1: Please explain more what you do. I am a Principal Consultant with the Illinois State Board of Education in the Nutrition Division. My position is to audit the National School Lunch Program to ensure that schools are properly using the money that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) disperses. My group started in 2016 with a young man starting a month ahead of me and one colleague I recruited from past experiences. I am the only original left of the three and I have been charged with training each new individual. I have presented at State sponsored trainings throughout Illinois with attendances of 50-200.
2: What is your biggest life lesson? Your dreams can change. I learned long ago, as silly/corny as it sounds, from a Garth Brooks song, Unanswered Prayers, that maybe we do not know exactly what we want. My mother left us when I was 11, days before my 12th birthday. Our father was not a compassionate father, but dam did he try. We prayed the rosary as a family each night for her return. I spoke with my school/church seminarian and he mentioned the song to me. We prayed for her return, but honestly, we were all better in the long run without her. We had mother figures in our lives, in lieu of my father’s sisters who each stepped up. Would it have been nicer to have a mother to turn to each night, yes. But maybe she was the mother we needed to turn to.
3: What is your biggest achievement? In my family, still being married and not an alcoholic. Professionally, I know there is further for me to go. But I have taken a back seat in essence to my wife’s career. This is not a “I am a great husband because….” My wife has always been focused. She went straight to college and got her nursing degree. Whereas I was more concerned with making the next dollar, not having a sturdy foundation. I job hopped for years, but not in the manner that Amanda Goodall would say was for positive reason. So when I went back to school in my later 20s, a business degree straddling a recession did not equate to much. When I got my MBA in early 30s, I started making the income I was hoping to make when I got my BS. But my wife, she has been the steady income and I have focused more on the benefits and child care. We have made it work for us and our family. In my family, I am the soul surviving relationship that started before age 40 that has survived. It may not be the professional answer that everyone looks for, but this is the foundation of what my life is.
4: How people can get in contact with you? Honestly the best way to start contact with me is via LinkedIn. I prefer to stay slightly guarded, so initial conversations through LinkedIn before moving ahead are great. From there, I look to make phone contact when possible.
2: What is your biggest life lesson? Your dreams can change. I learned long ago, as silly/corny as it sounds, from a Garth Brooks song, Unanswered Prayers, that maybe we do not know exactly what we want. My mother left us when I was 11, days before my 12th birthday. Our father was not a compassionate father, but dam did he try. We prayed the rosary as a family each night for her return. I spoke with my school/church seminarian and he mentioned the song to me. We prayed for her return, but honestly, we were all better in the long run without her. We had mother figures in our lives, in lieu of my father’s sisters who each stepped up. Would it have been nicer to have a mother to turn to each night, yes. But maybe she was the mother we needed to turn to.
3: What is your biggest achievement? In my family, still being married and not an alcoholic. Professionally, I know there is further for me to go. But I have taken a back seat in essence to my wife’s career. This is not a “I am a great husband because….” My wife has always been focused. She went straight to college and got her nursing degree. Whereas I was more concerned with making the next dollar, not having a sturdy foundation. I job hopped for years, but not in the manner that Amanda Goodall would say was for positive reason. So when I went back to school in my later 20s, a business degree straddling a recession did not equate to much. When I got my MBA in early 30s, I started making the income I was hoping to make when I got my BS. But my wife, she has been the steady income and I have focused more on the benefits and child care. We have made it work for us and our family. In my family, I am the soul surviving relationship that started before age 40 that has survived. It may not be the professional answer that everyone looks for, but this is the foundation of what my life is.
4: How people can get in contact with you? Honestly the best way to start contact with me is via LinkedIn. I prefer to stay slightly guarded, so initial conversations through LinkedIn before moving ahead are great. From there, I look to make phone contact when possible.
RSS Feed
