What I value most about the academic teaching of religion is the process of helping people to better appreciate the values and possibilities found in religions other than their own, giving people the intellectual and attitudinal tools needed to improve relationships with people of diverse cultures, encouraging people to explore religious world views in greater depth, and expanding their own personal horizons and understanding of religion and a deeper aspect of life. I tell my students that the most important thing they can learn in my classes is tolerance, respect and appreciation for beliefs and opinions that might differ from their own. I am excited about the subject I teach and I try to teach in such as way as to excite my students about it as well. It is with teaching that I have found my fulfillment in life. I feel as though I have been "called" to teach this subject in the academic setting.

I came to this place in my life having been a student of religion and religions since my own college experience more than twenty years ago. My first experience as a student of religion came in my final semester as an undergraduate at Hood College (Frederick, MD). The personal benefit I gained from this study was so great that I spent four years after completing my undergraduate degree pursuing an independent study of religion by taking classes at several colleges and universities on a non-matriculating basis. Ultimately, I decided that if I was going to continue this course of study I might as well get a graduate degree out of it. Thus it is that I ended up spending three years in Indiana University's religious studies program and earned a terminal Master's degree. At that point, in 1988, I relocated to the Washington DC area and struggled to find my niche in the world. For many years I worked as a retail merchandiser and pursued my interests in learning and teaching about religion through education programs at local churches and synagogues. I taught adult education classes and also worked with the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington helping to promote interfaith dialogue and relations in the DC and Northern Virginia region. For a time, I even worked as a part-time Director of Religions Education at a local Unitarian Universalist church. Yet I continued to feel unfulfilled in life. At one point I consoled myself that "what I do for a living is not what I live to do." 

However, this was not enough. In 1995 I was inspired and encouraged by friends to get serious about what it was I wanted to do with my life, to envision myself in five or ten years and then to take steps to arrive at that point. I had, by this time, found myself in a full time merchandising job and felt in a rut. I had to get out. I quit my job cold turkey. In time, financial needs forced me to return to merchandising but I was determined to never again do so full time. I began teaching adult education courses on the world's religions through the Fairfax County (VA) public school system. Within a year of quitting my full time job I discovered an opportunity to teach at the college level as an adjunct instructor at the Manassas campus of Northern Virginia Community College. For five years I continued to teach part-time while still doing some part-time merchandising. As the years went by I was able to increase the number of classes I was teaching at NOVA. I was teaching regularly at both the Manassas and Woodbridge campuses as well as an occasional class at one or another of the other campuses. By 2001 I had added several other colleges to my job base. I have done adjunct teaching at Montgomery College (Rockville, MD), Germana Community College, Lord Fairfax Community College and even a couple of courses for Marymount. I have also taught on-line classes for Saint Leo University (Tampa, Florida) and American Military University (AMU). By the fall of 2001 I had enough income from teaching that I was able to finally put merchandising behind me for good. My 1995 vision of my future self had become a reality!

The personal qualities that I feel make me a good teacher are my communication skills. I find I am able to explain abstract concepts and foreign ideas through analogy, diagrams and by comparison to concepts the student may be more familiar with. I seem to be able to adjust the language I use to the level of the person I am speaking with. As a student of comparative world religions, I am most attuned to the similarities amongst differences and focus on bringing these similarities out to my students. It is, I believe, through such a focus on similarities that people will be better able to appreciate what they are learning about the religions of others. Ultimately, what I teach is attitude and I teach this by the example I set in my classes.

In December of 2004 I completed the graduate certificate program in College Teaching at George Mason University (Fairfax, VA). 

My primary interests in religion are in comparative world religions, mysticism and spirituality, and interfaith relations and dialogue.