The most important thing to me and my wife is our faith. It’s a large part of the reason we ended up together. A week before my graduate program started here at Princeton, we had twins. We have four children, so I’m probably not your typical MPA student. But relationships are very important to me, especially those with my family.

Much of my family served in the military, and my dad and brothers graduated from the Naval Academy. I was fortunate to go to West Point and graduated in 2014. I've been flying Apache helicopters for the last seven years. Apaches are attack helicopters. I've flown just over 1,000 hours, including 300 hours in eastern Afghanistan. A great aspect of being in the military is that it's a very diverse population, but we're unified by a commitment to our country and the good for which it stands.

As a student of public policy, it's natural to approach our nation’s foreign policy with a critical lens. But I am grateful to have served in Afghanistan and proud of what we were able to accomplish. I have also spent some time in Africa, including Rwanda. Studying the 1994 Rwandan genocide made me particularly aware of what can happen when the international community fails to intervene. My experiences in places like Afghanistan and Rwanda impressed upon me the importance of applying our military’s force at the right time and place, and in the right way to make a difference. So, I’m grateful for the opportunity to study that topic here at SPIA. I’m also grateful for the chance to learn from my fellow classmates who have unique backgrounds and work experiences. Learning from, and with, my classmates is the best part of being a student here.