He received his M.A. from Michigan State University (1988) and also studied at the University of Michigan and the University of South Florida. In addition to teaching for the past 25 years, he has worked as an independent documentary and filmmaker, working in nearly every format of electronic media production. His work has screened at film and media festivals around the world, including the Sedona International Film Festival and the Golden Lion Festival in South Africa. His interests include production outreach, using converged media as a means of bringing remote educational opportunities and experiences into K-12 classrooms via the internet, and environmental documentary filmmaking. Recent works include a series of documentary collaborations with The Nature Conservancy, exploring that organization's property in the environmentally-sensitive Green Swamp of North Carolina.