Philosophy (minor in Psychology); Religious Studies
BA in Philosophy, BA in Religious Studies-Dual Degrees (2008)
Department of Infectious Disease and Microbiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA)
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh (expected graduation Spring 2017), and I serve as the Director for the HIV Prevention and Care Project (HPCP) in Pitt’s Department of Infectious Disease and Microbiology. Our office is contracted by the Pennsylvania Department of Health to develop and facilitate HIV prevention and care technical assistance and public health interventions in Pennsylvania. In other words, we work to develop and promote new and better ways to help keep people–especially marginalized communities who are most at risk–healthier longer. I supervise and guide all aspects of this work, and I am currently under consideration for a Practice Track faculty position in the Department of Infectious Disease. I started as the office receptionist with the project 5 years ago before becoming an outreach specialist to faith-based communities for HIV prevention. I am also the founding Associate Director for the Center for Mindfulness and Consciousness Studies here at Pitt. This Center helps me bring together my work and interest in public health and religious studies through research with measurable psychophysiological and biological effects of mindfulness and religiosity on the body. My experience navigating both Humanities-based fields and Public Health were invaluable in helping to found this Center.
I work to incorporate responsible civic engagement and social justice into many aspects of my life. This is manifested through political and university advocacy as well as church involvement. In terms of advocacy, I have served as the elected President of the Graduate and Professional Student Government for the University of Pittsburgh, as a founding member and as Chairman of the citywide inter-university Pittsburgh Student Government Council, and I helped found a nighttime student safety and responsibility program with the City of Pittsburgh. Within my church, I support our congregation’s work in homeless ministries, in welcoming members of the LGBTQ community, and advocating for social and legislative equality for LGBTQ and all Pennsylvanians to our city and statewide elected officials. I serve as a support member for the statewide HIV Planning Group that advises the Department of Health for Pennsylvania, and am a member of Equality PA’s faith network.
I worked part-time at UCF for two years in the Athletics Department as a tutor and academic mentor to athletes, as well as serving as an undergraduate TA, both in my Department (Philosophy) and with the Burnett Honors College. These experiences definitely helped me in many ways in the long run; not just for the specific teaching experiences they afforded, but because they allowed me to test out my professional interests and skills and determine that teaching and working in University settings were good fits for me – both working with students and academics as well as supporting larger University projects and goals. It also definitely helped hone my time management skills, taught me to thoughtfully and carefully handle my finances, and forced me to prioritize and balance a large number of tasks and responsibilities.
My original major at UCF was actually business. My parents had run their own small business for years, and so at first it had seemed like a logical fit for me to pursue that kind of track as well. After a full semester of business courses, though, I realized that the profession I was preparing for did not excite me – there was nothing wrong with it, but I came to see that it wasn’t a good fit for me and my interests. I had taken a Philosophy course that same year. Engaging different ideas and examining different perspectives, learning to clearly articulate one’s thoughts and opinions respectfully – that really spoke to me. I saw a large need for that in our society, and decided that I wanted to use my voice to help other people learn to think critically and speak clearly and intentionally. So, I switched and began a double major in Philosophy and Religion. I purposefully took large course loads and (along with some AP credits from high school) gathered enough credits to graduate with two separate degrees – one in Philosophy (Psychology minor) and one in Religious Studies.
After I graduated from UCF I was accepted to a MA/PhD program in Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. I would have never thought when I moved to the city in 2008 that I would be working in public health in the field of HIV and STD prevention and care! Once I began the graduate program, I looked for ways to be involved in campus life and advocacy like I had been at UCF. This led me to work for, and later be elected President of, the graduate student government at Pitt. I knew I wanted (and needed) to keep working as I finished my degree, so I looked for another role within the university where I could help others. My experience in university administration and working with diverse people and groups, in turn, helped me land an entry–level job working with the HIV Prevention and Care Project. The office’s mission to help (particularly disenfranchised) people in the state avoid HIV and STD infection and live healthier lives with HIV really spoke to me, and I began working (over the course of several years) to bring my areas of expertise in contemporary religious studies closer to my work in public health. While I started out at the front desk, assisting any of the aspects of the project that needed it, I soon was able to begin working with specific staff to promote health and HIV literacy among interested churches and faith communities. This eventually led to a promotion to Co-Director. At this time, an opportunity emerged with colleagues I had met in public health and elsewhere around campus to start a new Center at Pitt around mindfulness. Our Center for Mindfulness and Consciousness Studies was founded in 2015, and in many ways bridges the gap I had been working to close between my original interests and expertise and my ‘adopted’ profession in public health. As my PhD nears completion, I am under consideration for a faculty position that would allow me to more fully continue the work I’ve begun here. All this is to say that my experience has been a chain of events and opportunities I could never have imagined nor fully planned for in 2008, but came about through pursuing opportunities to do good, even if they seemed unrelated to one another at the time.
It may seem odd, or perhaps cliché, but the most valuable thing I learned at UCF was how to embrace trying new things. I did a lot of very different activities and participated in (and founded one or two) groups while at UCF. Many of my most cherished memories are from these diverse activities and people. While that may be pretty obvious advice, I think it is equally important, though, to note that all this activity helped me learn a great deal about myself. How to manage different tasks and responsibilities, how much I could balance and what was really important and interesting to me, how to act professionally as well as how to have fun; these are skills and important personal details I didn’t necessarily know before coming to college and learning through trial and error. As a counterpoint, some of my friends discovered that they really thrived by just picking one interest or group and just doing that really well. I think that is really important to know about oneself before getting out into a professional environment.
I’d like to cheat a little bit and list two groups for different reasons. The first would have to be the Burnett Honors College because of the sheer number of enriching opportunities they facilitate. Honors in the Major, Honors Thesis, homecoming (the last homecoming king in the old stadium!), social events, honors classes, studying abroad, Team leaders, honors housing… the list of things I benefited from (both academically and personally) that they organized is tremendous. During the first week of school freshman year, I met both my future wife at an Honors College social and our best man in honors housing. The other group I have to mention is the President’s Leadership Council. PLC gave me a great deal of invaluable professional experience including the opportunity to befriend, interact with, and learn from diverse and driven peers. I have benefitted from what PLC taught me about how universities work, how to work professionally with others, and how to identify strengths and areas for improvement in myself and others. Being a part of PLC explicitly helped me land my first job in Pittsburgh working with the graduate student government, which in turn really set me on the rest of this path in life.
In 2005 I was honored to travel to Cambridge for a summer semester as one of the Burnett Honors College’s President’s Scholars. I had never really been abroad before, and it is not an exaggeration to say that these types of experiences really do teach you a lot about yourself as well as about the places you’re visiting. Going so far outside of your comfort zone and needing to plan and depend entirely on yourself is something I’d highly recommend. Closer to home, though, I also helped start a club at UCF, and that was a huge learning experience as well. Getting the Contemporary A Cappella Club off the ground with a small group of great people was a daunting undertaking, from figuring out and managing group financing to group organization and leadership structure (there were two to three performing groups and about 18 members during our time, and there are five groups and around 70 members now, I believe) and booking performances and learning our sets was unlike anything I had ever done before. It helped me make some great friends and great memories, and both my wife and I still sing some of our old a cappella songs to our kids at bedtime.