NACAT

Current Position: Author for Delmar Cengage Learning

• Product Development Manager forDelmar Publishers, a Thomson Learning Company, Albany, New York. (7 Years)
• Department Chair and Instructor at Columbus State Community College, Columbus, Ohio. (20 Years)

Years with NACAT: 30 years

Years in Education/Training: 33 Years

Areas of specialization: Automotive Service and Management

• NACAT– Hosted the 1988 Conference and served as Executive Vice President 1987-1988; Served on the Board of Directors 1988 to 1992; Served as Vice President of Marketing 2005 to 2011. Currently serving as 2013 Executive Vice-President for Conferences as I plan the 2013 NACAT Conference in Quebec City.
  
• ATMC - Automotive Training Managers Council – General member, also served on the Board of Directors (1999 to 2001)
• Past or present member of the American Association of Curriculum Designers (AACD), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Automotive Service Association (ASA), Automatic Transmission Rebuilders Association (ATRA), and Automotive Engine Rebuilders Association (AERA).

I have many years of experience as an educator, author, consultant, manager, and technician and have been involved in all areas of the automotive field. Although currently I am seldom in front of a classroom, I am still an educator. As an author, my classroom is huge and filled with faces I may never see. However, I still try to teach them what I feel they need to know to have a successful career in the automotive field.

As an educator, I served as Automotive Technology Chairperson for 12 years at Columbus State Community College and during my other eight years there I taught Automotive Technology, Technical Communications, and Anthropology courses. During my tenure at the college, I developed and implemented competency based curriculum and short and long term strategic plans for the college.I also served as Chair of the Marketing Task Force when the college transitioned from a Technical College to a two-year Community College. I have always supported NATEF, in fact our college was the first school to be certified all areas by NATEF. For many years, I have held seminars at NACAT’s conferences. The topics have included subjects dealing with marketing, education, management, and (naturally) technical areas.

As an author, I had my first work published in 1983 and since then I have authored nearly forty textbook titles and editions. My text, Automotive Technology: A System’s Approach, is the best selling automotive textbook. I have also written several articles for trade publications.

As an editor, I designed and serve as the series editor for the highly successful series of textbooks: the Today’s Technician Series from Delmar Publishers, 1992 to present. I also designed Delmar’s ASE test prep series and the NATEF standards series, and have written most of the titles within those series. I also have directed the design, writing, and production of custom training materials for many customers, including: American Honda, Snap-On Tools, Kia Motors, CarQuest, NAPA, Toyota, Mitchell Collision, MAC Tools, and many other well-known companies.

As an involved member of the industry, I have served as a consultant to some of the major automobile manufacturers in training program establishment, design and implementation of cooperative training ventures, publications, inspection, arbitration, customer satisfaction, and quality improvement.

I have a Master of Arts in Vocational and Technical Education from The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (1981) and a Bachelor of Arts, also from The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (1974).

I have been honored with many awards throughout my career, including NACAT’s MVP award (2006). I was also the recipient of Thomson Learning’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2000 and the Man with a Wrench award from Chilton Books in 1992. Perhaps the biggest honor I have received is seeing the success of my former students.

What has NACAT done for me and what it means to me:

When I started my venture into automotive education, I knew little about it. I had relatively little experience teaching and confidence in my technical abilities, but no good idea of how to share what I knew with students. NACAT provided me with the network that provided ideas and techniques that allowed me to be a better teacher. NACAT has also given me the opportunity to stay up-to-date, as I attend the seminars and the trade shows at the annual conferences. From a personal standpoint, NACAT has also allowed me to make life-long friends with like-minded educators.

As evidence of how important NACAT has been to me, I have attended all of the annual conferences since I have been a member except one. I wanted to attend that one but found myself in a wheel chair after I fell off a roof while doing repairs to a rental property.