I teach courses in neuroscience, animal cognition, and learning. I run the Animal Cognition Lab, where students are able to work with rats and dogs to further understand both human and animal behavior. I also often bring in my own dogs to classes, giving the opportunity for students to work with the canines as well.
I have been teaching at Ripon College since January 2008. My area of specialization is developmental psychology and within that area I teach classes on PSC 234: Infant Development, PSC 235: Child Development, and PSC 242: Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. I also regularly teach PSC 339: Cognitive Processes and PSC 212: Research Design and Statistics II. My other course offerings during my time at Ripon include other courses in the PSC department and courses in our Catalyst curriculum (e.g., CTL 120 and 300).
I am also the Director of the Infant Cognition Lab. Over the years, I have been able to work with about 20 different Ripon College students on research projects in my lab. Early in my career at Ripon, my research focused on infant categorization and memory. More recently, I have begun working with younger and older children (e.g., 2.5-10 years of age) to study aspects of attention with collaborators at other universities.
Even as a young boy growing up in rural Georgia, I was fascinated by my social self, why I did what I did, and how I felt and thought about other people. Over many years, this took me to study Social Psychology as a profession. My interest in other people also led me to want to teach and to influence others in positive ways, and an early professional exposure to Peace Studies led me to incorporate ways of “making the world a better place” into my teaching and my life. Add my family to all of that, and you have my very fulfilling life. I greatly enjoy getting to know students personally as I teach the many courses I teach. I concentrate on the “clinical/counseling” Psychology courses now after returning to school to respecialize in Counseling Psychology, and have done professional mental health work (part-time) in prisons, jails, and now in nursing homes. I really enjoy “doing the work” as well as talking about it with students, and I take student interns with me when I can.