FROM FARM KID TO OUR FUTURE

My love for our beautiful county started as a child running wild in the creeks and hollars of the Bold Springs Community. Many days were spent baling hay and cooling off in Tumbling Creek. We were far from a wealthy family, but we survived through hard work and love of God, Family and Community.

Those lessons of hard work took me through my high school years. I am a proud 2000 Graduate of McEwen High School. I spent most of my days there studying for FFA competitions and playing baseball. Little did I know that the lessons learned in Glenn Ross's Agriculture classes would spur a career that I came to love.

In 2001 I was selected as a State FFA Officer, where I represented Tennessee FFA as we advocated Vocational Education to senators, congressmen and thousands of other people across our great state. It was here, through FFA that I found a deep sense of patriotism. The last lines of the FFA Creed have guided my life;

"I believe that American Agriculture can and will hold true to the best traditions of our national life and that I can exert an influence in my home and community which will stand solid for my part in that inspiring task" - E.M. Tiffany (FFA Creed)

By 2004, I had married my beautiful wife Lauren and graduated from Tennessee Tech University with a B.S. in Agriculture Education.

After working through the Manager Training Program with Tennessee Farmer's Co-op, I found that teaching was my true passion. A move back home in 2009 was the perfect opportunity to raise my children in the same community I loved as a child. Shelbi (16) and Jaxon (12) both attend McEwen Schools, where they now proudly share their campus with Waverly Elementary.

My last 20 years have been filled with baseball, softball and soccer games, farming, restoring antique tractors and trucks, and teaching tomorrows leaders.

In 2018 I received my Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from Arkansas State University, where I graduated with a 4.0 and received my Administrator's License.

I have been blessed to lead Educators as Tennessee Association of Agriculture Educators' President. I even spent a year working for the State of Tennessee, Department of Education, as State FFA Executive Secretary. I am now back with Dickson County Schools, where I cut my teaching teeth, serving as the Career and Technical Education/Work Based Learning Specialist.

The experiences of my life, my love for our community, my life-long commitment to leadership and education, and my teacher's heart make the success of Humphreys County a certainty.