He joined USD in 2013 after previously teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary and the University of Delaware. He currently serves as the chair of the Social Problems Theory Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Lane earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Delaware in 2013. He earned a Master in Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Salisbury University in 2004.