Strong schools start with trusted teachers and clear leadership.

I am the son of educators. My mother was a music teacher, and my father was a math teacher who later became a superintendent of schools here in Minnesota.

My grandparents were farmers in southwest Minnesota, and I’m not sure how many sheep I wrangled or how many shovelfuls of soybeans I scooped along the way.

I attended junior high and high school in Fosston, Minnesota, a small but vibrant community of about 1,400 people. I was afforded every opportunity to learn and grow there and participated in sports, jazz band, choir, acting, and more.

Summers meant throwing endless bales of hay and crawling under more vehicles — including Cats — than I could ever count.

I attended Concordia College in Moorhead for three years, later completed my bachelor’s degree through the University of Maryland, and earned a master’s degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California.

I give tremendous credit to my parents and to the public schools I attended for giving me the foundation on which I built a very rich life.

Teaching has been a constant throughout my life. Much of it has focused on business and IT-related subjects, but more recently I have taught scuba and progressed to become an instructor trainer. I have worked with students around 10 years old, students in their 80s, and many adults in between, including in junior-college courses.

My learning has also been lifelong. During my service in the United States Air Force, I studied and worked as an intelligence intercept specialist in the Czech language. I spent much of the 1980s in Germany. After active duty, I worked at 7th Corps Artillery Headquarters and served on the community commanding general’s staff as part of the Directorate of Information Management. In that role, I developed computer training courses and taught hundreds of people.

My professional background has also included work as an IT systems analyst, business editor and writer, and nationally published photographer and writer.

I am a lifelong Vikings, Twins, Northsta… oops — Wild fan, and I have a deep love of Minnesota and the remarkable quality of life our state offers.

I share this history because it shows how strongly I believe in the power of public education. Without the solid foundation my own public education gave me, many of the doors that opened throughout my life may never have been available.

What I bring to this position is an analytical background grounded in deep research, a strong belief that empathy should be an important part of board work, and a desire to help Hastings ISD 200 students receive the best educational experience possible — so their futures can be as rich with opportunity as mine has been.

While I already know a number of people in the community, I am very much looking forward to meeting many more of you and learning about you and your children.

I hope to earn your vote.