He received his Ph.D. in Policy Development and Program Evaluation at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education and Human Development in 1992. He also completed postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and School of Social Work in 1994 as Paul B. Cornely and Ford/Rockefeller Fellow and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research in 1998 as a National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellow.