About Us
Following seven years of living in the forest in Upstate New York and Floyd County, Virginia in the late 70s and early 80s, five years of which included regular long-distance hitchhiking trips up and down the East Coast, Jesse (son) and Eric (father) settled in Blacksburg, Virginia and started collaborating professionally in 2003 with the article “Creative Thinking, Creative Problem Solving, and Design in the Engineering Curriculum: A Review.”
Since their employment in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and current employment at James Madison University, they have collaborated on research, teaching, and publishing in engineering communications, cognition and problem solving, personal sustainability, teaching sustainability, cognitive processes and behavior, and immersive self-development (Fast Change). They have also collaborated on two successful National Science Foundation grants investigating individual sustainability and self-development.
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Jesse is now married with two young sons and lives in Crozet, Virginia. Eric lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
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Three generations of the Pappas family, Jesse and Eric with Nana Betty.
Dr. Eric Pappas
Eric Pappas has been a professor in the School of Integrated Sciences at James Madison University (JMU) since 2003. From 1986 to 2003, he was a faculty member at Virginia Tech, first teaching literature, then engineering design and communications. He holds master’s degree in literature and a doctoral degree in English Education (literature).
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Over his career, Eric has developed a variety of academic programs, was the principle architect for the New College of Virginia (working with Jesse and former JMU President Ron Carrier), conducted research and published over 60 juried articles, developed dozens of new courses (across disciplines), and consulted with a wide variety of academic institutions, industry, and the government (since 1990). As well, he has been awarded over a million dollars in government, industry, and state research and instructional grants.
Eric’s interest in intentional self-development became personal in his early 20s, demanded by a primitive forest lifestyle for ten years and then later spending six years in graduate school while teaching full-time and being the custodial parent of two kids.
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Dr. Jesse Pappas
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Jesse Pappas is an educator and entrepreneur. He is Professor and Director of Assessment at Future Generations University, an international graduate school dedicated to empowering individuals and communities to shape their own futures. He is also a research associate at James Madison University and cofounder of The Lupulin Exchange, an online hop marketplace for craft beer brewers and hop growers.
Jesse earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology at University of Virginia, where he studied self-insight, intentional self-development, and the role of emotion in self-perception. His professional interests currently include student motivation, personal and professional development, and innovative learning assessment strategies. Jesse has traveled and taught in Central and South American, India, and Europe, and his work has been published in journals such as Social Psychology Quarterly, Journal of Personality, and the Journal of Cleaner Production. He lives with his wife Kristen and sons Max and JJ in Crozet, Virginia.
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