About me

Me, my dad, my wife, Andrew and Aly

Family and Home

I live with my wife, Kaya, and our two kids Andrew (the big one) and Aly (the small one). We've lived here since May 2019, a month before Andrew was born. Kayla and I meet in 2008 at Friendly's (a New England restaurant), where I was a server, and after a long engagement, we've been married since 2014. During the pandemic, we lost child care, and each of us worked 40 hours a week opposite of watching the kids while the other worked. I spent more time with my kids than I ever thought I would, and learned that while I love teaching mathematics, I feel most fulfilled teaching my children how to be humans.


Experiences in Education

I've been living in Connecticut since I was six years old. I grew up in a small town called Scotland, about 45 minutes east of Hartford, CT. Scotland is a very small town, with a population of about 1700 people. There were 20 students in my class at primary school, and with two other towns, Chaplin and Hampton (with a total population of around 4000 between all three), I had a high school graduating class of 30 students. Honestly, I loved the experience of a small school and a small community, which is why I ended up going to a small local community college and Eastern Connecticut State University, a small liberal arts college in Willimantic, CT, to complete my bachelor's in mathematics. ECSU was by far the best choice for me; they had 5000 undergraduates, and my class sizes were rarely over 10-15 students. The liberal arts philosophy fostered great relationships between me, my class, and my professors, and I left feeling more well-rounded than I would have with a more pre-professional education at a larger university.

While finishing up at Eastern, I spent some time working as a metal cutting engineer at Spirol International in Danielson, CT. There, I designed side and end-work cutting tools for multi-spindle lathes. It was very fun, but ultimately, I decided my true passions wer ma. That's when I decided to go to the University of Connecticut (a not so small school) to pursue my PhD in mathematics, which I received in May of 2019!

Some Hobbies

I love to hike, bike, and run, though I'm trying to get back into the latter. I'm really into table top RPGs, and may have dabbled a little bit in LARP (don't tell anyone). I'm equally interested in video games, and fill a lot of my "free time" playing new and retro games. Finally, I love to sing and play music. I'm in the Vernon Chorale, a small choral ensemble in Vernon, and I'm getting ready to play the saxophone in the Middletown Symphonic Band. I don't think I'm particularly good at either, but it's an amazing outlet. I've run a few half marathons, and one full marathon (where "run" is an operative term). I've also done a rugged maniac, but my all time favorite was the Tough Mudder!