My career has been focused on making mission-oriented organizations deliver results for citizens and stakeholders. I link policy to people as a dot connector, a communicator, and a problem solver. I excel at making positive change in challenging environments where governance and accountability and engagement matter. As a consultant, I create strategic partnerships with public and private entities; advise on matters of nonprofit governance; author business plans and policy briefs; and develop and articulate practical solutions for commercial, nonprofit, and public-sector clients. As a writer, I focus my efforts on governmental accountability and public finance -- and an occasional baseball piece.

I received a Bachelor of Arts degree as a Public Policy major from Hamilton College where I graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude and received a Master's Degree in Governmental Administration from the Fels School of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. I ran for Philadelphia City Controller to bring complete transparency and accountability to Philadelphia government. As part of the campaign, I created the Bulldog Budget, an innovative, open-source and internationally replicated tool to visualize and search for city expenditures with complete transparency.

I am a product of the Philadelphia public schools (Northeast High School) and now a public-school parent. I am an active weekend athlete, and a passionate sports fan. I serve as Board President of Circadium -- America's first school of higher education for circus arts. I am Commissioner of the Greater Philadelphia Men’s Adult Baseball League and active in numerous community organizations. I live in the Fitler Square neighborhood of Philadelphia with my wife and three children.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Beyond my consulting efforts, I serve as Chief Financial Officer and Utility Player for my start-up, Baseball BBQ. Previously, I served as the Executive Director of the National Education Technology Funding Corporation (Eddie Tech), a private, non-profit organization working to help local public school districts utilize federal mechanisms to access more cost-effective financing for school construction and renovation.

I was also Executive Director of Philadelphia Forward, a citizens’ organization promoting tax, government, and ethics reform. Philadelphia Forward was instrumental in shaping public policy to improve tax fairness, reduce wage and business taxes, and enact ethics reforms. The work of Philadelphia Forward won national awards and much local attention in successfully advocating for policy changes to improve tax fairness, legislation to reduce wage and business taxes, and city charter change to enact ethics reforms. But, most important, Philadelphia Forward changed the way people think about how they can be involved in the civic life of this city.  As Walt from Mayfair wrote: “I have lived in Philadelphia all my life, but I never felt I had the ability to make a difference, until now. Your organization has shown me that even the smallest candle can burn bright in the dark.” 

Until 2004, I served as the director of the Financial and Policy Analysis Unit in the City Controller's Office. The timely reports and thoughtful analyses I published helped the public, the media, and the city's elected officials confront the Philadelphia's fiscal challenges. While in the Controller's Office, I created the Employee Incentive Program that tapped into the good ideas of city and school district employees and highlighted many ways to make government more effective and efficient. In this role, I also served as a member of the voter-established Tax Reform Commission. In the Controller's Office, I led a team that produced the book on the policy solutions to Philadelphia’s challenges -- Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction (Saint Joseph's University Press, 1999) -- a vision of Philadelphia's likely future without change and a comprehensive plan designed to make Philadelphia a preferred place to live, work, and visit. The book received the National Association of Local Government Auditors Special Project Award for 1999. 

I also served as Assistant Policy Director of the Philadelphia Independent Charter Commission, analyzing reforms for the only post-1951 commission empowered to place propositions on the ballot for voter approval. 

AUTHOR

In addition to Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction, I am also the author of Is This Heaven? The Magic of the Field of Dreams (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), a book that brings readers along on the continuing pilgrimage to the Field of Dreams Movie Site where life imitates art and everyday people find redemption and reconciliation in an Iowa cornfield. Another book, Minor Players, Major Dreams, (University of Nebraska Press, 1997) was written from my perspective as an author, signed to a minor league baseball player’s contract, to tell the inside story of minor league life. I recently completed Philadelphia: Corrupt And Consenting, which explores Philadelphia’s struggle with corruption and promotes reform policies to end the city’s legacy as “corrupt and contented.”

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

Beyond serving as the Board Chair of the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus and  Commissioner of the Greater Philadelphia Men’s Adult Baseball League, I am a Masterman School Odyssey of the Mind coach and have coached Taney and Tri-State Arsenal Baseball, served as a Democratic Committee Person, a Board Member for the Friends of Schuylkill Banks and Board Member and Board Treasurer of Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse. I served as the Vice President of the Center City Residents’ Association, was a Big Brother for Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA, and a member of the National Writers Union. I was selected as one of the Philadelphia region’s top 101 “connectors” by the LEADERSHIP Philadelphia Connector Project, one of the Philadelphia Business Journal "40 Under 40,” and a regional finalist for the White House Fellows program.