He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Geography and a Ph.D. in Geospatial and Environmental Analysis. He began working as a geographer with the National Park Service studying peregrine falcons, and later went to Virginia Tech to work on a National Geospatial Intelligence Agency research project on geospatial data fusion and uncertainty. After completing his graduate degrees and six years as the GIS Coordinator and Developer for the City of Radford he started teaching at Radford University. Recently, he was appointed as the new Director of the GIS Center at Radford University.