He earned his MPA and his PhD in political science from Georgia State University. He serves on the Graduate Council and the Faculty Senate. In 2007, he was appointed to a Department of Education Federal Rulemaking Committee as a primary negotiator for regulations relating to the General Provisions for the Title IV programs of the Higher Education Act of 1965. In 2010, he coauthored a poster presentation for the International Preparedness and Response to Emergencies and Disasters conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, titled Disaster Planning and Analysis: An Evaluation of Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Education.