My Story

Teaching

I became a teacher because I believed in the American Dream, and I believed education was the surest path to it.

At GIVE Center West, I saw another side of America. Students facing poverty, instability, and systems that were never built with them in mind. I taught students who couldn’t speak English. Others who moved so often that they couldn’t even order a package online. I went to graduations. I also went to funerals.

Still, I saw hope that refused to relent.

I was named Georgia’s Alternative School Teacher of the Year 2019 and Gwinnett County Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2017. I was the first from my school to receive that honor.

But the real work wasn’t in awards. It was in the classrooms, the home visits, and the belief that teachers are defenders of the American Dream.

I became an assistant principal at GIVE West, and I learned what it meant to lead a team.

I handled budgets. I broke up fights. I knocked on doors during home visits. I worked with students who had every reason to give up but showed up anyway.

After nine years at GIVE West, I moved to the Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology, which is ranked the number one high school in the state.

I can’t take credit for that. The culture of excellence was already there, built by the teachers and leaders who came before me. I’m just trying to live up to it!

You might think the students at these two places would be completely different. But in the end, kids are kids. They worry about their friends. They question their future. They’re trying to make sense of a world that’s getting harder to navigate.

Whether it’s GIVE or GSMST, one thing hasn’t changed: the classroom is still where I see the best of what America could be. A place where students imagine what America could be.

Me at GIVE West, doing traffic duty with GIVE West service dog Archie.

A Gwinnett County video highlighting my classroom for Teacher of the Year recognition.

My first classroom.

My first year teaching.

At GIVE West, I planned and moderated a religious forum that connected with 6th and 7th-grade social studies, academic knowledge, and skills, centered around learning about different parts of the world.

Advocacy

The first act of advocacy I joined was to protest the death sentence of Troy Davis. I remember reading about his case, seeing the uncertainty, the recanted witness testimony, and realizing that real doubt existed about his guilt. I stood not far from the Georgia State Capitol with a few others as the parole board reviewed his case and ultimately upheld his sentence.

That moment showed me that justice is imperfect, whether Davis was guilty or not. Because of that experience, I do not support the death penalty.

Over the years, I continued to speak out. Through The Freedom Cards and in my personal life, I attended rallies against police violence in 2016 and again in 2022, during the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests. I traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest Donald Trump’s first inauguration and returned the next day for the Women’s March. I also traveled to the Republican National Convention in 2016 to speak with protestors and collect stories. While in Cleveland, I was hit by a police officer with a club for standing too close to the street.

That same year, I documented and took part in counter-protests at Stone Mountain, standing against the use of the Confederate flag in public spaces.

In 2022, during the global protests for racial justice, I built and displayed white crosses on the corner of Marietta Street and Centennial Olympic Drive to honor people killed by police. The crosses were taken down. After a full day of contacting city departments, we found them and put them back up.

During that protest, police used flashbang grenades on my wife and me. I saw both protestors and police escalate the situation. I saw protestors turn into rioters. I also saw police beat peaceful demonstrators. It was complicated, painful, and real.

I have also protested the firing of federal workers and Trump’s actions against civil servants in 2024 and 2025. I believe in using our First Amendment rights as often and as fully as possible.

The most meaningful act of advocacy I’ve taken part in was a 14-day hunger strike before the 2018 gubernatorial election between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp. A group of teachers and I called on both candidates to commit to fully funding Georgia’s QBE education formula. After just seven days, both campaigns issued public statements supporting full funding. I also had over 50 religious leaders sign an open letter to the elected official of Georgia. You can read that letter here. That action brought real results.

One of my co-teachers and I holding up the promises for full funding from both Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp.

Protesting outside the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center for civil servants vilified by the Trump Administration.

The Freedom Cards

For 15 years, I’ve asked the question: What does freedom mean to you?

That question took me across 48 states. I created a project called The Freedom Cards while attending Mill Creek High School in Gwinnett and spent years collecting answers.

I spoke with Mennonites in Maryland, lobster fishermen in Maine, students in Chicago, and a Tuskegee Airman in Atlanta. I sat in living rooms, stood on porches, and visited gun clubs, farmers’ markets, and community centers. I listened to views on abortion, taxes, religion, protest, and patriotism.

I didn’t always agree with what I heard. But I always listened.

One moment I’ll never forget: standing at the grave of Alex Funcheon, a soldier killed in Iraq. I stood with his parents, Karen and Bob, who invited me there. That moment still shapes how I think about sacrifice, about service, and about what freedom really costs. In 2021, I published the book: The Freedom Cards: 15 Years Fighting to Understand Freedom, collecting a portion of the cards for the first time.

Over 15 years, I’ve learned this: freedom is personal. And for most Americans, it means the chance to build a better life for the people they love.

I'm collecting freedom cards in Columbia, South Carolina, during a Joe Biden Rally in 2020.

Long Drive to Kansas.pdf

A couple of pages from the freedom book.

My Wife

My wife, Coco, is a hero.

While I was at home wiping down cereal boxes with Lysol, Coco was serving on the frontlines of the CDC’s COVID-19 response, helping to protect millions of Americans during one of the most uncertain times in our lives. That’s who she is - steady, fearless, and always thinking of others.

Coco is my partner in every sense of the word. Her clarity, her strength, and her courage shape not only the way we live our lives together, but also the way I see the world. I wouldn’t be standing here, running for Congress, without her by my side.

She grew up in Conyers, attending elementary, middle, and high school right here, in Georgia's 4th District, before earning her master’s in public health from Georgia State University. This community made her who she is, and together, we carry those lessons of service, resilience, and hope into everything we do.

Coco leaving to go to the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Match book my Grandma (mom's side) taped in her scrapbook from when she worked in the Pentagon support the war and after war efforts.

My Grandpa (dad's side) in Dar Es Salam in 1956 with the World Health Organization.

My grandpa (mom's side) in Gorizia, Italy, holding the flag in front of Brigadier General Gaither. Probably taken some time between 1945 and 1946.

My Parents

My story starts with the people who raised me.

My dad is an engineer who worked full-time while going to night school for 15 years to earn his bachelor’s degree in engineering. His determination taught me that progress takes persistence, and that no challenge is too great when you’re willing to keep showing up and doing the work.

The companies he worked for believed in him and helped pay for his college while he worked. His father, my grandfather, was a doctor with the World Health Organization. Their family lived in Tanzania, the Philippines, and Egypt before eventually immigrating to the United States.

My grandmother grew up in England during World War II. She carried a gas mask to school, not knowing if the next air raid would come. But she never let fear define her. She kept her family together through war and across continents. She was our anchor.

My mom started her career in radio journalism, back when men still dominated that field. Her father fought in Italy during World War II. He was drafted the day after he graduated high school. After serving, he then returned home, attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music on the GI Bill, and became an opera singer. My grandmother's mother served in the Army Transportation Corps during World War II, helping to run wartime logistics from Washington, D.C.

While growing up I heard stories of sacrifice and public service---these stories helped shape my desire to become a teacher.

Proud Georgia State Panther Band Member. I played the mellophone.

I played piano and guitar at retirement homes and community centers in high school. If Congressman Johnson wants to settle this campaign dueling banjo style, I may be interested.

Coco and I have three pets. This is Winnie, a 110-pound Great Pyrenees–Anatolian Shepherd mix we adopted from the Atlanta Humane Society. He loves going to Brook Run Park.

Fighting to Protect the Trees of Atlanta from Alabama football fans on College Game Day.

Hawks fan for life. You know I will never give up because the Hawks are usually not great, but I love them anyway! No disrespect, Trae, please endorse me.

This is Ellie after bath. She is spunky and rules the home at just 6lbs.

I gave up my professional baseball career to teach. Offers were coming in.

Me giving a Promise Talk to the Gwinnett County Public Schools' leadership confrence. My title was "The Kids that Break Rules." You can watch it here.

Frank the cat, who was adopted at the Gwinnett Animal Shelter. He is our best-behaved pet.

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