He graduated with a major in economics from Lake Forest College, Illinois, and got his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His teaching focus includes comparative economics systems, macroeconomics, research methods and economic principles. His research deals with institutional changes in post-communist countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, banking and credit, and small business finance. He has been at Ohio Wesleyan University since 2006.