Who is this guy?
I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and so speak Pittsburgh English natively, but I have lived in Boston, MA and Tucson, AZ for school. I received my B.A. in Linguistics (with minors in History and in Arabic Studies) from Boston College in 2014, my M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Arizona in 2018, and my Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Arizona in 2022.

You can learn more about my current research projects on my research page. Broadly, I am interested in language documentation and revitalization, morphological change, contact-induced change, ethnobiology, word recognition, morphological processing, and priming. I have conducted research on Nisenan, Ičiškíin/Sahaptin, Piipaash, Quechua, Maltese, Hebrew, and English.

I work as the Language Coordinator for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, in Placerville, CA, where I assist efforts to teach the Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok languages.

I previously worked as the Sahaptian Language Resource Developer for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, in Pendleton, OR, where I assisted efforts to teach the Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Weyíiletpuu (Cayuse-Nez Perce) languages.

I have volunteered with the Huhugam Heritage Center (HHC) on the Gila River Indian Community and with the O'odham-Piipaash Language Program (OPLP) on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. I worked with Piipaash community members and staff from the HHC and OPLP to document the Piipaash language (aka "Maricopa"), which today is spoken by Elders at both the Gila River and Salt River communities.

Together with John Powell, I founded and formerly organized the Friends of Yuman meeting group: We are a group of students, faculty, and tribal staff who meet weekly to read and discuss linguistic and anthropological research on the Yuman language family. From 2016 to 2020, I managed the Psycholinguistics and Computational Linguistics (PsyCoL) Lab. In this capacity, I organized our weekly lab meetings, coordinated the use of lab equipment and lab space, and provided consultation on statistics and experimental methods. I am also a member of the Endangered Language Circle (ELC) and the Multilingual Group (MuG) at the University of Arizona.

From 2016-2018, I organized Arizona Linguistics Circle (ALC), an annual graduate student-run linguistics conference held at the University of Arizona. I served as conference chair for ALC11, and on the organizing committee for ALC10 and ALC12. I was also the webmaster for Coyote Papers: Working Papers in Linguistics, a publication of the Arizona Linguistics Circle. You can learn more about Coyote Papers here. Lastly, I served as the administrator for the Linguistics Department's Sona Sign-Up System from 2017-2020.
Non-Academic
When I am not doing linguistics, I like to watch horror and sci-fil films and tv shows (the lower quality, the better). I've met lots of famous folks from the horror industry, including Lloyd Kaufman, Judith O'Dea, Tom Savini, and George Romero (the picture above is of me and George at The Living Dead Weekend 2014 in Evans City, PA).

I like to read for pleasure, especially sci-fi and historical nonfiction (e.g., Pittsburgh, Malta, the American Southwest). I also enjoy research articles on corvid intelligence, prairie dog communication, and social commentary on professional wrestling.

I am fascinated by birds. I like observing birds, reading about bird intelligence and social behavior, folk ornithology (check out Amadeo Rea's (2007) Wings in the desert: A folk ornithology of the northern Pimans), and wondering what birds think about on a daily basis. I've yet to meet a bird I didn't like, but I'm particularly fond of Verdin, Vermilion Flycatcher, Mexican Jay, House Sparrow, Pied-billed Grebe, Northern Cardinal, and White-crowned Sparrow.

In my freetime I also like to photograph local birds. The picture to the left is of my favorite bird, a female Black Redstart, taken at the University of Malta (2019-11-23). You can find me on Facebook or check out my eBird profile to see more bird pictures.
Otherwise, I like to explore the Southwest, Northwest, and, now, Northern California. Some of my favorite places include:

Sweetwater Wetlands (Tucson, AZ)

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Page, AZ (The Chains)