About

I was born and grew up in Canada. When I was 21, I moved to Egypt for a year abroad. I liked it so much I stayed for another year. And then another. It's been over thirty years now, and Cairo is home in the deepest sense of the word.

A lot of what kept me here was people. I met my wife in Cairo, and she has been my partner in everything since. We raised three kids here, all of whom are now remarkable adults that I genuinely try to learn from. I also have a small fluffy dog, which I mention without embarrassment.

The professional side

My career has been a winding path through education, technology, and international development, which is another way of saying I've done a lot of different things and they all seem to connect in retrospect.

I spent a decade as a faculty member at the American University in Cairo, in the Department of Rhetoric and Composition. My courses ranged from freshman academic writing and research methods to upper-level courses in Business Communication and Digital Rhetoric. I also co-coordinated a seminar on Global Migration and Refugees, which felt especially important in a country that hosts millions of displaced people. I headed up the departmental program assessment committee and helped the university transition to online instruction during COVID-19. Before AUC, I worked for years in international development with organizations like USAID, CIDA (now Global Affairs Canada), UNICEF, and others, always at the intersection of communication, education, and technology.

In parallel, I've been building software since the early 2000s. My company, Fluency Learning Apps, is the current home for that work. Our flagship product is FlashBrief, a personalized AI news podcast. I also published educational software with the AUC Press, developed an entrepreneurial training game for Egyptian youth (funded by the Canadian government), and built various tools and integrations for organizations across the region.

My educational background is in applied linguistics and Middle Eastern studies (MA in TEFL from AUC), with university-level training in rhetoric, composition, and communication theory.

The personal side

I have developed a deep personal interest in desert spirituality and the early Christian heritage of Egypt. The Desert Fathers, Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica, the Coptic contemplative tradition, early church prayer practices, and the literary culture of the first centuries of Christianity are all things I spend serious time reading about and thinking through. Living in Egypt, surrounded by the places and communities where this history unfolded, makes this more than an academic exercise. It's woven into how I understand the world.

My personal faith is rooted in traditional Christian teaching, informed by three decades of living happily in a Muslim society, among Muslim friends and colleagues. I owe them an enormous debt of appreciation for the many things I've learned and received from them.

I like people, especially students and anyone who's trying to grow. I like good communication and genuine connection. I like staying fit, beaches, deserts, and challenges. I read non-fiction in the morning and novels at night. I occasionally stay up too late playing computer games. I am rich in friends and communities, and I am thankful, especially on the days when the world seems a bit much.

The Arabic

I've been learning Arabic for over 30 years and I'm still learning. Depending on the day of the week and how much coffee I've had, I'm a relatively fluent speaker of Egyptian Arabic. I teach what I've learned through The Arabic Learner and online courses. Most of what I know about Arabic came from spending many hours with people, though I did complete formal coursework at AUC and the University of Toronto. The teacher always gets more out of the process than the student.