He started his professional life as a speech-language pathologist and audiologist. Jim worked in public schools, at the University of Texas at Austin, and for a regional education service center as a speech-language pathologist and audiologist. During that time he always had students with both hearing and vision loss on his caseloads. In 1987 he came to TSBVI to work with the Outreach Program in the area of deaf-blindness. After several years with TSBVI, he returned to college to take the coursework necessary to become certified as a teacher of students with visual impairments. He is currently part of the Outreach Program, but he has taught elementary, middle school, and high school students at TSBVI. He remains very interested in how all students with vision loss use their hearing and listening skills.