Area of Presentation Expertise

• Leadership Development

• Fraternity and Sorority Advising

• Within higher education, using college student development theory to inform practice.

• Enhancing organizational effectiveness through values congruence practice.

• Developing a holistically dynamic organizational environments

Issues of Diversity and Inclusion

• Speaking to intersectionality of identities: class, race, and gender

• LGBT theories of development and emerging trends impacting the community

• Working with new professionals: developing competencies and self-efficacy

• Faith and spirituality

Keynote Topics

• Leadership

• Diversity and Inclusion

• Inspiring a Shared Vision

• Developing Powerful Practices (for work and life)

Areas of Research

• LGBTQ College Student Experiences

• Leadership

• Spirituality Within Higher Education

• People of Color Experiences in Higher Education

A Storyteller

By my very nature, I am a story teller. Like an assortment of pedagogical tools, I find story telling to be way to explore sometimes complex topics in simplistic terms that elevate an organization, institution, and individuals within them.

A favorite quote of mine, is from the late Dr. Maya Angelou, where she says when you get, give and when you learn teach. My education has been a perfect mixture of formal education and formal schooling of life.

My formal education, afforded me to the opportunity to study business at Wingate University, education at Maryland – College Park (with the attainment of a Master of Arts in Education, Policy and Leadership), and my PhD from the University of Georgia. My formal education has provided me the necessary theoretical frameworks to understand the questions of life that are most important to me. Questions such as how we celebrate leadership amongst ourselves and one another, how do we live out authentically – see our diversity as our asset and not our liability, and how do we live with a “healthy disregard for the impossible” seeing challenges as pathways to opportunities, and failure as a gateway to excellence.

My formal education is complemented by life lessons – some came through joy, others through pain. In 2015, I published the book, The Invitation to Love: Recognizing the Gift Despite Pain, Fear, and Resistance. In the book, I talk about the time where my mom was raising three kids as a single parent, struggling to make ends meet, and facing limitations in her ability to effectively parent large in part because of the stressors on her own life. I speak about the distant relationship with my father that had me question my worth and seek external validation in ways that I should have sought from within.

I speak about early childhood sexual and physical abuse that left me to be an incubator of shame. These challenges and others I highlight in my book illuminated my own vulnerabilities and insecurities. Those things also gave me a unique perspective (an education of sorts) of what it takes to persevere over adversity and the tenacity, courage, and self-love it takes to not only speak your truth, but to live it.

So, you take formal education coupled with the schooling of life and you get an educator, a consultant; and yes, a story teller, who brings all of what he has learned to elevate organizations and individuals alike.

Areas of Consulting Concentration

Organizational effectiveness: understanding how to invoke a culture of evidence-based practices within your organization. With that, developing a strategic plan based on a shared vision with measurable and meaningful outcomes.

How to formulate a culture of assessment and evaluation.

Leading with purpose: invoking various theories of leadership to develop action plans for organizational improvements. Second, see work with a greater purpose, for a greater good that leads to higher rates of productivity and staff retention.