I was born and raised in the tropical marshes of Houston, Texas. I then went to Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where I graduated with a degree in Classical Languages in 1996.

Weary of giant insects and jungle rot, I moved to the frozen tundra of Chicago suburbia, where I went to graduate school at Trinity International University. There I met my wife and got a degree in religion, in that order. We still live in the Chicago area and now have two boys.

In 1999 I took a job at the American Theological Library Association, first as an indexer for a scholarly database and then as an editor. In 2005 I began a short stint as a freelancer. Then in 2007 I entered my current position as Manager of Communications for the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association.