He grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi and earned his B.S. in Biological Sciences (1997) and M.S. in Environmental Biology (2005) from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. For his Master’s thesis, he studied the predation ecology of four sympatric darter species (Etheostoma lynceum, E. stigmaeum, E. swaini, and Percina nigrofasciata) on benthic macroinvertebrates in south Mississippi. In 2008, he completed his Ph.D. in Forest Resources from the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University, emphasizing in Fisheries Management. For his doctoral dissertation he studied hierarchical relationships among ecoregion, watershed, riparian and instream habitat for sport fishes in Mississippi wadeable streams.