About Alan

I have been working at the Rochester Community and Technical College for the past 13+ years, and I have had a special interest and experience in teaching and helping students acquire the skills they need to succeed in their life. As far back as I can remember, I started by assisting in my Boy Scout troop as an assistant scout master, and I participated in the Scouts all the way until I got my Eagle Scout rank. Years later I served as a scoutmaster for my son's troop. In addition to that vocation, I have always been very mechanically inclined. From learning hands-on construction and electrical work with my father who was a master electrician, to getting a background in physics at the U of M. From there I decided that I preferred to work with my hands and graduated out of Dunwoody in 1981 from where I am ASE certified. After working for 27 years in the automotive industry, where I reached managerial level; I decided to change careers and became a building utilities mechanic. I have worked at RCTC since 2008, although in the meantime I obtained a Bachelor of Sciences degree-in Occupational Safety and Health online. I also became a Ham radio operator and hold all 3 operator's licenses.

In my role as an instructor, I have been passionate about helping students find employment opportunities that they otherwise would have had difficulty obtaining. I have done this by maintaining a good relationship with local employers and setting up job boards and internships. While I was a student at RCTC, I was a founding member of the B.U.M club that offers students activities within our maintenance trade. I have also worked with the Workforce Center to help train unemployed applicants in things like welding and forklift operation to make them more employable. Similarly, I have taught OSHA 10-30 as an outreach trainer for the community at large. More recently, in the context of the pandemic, I also taught respirator training to nursing and EMT students.