Alan’s lifelong passion for knowledge-seeking has led him to pursue degrees in various disciplines, including English, Architecture, Management, and Marketing. An up-close experience with a disability with a close family member made him want to go back to school at age 35 to get a master’s in architecture. As a part of LCM’s FHA consulting group, Alan uses his experience in architecture to review plans and ensure that all design elements meet the required accessibility standards. “All the different things I’ve learned along the way have given me real empathy for what’s going on in people’s lives and the tools I need to understand disability better,” he says. To explain his passion for accessibility, he borrows a metaphor from a past stint in the agriculture industry, “Consider two acorns growing in oak trees. One gets plenty of sunlight and water, while the other must deal with rocky soil. Even though they are the same genotype, they react to different environments and grow differently. I want to make sure that environments can help people be whatever they want to be and not be limited by how they are born.”