An Abbreviated History
I was born and raised in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, but headed to R.P.I. in Troy,
NY for college. I graduated with degrees in computer science and physics in 1996 and took a job as a software
developer at Westinghouse's
R&D center in Pittsburgh, PA. While I was only there for a couple of years, I fell in love with Pittsburgh, and we
travel back whenever we can make it work.
I married my wife, Melissa, in 1998 and moved back to Indiana while she finished up medical school (Muncie and
Indianapolis) and residency (back to Muncie). I kept slinging code, first for Multiplicity, a start-up that has since
closed, and then for Interactive Intelligence,
which has since been acquired by Genesys.
My focus was on user-interface design, a field that has strong connections to cognitive psychology. The more I got into it,
the more I became fascinated with the cognitive side of things and when Melissa finished her residency, we decided it was
time for me to go back to school. In 2004, we packed up and headed down to Bloomington so that I could study
cognitive psychology and
cognitive science with John Kruschke
and Peter Todd. Seven years later, after a
great education and lots of time dedicated to teaching, I finished my PhD and began my full-time teaching career.