Courses I teach

• Introductory Course (assistant instructor)
• First Aid and Basic Emergency Medicine

I hope to have courses in negotiation and conflict resolution available in the near future.

Formal Education

• B.A. English, Washington State University, 2001
• J.D., University of Idaho, 2005

Teaching Experience

• Two years teaching business law at the college level
• One year as a teaching assistant for legal research and writing during law school
• Two years as a writing tutor and one year as a math tutor during my undergrad years

I have also put together and run a number of educational seminars to walk low-income populations through common pro se legal actions. Realistically, though, both of my jobs involve a lot of training and teaching on a daily basis.

Work Experience

I am an attorney with a practice focused on indigent criminal defense and a small amount of family law. Since I became a Jedi, my Path has also led me to volunteer as an emergency medical technician.

Before I went back to school for my law degree, I held a number of jobs: bartender, waiter, bouncer, private investigator, nursing assistant, financial analyst. Most of my twenties I spent as a professional musician (and I still gig frequently with my bar band).

Martial Arts Experience

I fell in love with Japanese martial arts at about age eight. I didn’t find a school until I was 13, when I started studying tae kwon do, but that only lasted until I was 15 because of shuttling between parents’ homes. At 18, I started working private investigations and security, so I trained over the years with firearms, a number of nonlethal weapons, and unarmed self-defense. The last few years, I have returned to traditional martial arts, studying goju ryu karate at a very good school along with my sons.

My Jedi Path

I suppose my first experience with the Path was when I discovered The Dharma of Star Wars about ten years ago. It reawakened my fascination with Eastern philosophy. But I was completely unaware of the online communities until about 2010. My boys, who were about 7 and 5 at the time, had discovered Star Wars for themselves, and while researching a question for them, I happened across the IJRS. I’ve been here ever since.

The Institute was my first praxeum and will always be my online training home, but I also study (with fluctuating levels of diligence) at Temple of the Jedi Order, and I was formerly a student of the Light Aspect at Force Academy until my forum account went up in electronic smoke.

I am working on blazing a trail for the Institute’s Jedi Diplomat track, and my daily life involves communication, persuasion, and conflict resolution. My Knighthood project therefore is focused on developing new advanced Comm training in these areas, which I hope to share with the community as they are completed.