About Me

 

Where to start? I’m often asked how long I’ve taught at BU. Like many questions, there are two answers. The short answer: Nearly 20 years. The longer answer: My first course, CS331, ran in the spring of 1999 at Metropolitan College (MET). Since then I’ve taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in computer science (C++ programming, operating systems, networks, OO design), administrative sciences (project management and program management) and most recently leadership studies, all at MET as an adjunct.

In the fall of 2014 I began teaching CS411 in the CS department at the College of Arts and Sciences, and picked up CS101 the following semester. In the fall of 2015 I joined the faculty at CAS/CS as a Lecturer, teaching full-time and fulfilling a life-long dream.

Teaching as an adjunct for 15 years meant that I had a ‘real’ job outside the classroom. That job took a lot of turns over the years. After leaving the US Air Force where I did primary research in materials science I ran a technical magazine (73 for Radio Amateurs) for a few years before joining Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) as a technical course developer. I’ve worked as a marketing engineer (and yes, I created that title at my company), software developer, and technical project manager. For about ten years I was a consultant here in Boston for a medium-sized firm with clients in the financial services industry (Fidelity, State Street, et al.) doing system and application architecture as well as some performance engineering. I was a director for a small tech startup, and ran a team at a local market analysis firm doing research on enterprise computing solutions for clients like HP, Oracle, and IBM. I launched and managed a small publishing company that ended up on the front page of the New York Times.

All of that to say that I’ve spent a lot of time in the trenches with my sleeves rolled up doing tech. It’s what I love, and I love teaching it. I bring a real-world perspective to my classroom and give my students a sense of what life is like after the degree is done.

What else… I’ve been an instrument-rated pilot for about 25 years; enjoy foraging for and eating wild mushrooms; launched one of the first 10,000 web sites back in 1995 (it’s still running at kidpub.com); am an advocate for electronic privacy; and am 9th cousin to President Barak Obama (not that it’s gotten me anywhere).