Public Governance Scholar-Practitioner
Municipal executive and finance leader, retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer (Green Beret), doctoral candidate in law and policy, and proud father of two daughters.
Across three decades of public service, I have led soldiers on peacekeeping and combat missions overseas, served as chief executive of three communities, and today oversee the finances of a AAA municipal bond-rated Cape Cod town. Since co-founding the ICMA Veterans Local Government Management Fellowship in 2016, I have also helped build a national workforce development program that has prepared hundreds of transitioning service members for careers in local government.
I grew up in Kansas, studied psychology at the University of Kansas, and took an oath that would shape the next two decades of my life. I started as an enlisted soldier, spending five years as a UH-1 and UH-60 helicopter crew chief and serving as an air traffic controller. I then earned my commission as a Medical Service Corps officer, running clinics, emergency medical services, and a deployed hospital's information systems. Finally, after earning my Airborne wings and Ranger tab, I completed the Special Forces Qualification Course and served my last decade in uniform as a Green Beret and Special Forces officer (18A), with deployments across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
As I prepared to leave the Army, local government was not on my radar. I spent seven months searching for a way in, learning a new vocabulary and discovering how much my military experience had prepared me for the work of running a community. In August 2015, during my final months of service, I became chief executive of Pueblo West, Colorado, and I formally retired from the Army at the end of February 2016. That search changed my career and gave me a cause: no veteran who wants to keep serving should have to find the door alone.
Since then I have led three communities, from a fast-growing Colorado district to the smallest town on Cape Cod. Along the way I co-founded a fellowship that has opened that door for transitioning service members across the country.
The title I am proudest of has nothing to do with my career. I am the father of two wonderful, independent women.
There was a stretch of years when our family went through a hard season, and I found myself raising my girls as a single father while serving as a city manager. Council meetings ran late, budgets were due, and emergencies did not wait for a convenient time. Neither did homework, school events, or the conversations that matter most to a teenager. I learned to guard the time that belonged to them, to lean on the people around us, and to be honest with my daughters about when things were hard. They were patient with me, and they grew stronger through it.
That season taught me more about leadership than any command or credential. It taught me that the people we serve are carrying more than we can see, and that showing up consistently matters more than showing up perfectly. Watching my daughters become the confident, capable women they are today is the accomplishment I treasure most.
Today I am putting that lesson into practice again. After a decade as a chief executive, I have intentionally stepped back into the role of Finance Director and Chief Financial Officer for the Town of Orleans. My youngest daughter is in her senior year of high school, my oldest is in college, and I am finishing my own doctorate. This is a year of milestones for all three of us, and I want to be there for every one of them. City management asks for every evening and weekend; this season, those belong to my family and my research.
I see it as a choice, not a pause. The work I care about most, helping communities govern well and helping veterans find their way into public service, is still at the center of what I do.
More than a decade of executive leadership in local government, from chief executive of three communities to chief financial officer of a AAA municipal bond-rated Cape Cod town.
Twenty-one years in the U.S. Army, from enlisted aviation soldier to Medical Service Corps officer to Special Forces leader working alongside partner nations.
1993 – 1998, helicopter crew chief and air traffic controller
I began my career on the flight line, responsible for the readiness and safety of aircraft and the soldiers who flew in them.
1998 – 2004
Federal healthcare administration assignments of increasing responsibility, keeping clinics, emergency medical services, and hospital systems running for soldiers at home and deployed.
2004 – 2016, retired February 2016
Strategic, diplomatic, and operational missions across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, working alongside U.S. embassies, foreign governments, and local leaders.
A national workforce development program preparing transitioning service members for careers in local government leadership.
In May 2016, I co-founded the ICMA Veterans Local Government Management Fellowship with Scott Trainor, then City Manager of Fountain, Colorado. We were surrounded by a military community full of talented people who wanted to keep serving, and local governments that needed exactly their skills. The fellowship was built to connect the two.
Fellows spend 12 to 25 weeks inside a host local government through the Department of Defense SkillBridge program, gaining hands-on management experience, mentorship, and a professional network while still on active duty. Because service members keep their military pay and benefits, the main cost to host communities is their time.
The program grew quickly across Colorado and caught the attention of ICMA, which adopted it as a national workforce development program. I directed the program from concept to implementation, built the framework for continuous improvement, and have provided executive coaching to hundreds of veterans now serving in roles from public works director to city manager.
Doctoral research on local government responses to misinformation and disinformation, institutional trust, procedural legitimacy, and First Amendment constraints.
Municipal governments occupy a distinctive and underexamined position in the contemporary information environment. As the level of government most proximate to residents, they are frequently the first institutional target of misinformation and disinformation concerning public health and safety, infrastructure, elections administration, and fiscal decision-making. Yet they typically lack the communication capacity, legal guidance, and analytical tools available to state and federal actors. Left unaddressed, these episodes can erode institutional trust, undermine procedural legitimacy, and impede the implementation of democratically adopted policy.
The existing literature leaves a significant gap. First Amendment scholarship has concentrated on platform governance and on federal government interactions with social media companies, most recently in the jawboning context of Murthy v. Missouri and National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo. Public administration research on crisis and risk communication, meanwhile, rarely engages the constitutional constraints that bind government speakers. No integrated framework yet specifies what a local government may lawfully do when false or misleading information targets its operations, or which responses are associated with the restoration of institutional trust.
My doctoral research in Law and Policy at Northeastern University addresses this gap through an interdisciplinary design that pairs doctrinal analysis of constitutional and administrative law with empirical information and behavioral methods. The project is organized around three lines of inquiry, each with an intended contribution:
I approach this work as a scholar-practitioner, drawing on more than a decade of executive experience in municipal management and on prior graduate research at the Naval Postgraduate School examining the structure and interdiction of dark networks. My September 2026 article in ICMA's Public Management translates early elements of this research for practitioners.
Each degree came from a different chapter of my life. Psychology at the University of Kansas taught me how people think and decide. An MBA, also from Kansas, gave me the language of organizations and finance. While still in uniform, I completed a Master of Public Administration at the University of Colorado Denver to prepare for a second career in local government, and a Master of Science in Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School, where my thesis examined how dark networks operate and how they can be disrupted. My doctorate brings those threads together: the study of how information moves through a community, and how public institutions can respond with integrity.
National honors for building opportunities in public service, and military awards earned in uniform.
Recognized for promoting diversity and inclusiveness in local government by initiating the Veterans Local Government Management Fellowship.
Named a national finalist for founding the Veterans Local Government Management Fellowship in Colorado.
Named to ELGL's list of the top 100 influencers in local government for building career pathways from military service into municipal management.
Professional designations earned through demonstrated executive experience, specialized training, and a commitment to ethical practice.
International City/County Management Association, since 2018
The ICMA Credentialed Manager designation is the profession's recognized standard for local government executives. It is awarded through ICMA's Voluntary Credentialing Program to managers who demonstrate significant senior executive experience in local government and appropriate professional education.
Credentialed managers commit to the ICMA Code of Ethics and must complete a substantial number of professional development hours each year, guided by an individual development plan, to maintain the designation.
Association of Workplace Investigators, pending final approval, 2026
The AWI-CH designation is awarded to professionals who complete the Association of Workplace Investigators' intensive Training Institute and pass its assessment. The Association is the leading professional body for practitioners who conduct impartial investigations into workplace complaints.
The curriculum covers the legal framework for investigations, investigation planning, witness interviewing, evidence gathering and analysis, credibility assessment, and the preparation of defensible written findings.
I am available for consulting engagements, including interim executive leadership, facilitated performance evaluations, organizational assessments, and impartial workplace investigations. I also welcome conversations with communities considering hosting a fellow, service members exploring careers in local government, and colleagues who want to compare notes on public management.