In a word my mission is “serve!” My professional mission, as an administrator, is to serve the students, faculty and staff of the University of North Texas, to lead, to encourage, and to support them so that they can grow personally and professionally to their full potential. My job is to create a place where they can do their best work.
My personal mission as a scholar-educator is to educate students in my discipline, inspiring in them the same wonder and delight that I feel toward the physical universe. My desire is to discover new knowledge and to share what I learn with my students in the lecture hall and the laboratory.
I seek to serve my fellow earth-dweller in imitation of Jesus Christ, who said, “I come not to be served, but to serve.” As one who has found meaningful answers to life's most enduring questions in the life and teachings of an itinerant rabbi of first century Judea, I desire to help others to find inner peace and fulfillment as humans. Because of my confession, I have appropriated an ethic: each individual has intrinsic worth, and I shall love him as myself. Therefore, I cherish them as persons, unique, distinct and valuable, whether they are like me or very different; whether they are lovable or curmudgeonly; whether they are most capable or inept. In so doing, I fulfill the call of God on my life as one identified with Jesus of Nazareth, for "no servant is above his master."