Most recently, I served as Executive Staff Manager and Chief of Staff for the Buffalo City Comptroller's Office under City Comptroller Anthony Nanula, having previously served as chief of staff in his State Senate office. While working in the NY State Senate, I helped formulate the senator’s schedule, was an important advisor on Senate issues and policy, and was closely involved in day-to-day and long-term planning initiatives. I first joined the Senate staff in 1995 as a special assistant, and before that he worked for five years as residential services coordinator for the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Western New York, managing the agency’s largest Intermediate Care Facility (ICF). Before that I was residence manager at Benedict House of Western New York, a residence for people with HIV/AIDS and I also spent time as a teacher in Barton, VT and Western New York. I have a master’s degree in Education, focused in school counseling, earned at the University of Buffalo, and a Bachelors in Arts in Philosophy from Wadhams Hall Seminary College, located in Odgensburg, NY. I am a member of many local groups and organizations. I am a former board member of the Allentown Association (Buffalo, NY), music minister and former parish councilmember at the Buffalo State College Newman Center, co-chair of the Buffalo Garden Walk planning committee, cofounder and chair of the NYS Stonewall Democrats, cofounder and previous chair of Stonewall Democrats of WNY and treasurer for the National Stonewall Democrats (its federal PAC, its 501c3 Stonewall Education Project and its 527 organization Stonewall Democrats United). Over the years, I have found myself quoted in several venues about progressive and GLBT issues. I reside in Buffalo, NY, with my partner, John, who runs his own flower shop in Buffalo.