John first encountered the Block Plan in high school, but it was at Colorado College that he became convinced the Block Plan could foster a deep engagement with ideas that was not possible in a conventional format.

He has a passion for teaching, and was awarded the prestigious Graduate Instructor Teaching Excellence Award while earning his PhD. His dissertation examined the intersections of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, wildlife conservation, histories of colonialism and post-colonialism, and social vulnerabilities in northern Tanzanian protected areas.

He has also taught in the department of sociology, anthropology and social work at Pacific University, in Oregon. His ongoing research interests regularly take him back to South Africa and Tanzania, where he continues to probe the intersections between wildlife conservation, HIV/AIDS, and environmental governance.

At Quest, John teaches a range of topics including race and ethnicity; global HIV/AIDS; environmental sociology; neoliberal governance and globalization; health and environment interactions; theories of the self, post-modernity; post-structuralism; feminism; and qualitative research methods.

If he were a Quest student, his question would examine the complex relationship between human health, the environments we live in, and the social worlds we inhabit.