Twenty-eight years of international hospitality and tourism sales, marketing and event management experience across five continents had accumulated before I decided to end the onerous travel schedule and do something dramatically different with my life. The next decade was dedicated to completing a Master's degree in Hospitality & Tourism Management, learning how to teach and conduct research, and earning a Ph.D. in Social Welfare. Concurrent to the period of study I developed an expertise in community food work that has been recognized by the American Hotel & Lodging Association's HotelKitchen.org initiative, Broward County's Corporate Sustainability Network, Events Industry Council's sustainability initiative, Feeding South Florida, Florida Food Policy Council, Florida International University's Center for Leadership and Service, Focus Miami, Global Meetings Industry Day, Meeting Professionals International's Sunshine Education Summit, Miami Rescue Mission, Second Harvest of Central Florida, South Florida Hunger Coalition and Sustainable Events Network, Florida & Caribbean. Also developed during the doctoral study is my signature course "Social Responsibility in the Hospitality Industry" which provides soft-skills education and community-engagement experience to more than 100 hospitality and tourism students each year. My students and I pay it forward by annually contributing in excess of 1,000 hours of community service and, by one measure, help rescue and re-distribute more than 100,000 lbs. of food to the food-insecure population in their communities.
research interests
Community Food Security, Corporate Social Responsibility, Food Rescue and Recovery, International Group Travel Operations, International Hospitality & Tourism Sales & Marketing, Service Learning