The path that led our family to Riverside and Alessandro Heights in October 2018 is, as the Beatles sang, truly a long and winding road. It was certainly a journey we never thought we would take and one we would not trade for anything. The exciting thing is that we feel as if our journey is not done. While we love to reminisce about the past, we are trying to really engage in the present, and looking forward to the future. We try to live according to our faith, in a way that allows us to serve others, and experience and learn from the world around us.

Robin and I met when we were in High School while on vacation in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I was from Massachusetts, and Robin from Kentucky. It took two summers for us to hit it off, and I ended up going to Robin’s senior prom in Kentucky, and she spent New Year’s with me and my family near Boston. We lost touch after high school when I went to college in upstate NY (St. Lawrence University) and Robin went further south to Samford University in AL. What could have been just a high school summer romance thankfully was not to be as we reconnected our junior year in university. After graduating, I moved to Alabama to see if the relationship would work, and the rest is history!

As a family, we spent almost 20 years in the Southeast living in Birmingham AL. Robin loves school and ended up earning her doctorate in education and working at her alma mater Samford University as a professor of Education. I worked in banking and finance as a financial advisor. Life was good, and we could have remained in Birmingham, but God had different plans for our family.

In 2014, after several years of wrestling with the decision, we resigned from our positions and moved our family to Southeast Asia to serve as missionaries. We had a fantastic time living and working abroad. Our work was challenging yet rewarding. I worked with business leaders, marketplace professionals, and consulted with a local financial advisory firm, while Robin did tremendous work helping refugees gain access to higher education.

We came to Riverside in 2018 when Robin accepted a position as Dean of the School of Education at California Baptist University (CBU). She continues to serve in that capacity and loves CBU. I worked for several years managing institutional assets for a foundation, before taking the entrepreneurial leap and founding my own financial planning and investment management firm, Global Impact Wealth Management, in September 2023. It’s a practice that helps individuals and families who want to have a positive impact on their communities and the world through how they live, work, and invest. A big focus is on aligning clients' passions, values, vocations, and investments so they are working in concert to allow them to reach their goals.

In our family we really like school! While overseas, I received my Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and I am currently a Ph.D. candidate studying the intersection of business and international missions. Professionally, I have two designations; I have been a Certified Financial Planner Practitioner since 2003 (CFPÒ), and more recently became a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMAÒ).

We have two awesome children. Emma (21) is married to her husband Chava (21) a Riverside native. She is a graduate student in education at CBU and Chava, a gifted vocalist, is finishing his undergraduate degree in vocal performance, also at CBU. They both ultimately want to end up in higher education. Emma is becoming a wonderful educator. She has a gift with children and a heart to see them cared for and nurtured so they can grow academically and socially. She is a substitute teacher in RUSD now and will specialize in special education.

Noah (18), our son, is a senior at Poly High School. He will be attending CBU to study mechanical engineering and do Army ROTC. He plays baseball and loves working on his 1983 Porsche 944 (Hopefully by the time you are reading this he will be driving around the neighborhood!). All kidding aside, Noah is developing into an accomplished mechanic, who is entirely self-taught. He has no fear of taking cars apart and putting them back together. Recently, he completely rebuilt an engine for his 944.

It seems like our family is not complete without an animal (or three). Our current stable consists of two cats and a dog. Our dog, named Finley, is an English Springer Spaniel. Our two cats, Pippa our SE Asian cat, and George, an orange tabby who loves to run around our yard and climb up on the roof.

We love to travel and experience new places and cultures. It has been a blessing to not only travel but to live and immerse ourselves in different cultures. December 2022, we spent in Scandinavia (Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo) for Christmas and New Year’s as a family so we could experience Christmas in another part of the world. We also have family in Boston and Alabama, so we will often spend time there or have them join us in Riverside – my parents in Boston never seem to complain about coming to Southern California in the winter!

Riverside and Alessandro Heights have truly become home to our family. Our prayer is that we can be a good neighbor in the community, serving well and giving back. We have been blessed to have great friends, a loving and welcoming church community (The Grove Community Church), and fantastic work that is fulfilling and challenging. We are thrilled to be in Riverside now and excited to see where the road ahead takes us.