He received his B.S. from Eastern Washington University with a double major in Biology and Chemistry and a concentration in Biotechnology. He earned a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Iowa, where he was also an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellow in Infectious Disease. He is a broadly-trained cell biologist whose research focuses on the molecular mechanisms by which complementary and alternative medicines alter cellular functions of the innate immune system, the molecular mechanisms, stress, and heat shock, and the microbiome of forensically important insects.