.A. thesis, completed on Halloween 2017, focused on values in scientific practices that compare different kinds of models. In Fall 2018 I moved to Canada to begin my Ph.D. at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. No, I was not prepared for my first non-California winter, and yes, everyone had a good laugh about it. I completed my Ph.D. in late 2022, and from 2022-2023 I was a visiting lecturer at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and the University of Pittsburgh, teaching core courses for the university’s certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine. As of Fall 2024, I reside in Johnson City, Tennessee and from 2024-2025 I was a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at East Tennessee State University, where I have been a Professor of Practice since 2025.

Other than my research, teaching philosophy is my passion. I’ve taught philosophy courses in some form over the past ten years to a wide range of students in cosmopolitan contexts, from the community college level to the four-year university level, including San Francisco State, Diablo Valley College, the University of Toronto, the University of Pittsburgh, and now East Tennessee State University. I sincerely believe that teaching and instilling a passion for critical reasoning and self-reflection is one of the most important functions of contemporary philosophy.

Being from a small farm, I’m deeply passionate about nature and fostering community. In my free time I enjoy the outdoors, cooking, road trips, D&D, talking about (and enjoying the products of) viticulture, playing the guitar (badly) and the banjo (even more so). I think we can all do with a bit more quiet and less screen-time, so I’ll leave it at that – feel free to reach out if you have questions, comments, suggestions, or just to say hello!

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