About Me

I was born in the city of Muskegon and raised in Muskegon Heights & Muskegon, graduating from Muskegon High School in 1978. I am a lifelong resident of west Michigan with the exception of a brief period of residence in Arizona.

I was the first person in my family to go to college, attending Western Michigan University. I worked full time while studying with a full credit load, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Education majoring in music. After brief stints at public schools in Michigan and Arizona, as well as substitute teaching and a semester as an adjunct at Muskegon Community College, I decided that the music teaching profession was too volatile due to millage cuts and I changed my career to retail management due to a job offer. A job offer prompted our relocation from Muskegon to the greater Grand Rapids area in 1991.

I spent ten years in retail management at various retail operations such as 7-Elevens and similar convenience stores and retail outlets. I was offered an opportunity in a manufacturing operation in 1995 and went to work on the shop floor welding bumpers. In two years, I worked my way into shop floor management, supervising a dozen employees before moving into the engineering department. I have been working as a quality engineer since 1999 along with some dual roles as manufacturing engineer and industrial engineer depending on the position.

I have an passion for politics and history. I like to bring my quality engineering skills of problem solving, root cause analysis, and brainstorming to political issues. You have to take the facts where they lead you until you reach the root cause or solution. No amount of ideology or partisanship is going to get you to the correct conclusion if you ignore the facts. Key to this process is having a very clearly defined problem statement, a feature I rarely hear in politics these days. I want to bring these problem solving skills to the legislative process.

On the personal side, I have been married to my lovely wife, Joni, for 35 years as of January 2022. I have two adult sons, Patrick and Brenden. Joni and I live in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Grand Rapids with our seven year old American Akita, Nakita. I am an avid reader of history, economics and philosophy. I love cooking.

…………………………………………………………………………………..

My recreational activities include lots of bicycling, as well as running and backpacking. I’ve participated in mountain bike and later gravel road bicycle races since 1999, including a three-day stage mountain bike race in Costa Rica and the 2019 Coast-to-Coast 210 mile gravel race which crosses the state of Michigan. I’ve completed four 25K Riverbank Runs and two half marathons, but now relegate myself to 5K events in order to do more biking. I have been active in advocacy for bicycling safety, lobbying state legislators and local municipal councils for appropriate safety legislation. I have also been involved in mountain biking advocacy for access to trails.

I want to bring this energy to my role as a legislator for our state.

……….

……………..

…………….

……………………………….