This About Tom page provides a rambling look at Tom. For a short, professional version, see my Bio. For a long (boring) professional vision, see my Vitae.

 

 

Welcome to my web site and blog. I’m a faculty member in the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore, and have been for the last 17 years or so. Technically I’m a member of the School of Public and International Affairs, but my research interests in predictive analytics and GIS mean that I work closely with colleagues in the School of Health and Human Services and the School of Criminal Justice.

Allie (the “favorite” daughter) — Then and Now

 

 

Here she is in the 5th grade… OK, that was a few years ago when we lived in Chatham, NY. (She caught the biggest  fish at that day’s Girl Scouts fishing outing!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and… here she is just “a couple” of years later receiving her masters degree in Health Systems Management from UB. Notice in the background that Edgar Allen Poe also received his degree that day!

 

 

 

Background

During my elementary and middle school years, I lived in Oswego, NY, moving to Fair Haven, NY (half way between Oswego and Rochester) when I was a freshman in high school. I received my undergraduate degree from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. After hanging around Ithaca for another year, I took a job as an Area Representative with AFSCME, Council 66, where I worked the lower Hudson Valley region, representing mostly county and city locals in negotiation, grievance and arbitration hearings, and improper practice proceedings. After about three years with AFSCME, I accepted a position as Assistant Director of Employee Relations for the State of New York’s Unified Court System.

I began to pursue a doctorate while still working for the State, finally leaving that position to write my dissertation. I received my Ph.D. (1994) in Public Administration from Rockefeller College at the University at Albany, SUNY, with concentrations in policy analysis and organization theory and behavior.  My dissertation, entitled The Effects of Problem Structure and Task and Social Environment on Contract Negotiations, was selected for the University at Albany’s President’s Distinguished Dissertation Award (1995). During and for a year after receiving my degree, I worked with the with the Center for Policy Research at the University at Albany and the New      York State Forum for Information Resource Management and served as an adjunct faculty member with the Rockefeller College’s School of Public Affairs and Policy.

 

More here.