About the Author
I think it is always interesting to learn about a person’s background as it provides a window into the experiences that shape them into who they are and how they think. So, just to let you know a little bit about myself…
I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. My dad was a math teacher and my mom stayed at home with my brother and me until we were in middle or high school at which point she also taught high school math1. I had friends in college that always assumed I would become a math teacher too but that was far down on my list of career choices (after baseball player, gym teacher, physical therapist, etc.). Funny how life works out.
I received a BA in Mathematics from Westminster College in Fulton Missouri, where I played baseball for 2 years (as a pitcher, outfielder, and more frequently, a pinch runner). Westminster is a small school (around 700 students when I attended), and is most well known as the location for Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain Speech”. When I was a student, Mikhail Gorbachev also spoke on campus in front of a sculpture constructed from the Berlin Wall by Churchill’s granddaughter. Small claim to fame - I was one of 7 students that led the processional for that event and even unknowingly photo-bombed Gorbachev and the Governor before selfies or photo-bombs were even a thing (that’s me in the middle of Figure 0.1, with more hair than I have now).
FIGURE 0.1: Left Panel: Church of St Mary Aldermanbury and Breakthrough sculpture. Photo by Rangermike at English Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. Right Panel: Photo of Gorbachev, Governor Ashcroft, and me during Churchill’s visit to Westminster College in 1992 (copyright 1992 Gold/McCowen, courtesy of America’s National Churchill Museum).
After undergrad, I wanted to live somewhere warmer. I ended up going to graduate school in North Carolina. I received my MS in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a PhD in Biomathematics from North Carolina State University. My PhD research was focused on comparing and evaluating methods used to perform population viability analyses. During this time, I fell in love with college basketball, especially after experiencing 4 NCAA final fours while living in North Carolina (go UNC!). My son is named after a player on the 2005 National Championship team and my youngest daughter is named Caroline Anne2.
Prior to coming to the University of Minnesota, I worked for 2 1/2 years as a Biometrician for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission in Olympia, WA and 10 years as a Wildlife Biometrician for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. I had the opportunity to work with a lot of great people on a variety of research projects. These environments provided a fantastic opportunity to grow my quantitative and communication skills. I also learned much about salmon, the historic injustices faced by native people, and the important role that hunting and fishing (and hunters and fishers) play in conserving our natural resources.
My wife, Ann, is a biostatistician on East Bank of the University of Minnesota. If you take a class from me, you will probably hear stories about my family throughout the semester.
FIGURE 0.2: My family during a trip to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park during the summer of 2021 just prior to starting a sabbatical to work on this book.
This was actually their second life. My dad graduated from high school and became a Christian Brother. My mom left home at age 16 after World War II to go to the convent - it was going to be her vehicle for changing the world since she couldn’t join the army. She remained a a nun for 20 years until she met my dad, they fell in love, got married, and the rest is history.↩︎
My oldest daughter is named Zoe, which was my mom’s name when she was a nun.↩︎