A Cross-Country Journey: From Desert Classroom to AI Innovation

After 24 years of teaching mathematics and physics at Victor Valley College in Victorville, California, I found myself at an unexpected crossroads. The opportunity to serve as Director of Education at AI4OPT (Artificial Intelligence Institute for Advances in Optimization) at Georgia Institute of Technology wasn’t just a career change—it was a transformation that would take me from the high desert of Southern California to the heart of the Southeast.

This is the story of that journey, both literal and figurative.

Leaving the Desert Behind

The CA High Desert had been home since 1989. The vast Mojave Desert landscape, with its Joshua trees and endless horizons, had been the backdrop to thousands of lectures, problem sets, and “aha!” moments shared with students. Teaching at a community college meant working with students from all walks of life—returning adults, first-generation college students, veterans, and young people just beginning their academic journey.

But the call of AI4OPT was compelling. The institute focuses on advancing optimization through artificial intelligence, bridging theoretical mathematics with real-world applications in logistics, energy systems, and beyond. For someone who had spent decades helping students understand the beauty of mathematical abstractions and physical principles, the chance to shape educational programs at the intersection of AI and optimization felt like a natural evolution.

Still, leaving meant saying goodbye to colleagues who had become family, students whose growth I’d witnessed, and a community I’d served for so long.

The Road Ahead: Going Electric

I decided to drive cross-country rather than fly, partly for the adventure, but also as a practical matter—I needed my car in Atlanta. I’d be making this journey in an electric vehicle, which added its own layer of planning and discovery to the trip.

Day 1: Apple Valley, CA to Flagstaff, AZ

The first leg took me through some of the most dramatic desert scenery in the Southwest. Leaving Apple Valley, I drove through Victorville and headed east on Interstate 40, watching the landscape shift from the Mojave flats to the more varied terrain approaching the Arizona border.

Charging stops became natural break points—time to stretch, grab coffee, and reflect on the enormity of what I was doing. The EV range anxiety that people talk about never quite materialized; the charging infrastructure along I-40 proved reliable, and the forced breaks were actually welcome.

Flagstaff greeted me with its pine-covered peaks and refreshingly cool mountain air. At 7,000 feet elevation, it was a stark contrast to the desert I’d just left. I spent the evening walking around the historic downtown, treating myself to dinner at a local brewery, and contemplating how different the vegetation would be in Georgia—no more high desert flora, but lush deciduous forests instead.

Day 2: Flagstaff, AZ to Santa Rosa, NM

The drive from Flagstaff to Santa Rosa took me deeper into the Southwest’s heart.

New Mexico’s Route 66 heritage is everywhere along this stretch. The vintage motels, old diners, and roadside attractions tell the story of mid-century American mobility and optimism. There’s something poignant about driving this historic corridor while thinking about the future of AI and optimization—layers of American innovation spanning generations.

Santa Rosa, a small town built around a natural lake fed by artesian springs, provided a quiet place to rest and recharge—both me and the car.

Day 3: Santa Rosa, NM to Oklahoma City, OK

This was the longest single-day drive, crossing the Texas Panhandle before entering Oklahoma. The landscape gradually shifted from high desert and mesas to the rolling prairies of the Southern Plains. Amarillo provided a midday charging stop and a chance to see the famous Cadillac Ranch—those half-buried, spray-painted Cadillacs somehow perfectly capturing the quirky spirit of American road culture.

Crossing into Oklahoma, the landscape became greener, the humidity noticeably increasing. By the time I reached Oklahoma City, I’d driven through several climate zones, and my California-desert-adapted body was beginning to register the change.

Oklahoma City surprised me with its modern skyline and revitalized downtown.

Day 4: Oklahoma City, OK to Memphis, TN

The drive through Arkansas marked a significant transition. The dry West was truly behind me now; I was entering the humid South. The landscape became increasingly forested, the hardwood trees a far cry from the Joshua trees and creosote bushes of home.

Memphis welcomed me with its legendary musical heritage. The Mississippi River rolling by—Memphis has a soul that you can feel in the air.

I thought about the mathematics of music that night—the harmonic series, the physics of vibrating strings, the patterns in rhythm. Teaching math and physics for so many years had trained me to see the quantitative structure underlying everything.

Day 5: Memphis, TN to Atlanta, GA

The final leg took me through Mississippi and Alabama before entering Georgia. By now, the culture and landscape of the South were undeniable. The green was overwhelming—so much vegetation, so much water, such humidity! For someone who’d spent two decades in the high desert, it was both beautiful and slightly disorienting.

As I crossed into Georgia and began the approach to Atlanta, the reality of what I was doing hit me fully. The Atlanta skyline emerged from the forested hills, and I found myself thinking about what lay ahead: new colleagues and new challenges in education at the intersection of AI and optimization.

From Teaching to Leading Educational Programs

The transition from teaching to educational leadership has been profound. At Victor Valley College, my focus was on individual students—helping them understand calculus, wrestling with physics problems together, watching confidence build as concepts clicked. The work was intimate and immediate.

At AI4OPT, my role as Director of Education operates at a different scale. I’m now thinking about curriculum design, summer camps, training programs, industry partnerships, and how to prepare the next generation of researchers and practitioners in AI-driven optimization. The principles remain the same—clarity, rigor, patience, genuine care for learning—but the application is broader.

Reflections on the Journey

That cross-country drive—nearly 2,500 miles over five days—gave me time to process the magnitude of the change I was making. Each charging stop, each state border crossed, each new landscape emerging from the last, reminded me that significant transitions happen gradually, mile by mile.

Teaching community college for 24 years taught me that education is fundamentally about meeting people where they are and helping them get where they want to go. That principle holds whether you’re explaining derivatives to a nursing student who needs calculus or designing training programs for future researchers working on cutting-edge optimization algorithms.

The electric vehicle aspect of the trip turned out to be a perfect metaphor. Just as I had to plan my route around charging infrastructure and learn the rhythms of EV travel, my new role requires navigating an unfamiliar landscape—the research university environment, the AI research community, the particular culture of Georgia Tech. Both require adaptability, planning, and trust that the infrastructure you need will be there when you need it.

Looking Forward

Atlanta has been welcoming. Georgia Tech’s campus, with its blend of historic and modern buildings, buzzes with intellectual energy. The AI4OPT team is brilliant and passionate about their work. And I’m learning that directing educational programs for an AI institute draws on everything I learned in 24 years of teaching—just in new and unexpected ways.

I miss the desert sometimes—those huge skies, the stark beauty, some students at Victor Valley College who taught me as much as I taught them. But I’m discovering that Georgia has its own beauty: the canopy of trees, the dramatic summer thunderstorms, the way history and innovation coexist in the South.

Most importantly, I’m still doing what I’ve always done: thinking deeply about how people learn complex quantitative material, and working to make that learning as effective and transformative as possible. The venue has changed, the scale has changed, but the mission remains.

From Apple Valley to Atlanta, from classroom teacher to Director of Education at a leading AI research institute—it’s been quite a journey. And like that cross-country drive, I’m learning that the most important trips are the ones that take you somewhere you didn’t quite expect, teaching you things about yourself you didn’t quite know.

The road continues. I’m excited to see where it leads.