Most of my adult life has been a journey toward community, education, and justice. I began
my professional career in the private practice of law, specializing for almost 20 years in the
litigation of criminal and complex civil matters. My first experience in community-building
took place within the context of coaching soccer teams, from first-grade girls to men in
NCAA Division I, something I have done (and still do) for the past 35 years. Coaching helped
me to discover my true passion, education, which led to my second career, where I spent
another 20-plus years in the teaching of history, law, and social studies at a public high
school in Chicago’s western suburbs. Retirement has afforded me the freedom to redouble
my efforts in learning how to build spiritual community on the west side and suburbs of
Chicago and participate in an emerging nucleus that is now working to lay foundations for
the development of a new educational paradigm based upon the model of FUNDAEC (“The
Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences”, a Colombian development
organization established in 1974 under the leadership of Farzam Arbab). I serve on the
Education Working Group of the Association for Baha’i Studies of North America (ABS) and
facilitate the learning of ABS reading groups in the FUNDAEC text, Intellectual Preparation
for Social Action. In November 2024, I completed the Graduate Certificate Program offered
by the Wilmette Institute in “Social Transformation.”