RJ serves as the interim assistant director for career development and coaching with a focus on coaching students interested in business, those who are undecided or exploring, and students considering law. He is a first-generation US college graduate, a cis gay man, a Filipino American immigrant, and a social class migrant. RJ brings more than 20 years of experience in higher education including roles in career education at Carleton College and Cornell College, in alumni engagement and in annual giving at Cornell College, as well as in residential life at Cornell College, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Maryland, College Park. 

RJ has an extensive professional network across higher education having served in local, regional, and national volunteer leadership roles including: the Liberal Arts Career Network (LACN President); Pre-Law Advisors National Council (PLANC Board Chair); Midwest Association of Pre-Law Advisors (MAPLA Board President); Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE District VI Board); American College Personnel Association (ACPA Convention Planning Teams); National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA Conference Planning Team, NASPA Racial Equity and Social Change Conference Advisory Committee); Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM functional commitees); and the Social Justice Training Institute (campus host co-chair). He has presented at regional and national conferences on a variety of issues affecting college students and higher education institutions with workshops focused on the intersection of race, gender, and sexual identity development; faculty collaborations in residential learning environments and in career development programs; institutional fundraising strategies; innovations in alumni engagement; pre-law programming and advisor training; strategic investments in internships; and organizational changes to career education frameworks. 

He is a 1999 graduate of Cornell College with a bachelor of arts degree in politics and in communications studies. RJ earned his master of arts degree in college student personnel from the University of Maryland, College Park and an educational specialist degree in educational policy and leadership studies from the University of Iowa. He is currently working on a doctor of education degree from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education in higher education management. RJ's dissertation research is exploring how first-generation college students develop career self-efficacy. 

RJ lives in St. Paul with his husband, Marvin, and their dog, Carlee.