I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have also resided in Kansas and Texas. In Texas I lived in the Rio Grande Valley on the border with Mexico. In Middle School I spent a week in Russia as an exchange student where I visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Muravlenko, a small town in Siberia near the Arctic Circle where I stayed with a Russian family for five days. In undergraduate school I studied abroad in England at Harlaxton University near the city of Grantham. I have also traveled to Northern Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, and Mexico. I have studied Russian, Latin, and German. Before entering graduate school I worked in restaurants, a grocery store, a textbook store, and one a congressional campaign. I attended and worked at YMCA Camp Takatoka for most of Middle School and High School where I was camper and then counselor and lifeguard.I am a confirmed Presbyterian. My father's family moved to the United States from what is now Ukraine in Russia where they had lived in a Mennonite Colony. My historical research in undergraduate and graduate school focused on U.S. politics, race relations in the U.S., and the U.S. West or Frontier Studies. I have also conducted research into British and Russian history and politics.