I was born and raised just outside of Denver Colorado right along the foothills of the Rocky Montains.

My next stop was graduate school at the University of Florida.  I received both my Master's degree and Ph.D. from UF in Gainesville FL.  My wife and I also survived two hurricanes that came through while we were there.   My areas of expertise were Public Economics and International Trade.

Finally, I joined the SFA Lumberjack community in August 2005 as an Assistant Professor of Economics.  I received tenure and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in Fall 2011.

Half of my extended family is from Brazil since that is where my mother is from originally.  We try to get back there to visit whenever we get a chance.