Biography: Cynthia (my spouse) and I have two adult daughters and have been living in Nampa since I began my career here at NNU–twenty-six years now! Together we enjoy the diverse natural world here in the Northwest, mostly by running, hiking, biking, and camping.

We are active members of the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, ID, where we celebrate the work of God’s redemptive love in the world and join with others (and God) to make our world more like the Kingdom.

In my position at NNU as a Professor of English, I get to share one of the great loves of my life–literature. It has been my profound pleasure to develop and teach classes on everything from Nature Writing, to Science Fiction, to Native-American Literature. On any given day my students and I may be talking about being better writers ourselves or some of the greatest writings in the world today.

What is your favorite thing about working at NNU? One of my favorites things about my time here at NNU has been the intellectual relationships with students. We are a small enough institution that I routinely have the privilege of seeing the same students two or more times throughout their college education who are not my major students. I get to see how their minds have grown, how their imaginations have blossomed, and how their skills have developed over their time here at NNU. Each semester I have usually between fifty and seventy different students in all of my classes–all of them unique and made in God’s image. So when graduation comes, I am bursting with joy and pride, thinking “I know her!”; “He has so many great things to say in those classes!”; “Wow, graduating with honors!”

Share a few facts about your specific area(s) of expertise that you bring to the classroom: My dissertation and research are quite varied, so I have expertise in Native-American Literature, Colonial American Literature, Jewish-American Literature, Environmental Literature, contemporary World Literatures, American Studies, and Nature Writing.

Share a few pieces of information that represent your teaching experience and why you love working with students: Every class I teach is built on things I love (thought that can sometimes bring pain, discomfort, challenge, along with pleasure)–certain poems, particularly literary genres, schools of philosophy and thought, or even a specific spot in nature. So my teaching is a process of helping my students understand how we learn about God, about the humans around the globe, and about the natural word surrounding us through the art of literature. And at the same time, I get to know about the students, what they love, what they cherish, what they hope.