I’ve spent forty years in public service. The title that matters most here is the same as yours: parent.
RJUHSD Trustee · Professor · Retired Police Officer · Nonprofit Leader
My wife Julie and I moved to Roseville for the same reason so many families do — the schools. Five kids later, all of them Oakmont graduates, I’m still here because I believe great schools are worth protecting.
I didn’t decide to run for office one day. Serving has been my way of life since I took my police oath on April 2, 1986 — forty years of continuous public service since. I’ve been a police officer, a big-city councilmember, a professor, a nonprofit leader, and for the last six years, your trustee on the Roseville Joint Union High School District board.
What ties all of it together is a simple habit: do the homework, tell people the truth, and make decisions in the open. That’s how I’ve tried to serve, and it’s how I’ll keep serving.
From the beat to the boardroom
I started out as a professional photographer, but a stint as a volunteer reserve officer turned into a calling. I served the City of San Jose as a police officer for 14 years — patrol, street crimes, fatal-accident investigation, field training officer, undercover vice, and robbery detective work — until a serious on-duty injury forced my early retirement. I was later honored with the Legion of Honor Award by the American Police Hall of Fame.
During my recovery I found a new way to serve. I started a neighborhood association, was appointed to city boards and commissions, then elected to the San Jose City Council, where I served eight years and chaired its policy and finance committees. I helped steer one of the nation’s largest cities through the depths of the Great Recession — the experience that shaped the fiscal discipline I bring to our schools today.
When our kids approached high school age, Julie and I chose Roseville specifically for its schools and its quality of life. Here I’ve served on the Board of Appeals, the city’s Community Priorities Advisory Commission, and as vice chair of the Charter Review Commission — before you elected me to the RJUHSD board in 2020.
A professor who lives what he teaches
I’m a Professor of Public Policy and Criminal Justice and Chair of the Public Policy Department at Jessup University, where I teach constitutional and civil rights, public policy, public administration, and state and local government — the very subjects a school board practices every week. I hold a bachelor’s in Management and a master’s in Leadership from Saint Mary’s College, and I’m completing a Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Leadership at the University of La Verne.
Teaching keeps me close to the results of our work. I’ve watched Roseville graduates arrive in my classroom ready to succeed — and I’ve even had the privilege of teaching three of my own children. That dual view, as both an educator and a parent, gives me real empathy for the hard work our teachers do every day.
Fiscal and governance expertise most boards don’t have
Sound governance and long-term finances are where boards quietly succeed or fail, and they happen to be my areas of deep expertise. I’ve served as a trustee on multi-billion-dollar public pension funds and worked with governors and legislative leaders on pension reform — experience I put to work setting up our district’s pension trust for the costs we know are coming.
That expertise is now sought out beyond Roseville. I’ve been asked to train city councils and school boards across the region, and even to present internationally, on how good governance turns a board and its administration into real partners rather than rivals.
Read more about how I govern →A cop’s eye, a professor’s mind, and a parent’s heart — brought to every decision
Few school-board members bring this range: a retired police officer, a parent of five RJUHSD graduates, a university professor and department chair, a former city councilmember, with real command of fiscal policy, governance, and the legislative process. I don’t see those as separate hats. I bring all of them to every vote.
My faith is part of that grounding, too — not as doctrine, but as a commitment to service, stewardship, and genuine care for the people I represent.
Rooted here
Julie and I have been married more than three decades, and we’ve built our life in West Roseville around our five children — all Oakmont graduates now making their way in the world. Julie served two terms on the Roseville City School District board; between us, service to schools and community has always been a family affair. I was a Rotarian for more than twenty years, a former Scout leader, and a co-founder of the Throwing Starfish Foundation, a local nonprofit dedicated to serving the most vulnerable in our community.
I’d be honored to keep serving our students and families.
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