Candidate for
State Representative; Pennsylvania State House of Representatives; District 68; Democratic Party

I grew up in Souderton, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Souderton Area High School in 1994. I graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1999 with a bachelors degree in music education, and after teaching for some years, received a masters of education from Duquesne University in 2009. I started my teaching career in Western PA as a substitute teacher in various districts for 2 years, then taught at Colorado Springs School District #11 for 4 years, and have been here at the Southern Tioga School District for the past 8 years. I started out teaching primarily at North Penn High School, where I was able to re-start the Southern Tioga Marching Band, and introduce the school to an activity that was important to me in school - percussion ensemble. The past few years I've been teaching primarily elementary music, but I still teach the high school percussion ensemble as well. I truly love my job, and will miss these things if I'm elected to the state assembly, but I feel that I'm ready for the new challenge this job will bring. I believe that my perspective as a teacher is something that is needed in the state assembly. Lawmakers are always trying to improve education, but they very seldom seek input from teachers! I believe that we have some great teachers here in Tioga County, I know many of them, and I would be taking their voices to Harrisburg.

I've been married to my lovely wife, Carolyn, since 1999, and we've been blessed with many children: Samson (10), Naomi (10), Stephen (8), Phoebe (7), Andrew (6) and Esther (5). We've also been foster parents for Tioga County for the past three years. We live in Covington, PA, where we also raise chickens and goats. Being a music teacher (and Carolyn is also a great musician), we also play music in any spare time we have. We are both very involved in our church, the Vineyard Church of Wellsboro.

My family and I fell in love with the Tioga County communities we've become a part of, and I have been overwhelmed by the parent and community support of the music program we built in Blossburg. Over these years, I've also become increasingly aware of the inequity toward public education in the state of Pennsylvania, and this has rapidly increased over the past four years in the tenure of Governor Tom Corbett. Our current representative, Matt Baker, has done a great job of serving our community through his offices here in the district and in Harrisburg, but unfortunately, he has supported Governor Corbett and his agenda in Harrisburg every step of the way. If elected, I will work hard to represent you, the citizens of Tioga County, in every decision made in Harrisburg.

I've long maintained an interest in politics. I decided on music education as a career due primarily to the tremendous impact of music on me in my public schooling. I enter this position as a political outsider. If elected, I will listen to my constituents in order to influence our state government to work FOR the citizens of Tioga County, not against them. The Republican-controlled state government has done everything it can to PREVENT Pennsylvanians from receiving high-quality public education, high-quality affordable health care, and equal rights for all Pennsylvanians, while passing on tax benefits to the natural gas industry and large corporations. I want to see Pennsylvania return to a state where the government works for the people, not for the profit of corporation.