Birthed in the deep snow of CNY, and raised among the waves of the mighty St. Lawrence River, Michael moved to New England with his family as a youngster and fell deeply in love with the curmudgeonly Yankee culture so ingrained in this lovely foundation stone of America. Initially not receptive to traditional models of education, Michael grudgingly completed high school and worked for years in factory jobs, focused on the routine life of the everyday. Eventually the calling of higher education and career based work lured him away from the production based labor force and into school where Michael studied Art and communication. Art specifically interested Michael, as he had a natural proclivity and familiarity with due to his childhood and his father. As a boy, he grew up in his father’s painting studio, drawing and working next to his Dad, watching him working and hearing stories about his Grandfather who was also an oil painter. This lifelong love of art would lead to college, which led to Michael’s natural teacher emerging to help other students who were struggling. This caught the attention of one of the instructors who encouraged Michael to continue studies at the Masters level and become a teacher of Art. Due to his love of Martial Arts, Michael had been teaching for a while already in his dojo and knew he loved helping students learn. Now he pursued the educational credentials to go along with his natural love of teaching, and make teaching a career instead of just a hobby. Years of work in the private sector during his graduate work allowed Michael to accumulate experience relative to the areas he would teach, and provided a real world project based approach to teaching. His favorite thing about teaching is when he sees a student achieve something they previously doubted they were capable of, and the joy and confidence that achievement brings to them. Michael lives in Dover, NH with his wife Wendy and his 6 year old daughter Zella, who shares Michael’s love of art and creates drawings and sculptures with him almost daily. In addition to the teaching at the College and his Dojo, Michael is an artist and sculptor and frequently displays his work.