After graduating from Idabel High School, I earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and business administration from East Central University. I began my professional journalism career at the Ada Evening News and won numerous awards for investigative reporting, community/public service reporting, feature writing and editorial columns. My tenure at the Ada News led to a promotion as Managing Editor of the Marshall News Messenger in Marshall, Texas. Eventually, I returned to my hometown in Idabel and assumed the role of general manager/secretary treasurer of Southeast Autoplex. In 2018, my family and I moved to the Oklahoma City metro and I served as a marketing consultant with the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department for nearly five years. Today, I am the Inside Sales and Marketing Manager for Jackson Mechanical Service Inc. My wife Kelli and I live in Moore, Oklahoma, not far from our sons, Meric and Matthew.