He earned a master's degree in experimental psychology with a developmental psychology specialization from Florida Atlantic University and a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arkansas. He completed his internship in psychology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Kansas. His research focuses on child aggression with a particular emphasis on developing interventions for aggressive and bullied children. One prominent line of his empirical research focuses on the application of school-based mentoring as a form of selective prevention for children who are aggressive or chronically bullied at school. He is also interested in understanding how children’s social relationships place them at risk or protect them from developing aggressive behavior.