I am running for Plano ISD School Board, Place 5.
I’m a native Texan and attended kindergarten through fifth grade at Davis Elementary. My three older siblings matriculated through Haggard, Vines and Plano Senior High School. After completing fifth grade, my family moved to Tyler and then Palestine, Texas. I graduated from Palestine High School. During my senior year, I was a captain on the football team and the baseball team, and I was the President of the National Honor Society.
Following high school, I attended Texas A&M University, graduating with a BA in English. During college, I worked in the registrar’s office to help defray costs. After college, I was lucky to marry my wife, Cristy, and I took a job teaching English at my alma mater, Palestine High School in the Palestine ISD for four years. I taught tenth grade English, including the tenth grade Pre-AP course, a Creative Writing course, and a Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) preparation course for students who needed to retake the writing and reading portions of the TAAS test (the predecessor to the TAKS test students currently take). During that time, I was enrolled in a master’s program at the University of Texas – Tyler and my first son was born. After completing my MA in English, Cristy and I moved to San Antonio, Texas, where I enrolled in St. Mary’s University School of Law.
During my second year in law school, I was selected as a staff writer for the St. Mary’s Law Journal, and during my third year, I was the Executive Editor for the Journal. My comment entitled “A Holy Mess: School Prayer, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of Texas, and the First Amendment” was published in the St. Mary’s Law Journal Volume 32, Issue 1. During my third year in law school, Cristy and I welcomed my daughter into the family and I studied for finals in the hospital that semester. I graduated in the top 15% of my class, and following graduation in 2001, we moved to Dallas, where I took a position with Jackson Walker L.L.P.
When my youngest son was born, we moved into our current neighborhood in Plano ISD. My oldest son attended Jackson Elementary, Frankford Middle School and is currently a freshman at Shepton High School. My daughter is a fourth grader at Jackson, and my youngest son is a third grader at Jackson. Cristy is currently the President of the Shepton High School Athletic Booster Club and is the Fourth Grade Work Coordinator at Jackson. I volunteer as a baseball and football coach for my children’s sports teams and as a Watchdog through the school PTAs.
I am currently a partner in the financial services group at Jackson Walker, with a practice that focuses on representing lenders in complex commercial transactions. I was named in March 2010 by Thomson Reuters as a “Rising Star”, as the result of a survey of over 65,000 Texas lawyers who are asked to nominate the best lawyers that they have personally observed in action. “Rising Stars” are attorneys who are either 40 years old and under or who have been practicing law for ten or fewer years.
I am committed to public education and to Plano ISD. I wish to serve as a trustee to use my unique combination of experience in the classroom, professional legal and financial skills and long-term knowledge and volunteer service to our community to help PISD provide the excellent education each student deserves.
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