David has been a hospitality educator since 1998. His professional teaching career started at a Vocational High School teaching Culinary Arts in Albany, New York, before accepting a position at Schenectady County Community College (SCCC) teaching in the prestigious department of Hotel, Culinary Arts, and Tourism, where he taught for almost 15 years, before leaving as an Assistant Professor, while moving to Virgina with his family.

David has been with the Rosen College of Hospitality Management since 2016. He is currently a member of the Hospitality Services Department, stationed at the Main Campus. He started in the Internship Department teaching HFT 3940-Internship I, HFT 3798-Fairs and Festivals, HFT 3523-Event Sales, and HFT 4757-Event Management. He currently teaches HFT 1000-Introduction to the Hospitality and Tourism Industry, HFT 2500-Hospitality and Tourism Marketing, and HFT 3540-Guest Services Management I. During his tenure at Rosen College, David has taught more than 7,000 students and has been in all three departments.

David’s hospitality career started at age 10, when his parents bought a local Restaurant/Bar called the B&D Tavern, in Mechanicville, New York. He worked with his parents for the 22 years they owned and ran it. Useless knowledge alert and fact about Mechanicville, New York, with less than one square mile of land mass, it is the smallest city in New York State. It was the only city that had “Welcome To and Thank You For Visiting” on the same sign. During this time, David did everything imaginable in running a successful restaurant/bar business, including tending bar, short-order cooking, hiring and training new employees, and even cleaning bathrooms.

While teaching at SCCC, David had the unique opportunity during the summers to work 13 seasons with Centerplate at the World-Famous Saratoga Racetrack. Interestingly, Saratoga racetrack is the oldest continuously running sports venue in the country, where horses have been racing there since 1863. Starting as the breakfast manager, he was responsible for serving an average of 750 guests and managing about 50 employees, in a two-and-a-half-hour breakfast period. But during the second season, Daivd was moved to Lead Sanitarian.

As the lead sanitarian, a first for the racetrack, he developed an intensive and comprehensive sanitation program that included authoring four training manuals. He also instituted sanitation training and trained over 600 employees, yearly. In addition to training, he was also responsible for all food safety on the racetrack, which at the time included five full production kitchens, over 100 concession stands, receiving, warehouse operations, and all employees.
While working for Centerplate David also had the opportunity to work eight Belmont Stakes races, which is the last leg of Horse Racing’s Triple Crown and two Breeders Cups, which is the “Super Bowl” of Horse Racing at Belmont Park in New York City. Remarkably the first Breeders Cup he worked was six weeks after 9/11, what an interesting time to be in New York City.

David’s degrees include his Master’s degree in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology from S.U.N.Y Albany, his Bachelor of Science in Vocational Technical Educational from S.U.N.Y. Oswego, and his Associate of Applied Science in Food Service Administration-Restaurant Management from S.U.N.Y. Morrisville.

In David’s free time, he loves to golf, read books about history, travel to professional sporting events, cook, and spend time with his family. He has even been known to do stand-up comedy, which is a passion of his, at open mics.