I am a historian of Christianity in the United States.

Born and raised in south-central Pennsylvania, I earned a BA from Messiah University (2009) before attending Temple University in Philadelphia, where I earned a MA in public history (2012) and a PhD (2020).

Currently I work at Messiah University, where I serve in several roles.

First, I am associate professor of American religious history. I teach a variety of courses, including Brethren in Christ Life & Thought, Theologies of War and Peace, and the Wesleyan/Holiness Tradition. I also teach an honors ethics seminar on “Pursuing the Good Life” and a first-year seminar on the Christian peace tradition.

Second, I am the director of the E. Morris and D. Leone Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies. In this role, I draw on my training as a historian to help the university community and its founding denomination, the Brethren in Christ Church, understand and interpret its history and theological heritage. I am responsible for planning an annual study conference and various lectures, administering research grants for undergraduate students and established scholars, and coordinating other activities.

Third, I am the director of archives, supervising collections related to Messiah University, the Brethren in Christ Church, and the Ernest L. Boyer Center, a Messiah alumnus and one of the most significant leaders in American education in the twentieth century.

Finally, I am the director of common content courses in our Office of General Education. In this role, I oversee two courses — First Year Seminar and Ethics and the Common Good — which introduce students to themes of Christian vocation, faith and learning, social responsibility, and ethical understanding.

As a scholar, my research focuses on the intersection of commemoration, memory, and material culture in American Protestantism. My book, Exhibiting Evangelicalism: Commemoration, Conservative Christianity, and Religion’s Presence of the Past (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022), is the first study of the history of evangelical museums and historical sites in the twentieth- and twenty-first-century United States.

In addition, I research and write about the history and theology of the Brethren in Christ Church. My most recent book, Storyteller: The Life and Ministry of E. Morris Sider (Brethren in Christ Historical Society Press, 2025), is a biography of the namesake of the Sider Institute and a long-time scholar at Messiah University and in the Brethren in Christ Church. My current project is a social, cultural, and institutional history of the North American Brethren in Christ Church in the twentieth century.

My scholarhsip has appeared in Church History, Fides et Historia, Mennonite Quarterly Review, The Wesleyan Theological Journal, The Conrad Grebel Review,  Brethren in Christ History and Life, and other academic and popular publications.

Outside of the classroom and the archives, my life revolves around my family: my wife, Katie, and our son, Lucas. I enjoy reading fiction, watching movies, building with Lego, and exploring Pennsylvania’s beautiful natural landscape.