Bio (100 words or less)
John joined the Navy right out of college, going straight to Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI and was commissioned an Ensign after four intense months of physical, intellectual, and military training. He qualified as a Surface Warfare Officer on the USS VANCOUVER (LPD-2). During his career John served on five different ships in ports on both the east and west coasts. He completed a tour with the 2nd Marine Division as a naval gunfire liaison officer and was also on the staff of what was then called Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, VA. John's last tour of duty was teaching political science at the U.S. Naval Academy. During that time he earned a PhD in Politics from The Catholic University of America. John spent the next eight years after completing his active Navy service teaching both political science and leadership studies. In 2015 John was brought on board the Institute for Psychological Sciences to lead the completion of an online master's degree in Psychology. He was also the subject matter expert for the last two courses in the program, which were leadership courses. Leading this project taught John so much about instructional design, especially the particular challenges of online learning. John loved the work so much that he earned a certificate in Instructional Design from the Online Learning Consortium and participated in two projects for the Designers For Learning nonprofit. This work has helped John to build his portfolio and develop the skills and abilities to continue in this marvelous instructional design world!