Dan has been an elected member of the Board of Supervisors since 2009.
He has been a resident of Thurston County for 13 years. He first lived in Washington State as a result of his Army assignment to Fort Lewis in 1989. The first months of living in rainy Washington were pretty rough, but he eventually grew accustomed to the liquid sunshine and fell in love with the natural beauty of the Evergreen State. By the time he left the Army, he decided he would call Washington home and start a new career here.
Dan was born in the Los Angeles area and remembers the gray skies growing up. Unlike Washington, the gray was smog, not rain. His family would pack up every weekend and escape the city to go camping. By the time he was eight years old, his family moved to Northern California. The environment there was very rural. The area was home to farming and logging. Dan spent his free time exploring the fields and river near his home. His family continued to travel and visited national parks, state parks, and points of interest all over the western half of the United States. During high school, Dan developed an interest in business and computers. After high school, Dan joined the Army as an Administrative Specialist.
Throughout his military career, Dan went to college at various duty stations and had majors in accounting, public administration, computer science, and business management. He was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant within five years. His career was very promising and he was chosen to become a drill sergeant based on his exemplary performance.
His selection to become a drill sergeant was a crossroad in Dan’s life and Dan decided to leave a successful military career in order to spend time with his family. He left his position as an Administrative Supervisor in the Headquarters, I Corps and Fort Lewis and after some searching landed a temporary position with the State of Washington.
He eventually found a permanent position with the Department of Social and Health Services and transitioned from doing administrative work to doing computer programming. He rapidly progressed in the information technology career field and has done a wide variety of work including: programming, server administration, web development, database administration, and network administration. During this time, Dan attended The Evergreen State College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree. Dan is active in a wide variety of activities related to his church, community, Rotary club, politics, and other interests. He continues to love exploring nature and decided he would like to get involved in preserving resources for future generations.