I was born a hearing individual in California and lost my hearing due to

Meningitis at age 2. Because of the Oral philosophy that was dominant in

California during the late 1960's my parents decided not to have me learn

sign language and so I was "mainstreamed" in public schools with very little

support services (interpreters, etc.) until I graduated from high school in

Spokane, Washington.

    During High School I developed two passions; running and writing. In 1982 I was a member of the Washington State Cross Country Championship team and went on to become an NCAA Division 3 All-American in college, running the steeplechase track event. 30 years from when I started, I am still running!

    My passion for writing led me to enroll at Occidental College in Los

Angeles, California and become an English Literature major. After

graduation in 1987, I traveled to Pakistan and worked for six months as a

roof builder and installer for a boy's technical school. That experience is

where my Deafness really impacted me, as I could not understand the thick

accents of the English speakers in that country. After meeting a couple of

Deaf people who knew sign language and were able to act out language

concepts in a way that I could understand better than their hearing

countrymen, I decided that I should return to the states and learn ASL.

Upon taking my first ASL class at age 23, I decided I wanted to become a

teacher of the Deaf, so enrolled at the Teacher Training for the Deaf

program at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, graduating with a

M.Ed in 1989.

    After attaining my master's degree, I taught in public school Deaf/Hard of

Hearing (D/HH) programs for 7 years then, due to my passion for teaching and working with language, decided to become an ASL teacher. I then spent 8 years teaching ASL, mostly at the high school level with a 2 year hiatus

teaching ASL at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Teaching ASL

affords me a chance to work with my love of the language in being a bridge

between the hearing and Deaf worlds.

    I now reside in Eugene with my wife, Pratibha who is also Deaf and lived

most of her life in India. We are both very involved in the local Deaf

community and love to sample a variety of different types of foods. I have

3 children, 2 boys aged 10 and 12 and a daughter age 15 who live with their

mother in Wisconsin.

  

    In future years I would like to continue building a strong ASL program at

the University of Oregon and also have an interest in starting up programs

which would enable Deaf people from developing countries to teach their

indigenous sign languages to hearing people of their respective countries.

    I am very happy and excited to reside in Eugene and teach ASL at the
U of O!

Go Ducks!