Wesley lives and breathes the social studies! Throughout his career, he has taught many social studies courses from grades 7-12, at all ability levels, in both public and independent schools. He teaches AP Comparative Politics, AP U.S. Government, and world history at Collegiate School in Henrico County, just outside Richmond, Virginia. In addition to teaching, Wesley advises students, coordinates his school’s Model United Nations program, and serves on his school’s Civil Dialogue Task Force. Prior to teaching at Collegiate School, Wesley taught at James River High School in Midlothian, Virginia, and Trinity Episcopal School in Richmond.

Prior to his election as NCSS Vice President, Wesley represented secondary classroom teachers on the Board of Directors from 2018-2021. While on the Board, he served on both the Executive and Finance Committees, as well as the Documents Review Committee. Wesley became a member of NCSS in 2009 at the recommendation of his social studies methods professor, and since then has presented at multiple NCSS conferences, attended Summer Leadership Institutes, represented VCSS in the NCSS House of Delegates, and served on both the International Visitors Committee and HOD Assignments Committee.

From 2014-2017, Wesley also served as President of the Virginia Council for the Social Studies. During his tenure, VCSS twice earned NCSS Gold Star status. Also during this time, he co-chaired the 2016 NCSS Local Arrangements Committee for the Washington, D.C. conference and twice co-chaired the Virginia Conference for Social Studies Educators. Later on, Wesley again served as co-chair of the 2020 NCSS Local Arrangements Committee for the 2020 NCSS Virtual Conference.

Continual growth is essential to Wesley, so professional development has continually been an important and regular part of his summers away from school. In addition to being a certified AP and IB teacher, Wesley has participated in learning opportunities held by the National Network of Schools in Partnership, the Korean War Legacy Foundations, Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education, as well as the University of Pennsylvania. He also received Fellowships from Street Law’s Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers in 2017, as well as Goethe-Institut’s Transatlantic Outreach Program and The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes in 2019. 

In 2016, Wesley received the Trinity Episcopal School Faculty Discovery Award and traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, where he dove into its history of neocolonialism and Apartheid. In 2020, he received a Collegiate School Faculty Summer Grant Award, where he worked to integrate service learning into his government courses. In 2021, Wesley was nominated for Gilder Lehrman’s Virginia History Teacher of the Year Award. Wesley received his Bachelor’s and Master's degrees from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and maintains a Postgraduate Professional Teaching License from the Commonwealth of Virginia. His primary interests lie in equitable education reform, informed civic action, and effective professional development for educators.

Wesley served on the Board of Directors in Richmond at the Patrick Henry School for Science and Arts, Virginia's first public elementary charter school. From 2018-2020, he served on the Academic Committee, as well as Board Secretary. During his tenure, the Board successfully renewed the school charter with the City of Richmond School Board, initiated a vigorous campaign to grow the board’s diversity, and received multiple large funding grants for school programs. Wesley lives in the City of Richmond with his husband, Derek, as well as their three hound dogs. He loves traveling, reading nonfiction, spending time with his niece and five nephews, as well as working in his garden.