About Me

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I am a historian and theologian whose work explores the intersections of politics, culture, and spirituality—especially within the context of American and African American history. My teaching and scholarship focus on the ways secularization and religious identity have shaped the modern world.

Over the past decade, I’ve taught at both the secondary and collegiate levels. I’ve designed and taught courses in U.S. History, African American History, Western Civilization, and more specialized topics such as Slavery and Race in the Early Americas and Atlantic History in the Eighteenth Century. While at the University of Lynchburg, I co-supervised a collaborative public history exhibit—Local Stories, National Struggle: The Civil War in Appomattox and Lynchburg—with student interns and The American Civil War Museum.

My first book, The Risen Phoenix: Black Politics in the Postbellum South (University of Virginia Press, 2016), examines the political lives of African American congressmen during Reconstruction and its aftermath. 

Currently, I teach Dual Enrollment U.S. History at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, where I’ve been for the past eight years. I also serve as Director of the Office of International Studies, coordinating pilgrimages, educational tours, and student exchange programs.

In addition to my scholarly work, I am also the CEO of BravoPlus, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers inner-city youth—especially African American and Latino high school students—by providing scholarships that make immersive, language-rich study abroad experiences possible.

My goal as an educator is to to convey to students the profound and intimate connections between spirituality and the study of history.