Classicist, art historian, marketer, mortician, professor, researcher — multiple facets of a singular curiosity.

I read markets, structures, and stories for what they're trying to make you see — and build narratives that start better conversations.

Training in how stories work

My training: a BA in Classical Civilizations and Art History from William & Mary, learning to read ancient texts and images for what they were really saying. An MS in Communications Strategy from Virginia Commonwealth University, learning how the modern world says it — how markets frame, sell, and persuade.

Reading death and the gothic

In addition, I work with death. An AS in Funeral Service and Mortuary Science from Fayetteville Technical Community College, and a North Carolina funeral service license — years beside grief and endings as daily facts, not abstractions. It changed how I read everything after it — especially the gothic and horror I now review as someone who knows the territory.

Teaching and applied practice

I taught advertising for seven years at Loyola University New Orleans, with additional collegiate appointments at Tulane University's A.B Freeman School of Business, Fayetteville Tech's department of Funeral Services Education, and Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service. In addition, I have taught Career and Technical Education at the high-school level, instructing as to both theory and application.

Reading brands and books
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I run Temple Ruff LLC, doing marketing and communications for the a range of industries and trades - big and small, for profit and not. I review books as Acton & Ellis — horror, thrillers, speculative, and literary fiction — asking one signature question in every review: what is this book trying to make me perceive, and how? I've studied tarot for over three decades, and I offer readings as a service — another method of interpretive analysis. It tears down the typical barriers of dialogue and uses imagery to prompt reflection and direction.

In January 2027, I'll be speaking at AHR Expo in Chicago on where the handoff into employment breaks down in the skilled trades. In fall 2028, I plan to begin doctoral work in environmental communication — studying how resource management and perception shape culture and the future.

Different rooms, same work: close reading, honestly done.