FACTS: Hailing from Santa Barbara, California, Eric arrived at the Graduate School of Education in 2001 with a Masters in Education from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Masters in Theological Studies 
from Harvard Divinity School. "I taught six years in public junior high school and want to be in or near the classroom, adolescents, and teachers for the rest of my career. Working in the TAC program and at the Cambridge-Harvard Summer Academy each of the last two summers has helped me do just that." When he's not buried in his work, reading, writing papers, or working with students, you'll find Eric snowboarding in Vermont or running along the banks of the Charles River.
As an advisor, Eric helps TEP students (known as "interns") bridge the often wide gap between theory and practice and between the academy and the public schools. "I try to push my interns to recognize the multiple perspectives involved in teaching diverse students in complex institutions. It's my goal to challenge easy answers, lean into tensions, and look for ways to practice the art of teaching reflectively." He offers this tip to prospective teachers: "The sooner you recognize that teaching is a political act, the sooner you can hold yourself, your peers, your students, and your school accountable to the politics being privileged. It is equally important to know who you are in terms of your race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and ideology and be ready and willing to bring those elements of your self out into the open where they can be examined, risked, and challenged by professors, peers, mentors and especially students."
THE INSIDE SCOOP: "The TAC program gives you access to world-class faculty, a highly talented mentor pool, amazing youth, and successful yet realistically struggling public schools. However, it is the existence of the advisor and the advisory that makes the TAC program one of the most unique and supportive in teacher education."
"I love being an advisor - it lets me stay in the schools where I belong and it affords ample opportunities for me to examine my own perspectives as they get challenged by professors, mentors, students, and interns. The free food at our advisor meetings is a pretty nice perk too."