About

Curriculum Vitae

Click here for a full Curriculum Vitae.

Brief Personal Biography

Born in New York City to an accountant father, and former model and actress mother, I grew up mostly in a small town about a half hour from the George Washington Bridge. As a child of what was then deemed “permissive parents,” I enjoyed the love and care of wonderful parents who allowed me considerable freedom. At 12, I was hitchhiking locally, and by age 13, long-distance…often staying away from home for days at time, exploring Upstate New York towns and villages.

A committed surfer by age 12, my friends and I spent considerable time (and summers) surfing the beaches of New Jersey (where my family had a beach house) and later, when we could drive, countless East Coast beaches.

Attending Wagner College in New York City (1968-1972), I spent most of my time organizing in the Anti-war, Civil Rights, and Women’s Movements rather than studying. This was the beginning of my life-long activities dedicated to social change.

In 1973, the burgeoning Back to the Land Movement led my partner and me to move to Hubbard Hill Commune in Candor, New York, a short distance from Ithaca. While there, I started my own business designing and making furniture. Our son, Jesse, was born in 1976. Escaping the cold and clouds a year later, we moved to Floyd County, Virginia, to continue living deep in the forest.

Shortly thereafter, now a single parent, and tiring of furniture making, I began writing songs and singing in clubs, and at demonstrations and universities. This led to five years of touring in 16 states in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic States. Young Jesse and I hitchhiked on tour for most of those years, often hitchhiking over 15,000 miles a year, now singing mostly at popular folk clubs, in concert, and on TV and radio. Making a living singing was tough, but it worked, and by 1983, we tired of it and Jesse, now seven years old, needed to go to school.

I mistakenly got married in 1983, and ended up 19 months later, the single custodial father of two children, Jesse and Angelea.

In 1984, I began six years of graduate school at Virginia Tech, majoring in Literature. In 1987, I secured a faculty position in the English Department at Tech while I was completing my doctoral studies. I graduated in 1990, and spent the next 13 years on the faculty at Virginia Tech, continuing for a time in the English Department, then in the College of Engineering, developing a humanities and creative engineering design program in the Materials Science and Engineering Department.

In 2003, I received a generous offer for a professorship from James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia, just two hours north of our home in Blacksburg. I accepted it, and taught cognitive and developmental psychology in the College of Integrated Science and Technology. About half my time was spent researching and publishing.

I decided to leave JMU at the beginning of 2020, just weeks before the pandemic started. I continue consulting and am writing several books.

My History of Social Activism in the Community and University

1968-1973—During college, I worked almost full-time organizing in the Anti-War, Civil Rights, and Women’s Movements…helping organize actions and demonstrations on the Wagner College Campus and in New York City and Washington, D.C. I was arrested regularly, investigated for my activities, and followed by the FBI for a year.

1972—“Men’s Response to the Women’s Movement” was my first public lecture encouraging men to support women by changing their own behaviors. Held at Staten Island Community College in New York City.

1974-1977—I was one of the 11 founders and a board member of the highly successful Ithaca Farmer’s Market. The intention of the effort was to support local farmers and producers within a 30 mile radius of Ithaca, New York. Growing exponentially over the decades, the Market continues to be a major local institution and tourist attraction in Ithaca.

1976-1982—With the growing movement across the country, I organized locally to help defeat the growing number of nuclear power plants being planned and built in the U.S.

1978-1984—I wrote and sang songs on social justice, touring in 16 states full-time, appearing in concerts, demonstrations, schools, festivals, and folk clubs in towns and major cities. I shared stages with some major folks musicians of the time, including Pete Seeger.

1980-81—As paid coordinator for the Citizens for the Preservation of Floyd County (Va.), I led a 500 member county organization to oppose the construction of a 765KV power line (with 110 foot towers) across 21 miles of the county. The organization was funded by the state-wide Coalition of American Electric Consumers. I consulted, as well, with other Coalition groups across the Commonwealth.

1984-1985—In response to the growing Women’s Movement, I created four different public lectures on men’s consciousness and behavior which I presented at Virginia Universities, public schools, and for a variety of public and private organizations in Virginia.

1984—I was the first male member of the Blacksburg/Virginia Tech Women’s Week Committee and the first male to present at a Women’s Week event (“Men’s Role in the Women’s Movement.) Some male attendees of this presentation called me a “traitor.”

1986—I authored Volunteering for Community Change: A Primer for Organizers. The manual was published state-wide by The Center for Volunteer Development/Virginia Cooperative Extension Service at Virginia Tech.

1990-1992—My professional consulting included advising a number of Virginia corporations on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. I wrote sexual harassment prevention manuals for two of the corporations.

1993-2003—Co-founder (with Dr. Robert Hendricks) and director of the Materials Science and Engineer Advanced Communications and Design Program at Virginia Tech. This humanities program was nationally recognized and largely credited with increasing the number of female students in the Department from 0% to 40% over ten years.

1994-2003—With significant yearly financial support from the Honeywell Corporation, I created and taught the yearly 125-hour summer program for engineering women at Virginia Tech—Summer Program for Women in Engineering—where I was a faculty member in the College of Engineering.

2005-2006—Along with JMU President Emeritus Ronald G. Carrier, I was one of the six organizers and founders of the paradigm-changing New College of Virginia. (See link.)

2008-2013—I was one of the four founders of the School of Engineering at JMU. Included in the design and curriculum were many innovations in sustainability instruction and creative engineering design. I published a variety of juried papers on the innovative and socially responsible curricula, and presented at national engineering conferences.

2011-2017—I created a student activist group at James Madison University that focused its many campus activities and actions on Men’s and Women’s issues, mostly violence against women. At the time, JMU was under significant public and governmental pressure to address these issues.

2015-2020—I was a consultant to Future Generations University (W.Va.), an accredited global institution which offers a master’s degree for community organizers and activists in Third and Fourth World Countries.

2016—Supervising the student social activist group I organized at JMU, the group organized a day-long Social Justice Organizing Conference held on the JMU campus which was attended by student activists from a variety of Virginia colleges and universities (including JMU). My student assistants presented all the sessions and workshops.