A native New Yorker and child of immigrants, I was a first generation college student and the first in my extended family to earn graduate degrees. The first two decades of my career were prof to follow my new spouse, a Coast Guard officer to Hawaii, and from there to Washington, DC; Yorktown, VA; Seattle, WA; Miami, FL; and Seattle, WA again. This and four children explain my career, one that has allowed me to work as an academic and public historian. I currently teach history full-time at North Seattle College.
In earlier years, I worked at: Seattle Central College, as a F/T History Instructor (1992-1996); Seattle University, as a Visiting Asst.Professor (1990-1991); the University of Miami, as a Visiting Asst. Professor (1987-1990); the AHA (yes!) in D.C., as "Assistant to the Director for the Promotion of Minorities’ & Women’s Scholarly and Professional Interests" (1979-1981); Prince Georges Community College , in Largo, MD., as a P/t Lecturer (1979-1980); and Chaminade University, in Honolulu, as a Visiting Asst. Professor (1975-1977). I started at Humboldt State as an Assistant Professor of History in 1972.
Our children followed us into higher education and the Coast Guard. One is an Economist at Bryn Mawr; another is Purchasing Coordinator at the U of Washington's School of Denistry; another is a Philosopher of Mathematics at the U of Kansas; and the last is a Coast Guard officer in New Orleans.
What I learned from working as a historian in different institutions and at the AHA has made me a more versatile, more curious, and better historian than I would have been had I spent most of my years teaching at one or two institutions.