Derek grew up in Irving Texas and graduated from MacArthur High School. Interested in science, he worked at local Texas museums over the years; the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science and the Shuler Museum of Paleontology at SMU. While at the Dallas Museum, he worked in the fossil labs and assisted with the Big Bend Alamosaurus project. While at the Shuler Museum, he worked on the Jones Ranch Paluxysaurus project. Derek earned a B.Sc. in Geology from UT-Dallas in 2001 and later a M.Sc. in Geology from UT-Arlington in 2005 with a thesis on Woodbine Formation Stratigraphy, Paleoecology and Paleobiogeography. In recent years he has continued his graduate work at UT with a Ph.D. dissertation supervised by Christopher R. Scotese, Robert Stern and Louis Jacobs on the Arlington Archosaur Site and Dinosaur Paleobiogeography. Derek is a part time lecturer at UTA. Currently he teaches courses on Earth Systems, Earth History & Dinosaurs at UTA and leads his students on excavations to the Arlington Archosaur Site. He is a member of the Geological Society of America, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and the Dallas Paleontological Society. He is a strong supporter of educational programs that bridge the divide between scientists and the public.