Category: Reflections

BIO

• B.A. ’70, Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts
• Senior distinguished professor emeritus of biblical theology, Criswell College
• Author
• Elected member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas
  (The Society for New Testament Studies)

It seems like yesterday that I first stepped inside The University of Baltimore, but it has been over six decades. The main campus consisted of a single five-story building on the corner of Charles and Oliver streets that housed classrooms, library, administrative and professor offices, a cramped bookstore, and a large first-floor lounge with towering white columns where students socialized and crammed for exams. We had no cafeteria, dorms or parking lots. All students commuted and competed for a limited number of metered spaces.

BIO

• B.A. ’11, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences
• Youngest person to graduate from The University of Baltimore
• Community leader and advocate
• Thrives at the intersection of people, policy and trust

I received my bachelor’s degree at 15 from The University of Baltimore. When people ask what shaped my voice, my discipline, and my sense of public purpose, I do not give an abstract answer. I point to UBalt, and to a campus that treated a young student not as a curiosity but as someone expected to rise to the moment.

BIO

• MFA ’13, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences
• Artist, mentor and instructor in graphic design
• Full-time RVer, visiting and volunteering in national parks and on public lands
• Founder of art and mindfulness retreats in the Rocky Mountains,
  launching summer 2026 (rewildingyournature.com)

Two years after obtaining my undergraduate degree, I started as an adjunct professor at Harford Community College in 2002. As a graphic designer who had a rigorous production background, I realized that I had a knack for breaking down software and art foundations.

BIO

• B.A. ’21, MFA ’25, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences
• Class of 2025 commencement speaker
• Author and podcast host Speak Up Against Stigma
• Chief executive officer, Written Hope Publishing

Eight years ago, I was depressed and suicidal. I was so suicidal that I burned my house down with me in it because I wanted to die.

I’m grateful that I did not die that day. But I was arrested and sent to the county jail for thirty days. All this happened while I was an undergraduate student here at The University of Baltimore. While in jail, a guard quietly slid a pen and paper across the table. I took it, not knowing what I would write. One page turned into two. Then three. Before I knew it, I had a stack of paper filled with emotions I had never released, not even in therapy.

That pen saved my life.