I am currently an Assistant Professor at the CON. My work and academic background allow me to bring a distinctive perspective to the students, and others, whom I have the privilege to teach and work with. I graduated from the University of Utah in 1993 with a dual major in Nursing as well as Behavioral Science and Health and subsequently earned a Master of Public Health in 1995. I obtained a Ph.D. from Western Michigan University in Interdisciplinary Health Science in 2012. I was the first Health Informatics Fellow with the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a former Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where I conducted outbreak investigations in California, Alaska, Kansas, and the Republic of Georgia. Prior to working at the CON, I was a partner in a public health software and consulting company where I provided public health consulting services and developed software for state and local health departments across the country. Later, I was employed at Comagine Health (a.k.a. HealthInsight) and worked on healthcare quality improvement initiatives within skilled nursing and hospital-based care settings, primary care, and public health clinics in both rural and urban population centers throughout Utah.  I have over twenty-seven years of experience in healthcare consulting and teaching. Currently, I am working on projects to improve primary care by creating opportunities for registered nurses to work at the top of their licensure with an emphasis on nurses working in rural and frontier communities. I have teaching experience in doctoral, master, and undergraduate programs as well as in community and industry settings. I have been married to Deborah for thirty-five years and have three children, Curtis (age 32), James (age 27), and Erika (age 18). I enjoy hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter.