I grew up in a working-class family in rural Florida, in an area known primarily for horse-breeding and hosting one of North America's largest retirement communities. Upon graduating high school, I received a scholarship to attend the University of Florida, where I studied with Les Thiele and received a B.A. in Political Science.

After spending a year working in Seattle, WA, I began my doctoral studies in political theory at the University of Virginia, where I studied with George Klosko, Tal Brewer, Stephen K. White, Lawrie Balfour, Colin Bird, and Jen Rubenstein, and offered classes on environmental politics.

During graduate school, I became involved in central Virginia's well-organized environmental activism scene. This eventually led me to run for office in 2017, in an attempt to oust Virginia's fossil-fuel backed House Minority Leader. Despite a number of significant obstacles, including having no formal staff and being outspent nearly 46 to 1, our campaign received endorsements from major national organizations, mobilized volunteers from all over the state and country, made the front page of the Washington Post, and carried a third of the vote. Although we did not prevail at the polls, after the race ended my former opponent stopped accepting fossil-fuel money and then shortly after announced his opposition to two, highly controversial fracked-gas pipelines. In 2019, facing another progressive challenger, he retired. Shortly after, in 2020, one of the pipeline projects was finally abandoned. 

On December 1st, 2017, just a few months after the campaign ended, I successfully defended my dissertation in the Oval Room of the Rotunda.

In April 2018 I accepted a tenure-track position at the Catholic University of Chile, where I now teach classes on environmental political theory, public ethics, and the history of political thought.

Since arriving in Chile, I have enjoyed learning Spanish, exploring the immense range of Chilean climates and geographies, and sampling the vibrant vegan scene in Santiago.