I live in a small town in southern Appalachia with my wife Betsy and our son JD, and an ever-evolving menagerie of animals. We live on a small farm, and although we've had sheep, goats, donkeys, pigs, and honeybees over the years, these days work keeps us busy enough that we only have dogs and cats. But it's a lot of dogs and cats.

 

This land has been in my family for generations, and we were fortunate enough to be able to buy this little slice of paradise just before JD was born. It's a farm with old fences and young fruit trees, and more love than most folks could imagine. 

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By training and profession, I'm an historian and college administrator. I didn't get to go to college until I was 31, but I didn't ever leave. I started my career as a history professor at Brevard College in western North Carolina, a college my hateful Mamaw told me I'd never attend when I fell in love with it at 16. I worked my way up through the faculty, eventually serving as an Associate Vice President. After 9 years at Brevard, I transitioned in February of 2025 to Union Commonwealth University in eastern Kentucky where I serve as Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs. I spent the week in Kentucky, then commute home to Betsy and JD on the weekends. 

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I hold an MA in United States History from Western Carolina University and a Doctor of Education degree from The University of Alabama. My research interests include Appalachian culture, economic history, transformational leadership, higher education access and student success, and assessment, and as you'll see in the essays on this site, I believe it is an obligation to use my expertise and experiences, both lived and learned, to advocate for a more just and equitable world. 

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This site is a new iteration of my old website, This Appalachia Life, reorganized in 2022 after I went three years without posting any new content on the old website. You might have already noticed that the domain for This Appalachia Life redirects here, and most of my more popular essays from the old site are now available here. Those that were not worth saving because they were no longer timely, relevant, or interesting, likely still exist somewhere in the ether, but are no longer available. Some of those that do not appear here can still be found in print in my book Writing Appalachia: One Year of Essays.

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