Originally from Staten Island, NY, I spent my childhood years playing sports and hanging out with friends in my neighborhood.  In 1996 I graduated from Tottenville High School and moved to Boston to attend Northeastern University, where I graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. 

I began graduate school in the Department of Sociology at UMass-Amherst in the fall of 2001.  My passion for sociology flourished at UMass.  As a doctoral candidate, I taught three different courses and was a teaching assistant for eight semesters.  I also held various positions as a research assistant, and published peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Social Problems, and Social Psychology Quarterly.  In 2007, I was awarded a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant.  Now at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers, I am finishing a book manuscript and beginning to think about my next project.  My CV can be found here.

Currently, I live in Arlington, Virginia with my girlfriend Kim.  In addition to sociology, I also enjoy cooking, biking, the outdoors, current events, traveling, and following my favorite sports teams: the Red Sox and the Patriots.