Thomas R. (Tom) Farley is a lifelong resident of the Hampton Roads area. and married to Tania Farley since 1976. He was a teacher for Chesapeake Public Schools from 1973-2004, and, an Adjunct Professor at Virginia Wesleyan College from 1986-2014. His Bachelor’s degree is from Va. Tech with a major in English and minors in History, Theater, and Education; his Masters in Education (MSEd) degree is from Old Dominion University. He was the first Social Studies Department Chair at Hickory High School (1996-2004), has won Teacher of the Year at IRJHS (1988), DAR History Teacher of the Year (2003), and is widely renowned as a leader in promoting and implementing technology in the classroom. On the musical side, he was the owner of Alum Ridge Music (1982-2000) and Farley Music Services (2015 to the present)...music publication and services companies. As a local music artist, he has performed since 1975 as a solo artist and with several successful musical groups (The Herndon-Edwards Band; Cimarron; The Tom Farley-Cam Head Band) and culminating in The Tom Farley Band. He has written, performed, co-engineered, published, and produced five popular recordings: the album/CD Songsmyth and the CD recordings The Calm Before the Storm, Songsmyth and the Basement Cuts, Over the Falls, High Energy Acoustics - The Tom Farley Collection, and Tom Farley - The Instumentals....which can be purchased and/or streamed through the Farley Music and Art web site, iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Spotify, Tidal, Emusic, CD Baby , Google Music, and other global download sites. He garnered two Hampton Roads Music Awards from Port Folio Magazine as Best Acoustic Musician (1984) and Best Rhythm Guitarist (1987) . Tom has opened for a variety of groups including Poco, Firefall, and Bruce Hornsby and the Range. His next CD - By the Fence in the Sun - will be released in June 2016. At VWC, he is the retired Director of the Adult Studies Program (2014) and Program Development Coordinator K-12. He was a VWC adjunct professor, teaching evening classes for over 23 years. His courses: Physical Geography, Cultural Geography, and Human Geography (GEOG 111, 112 and 113). Secondary Education (Social Studies) Methods (EDUC 375), and Technology for Teaching (EDUC 301), were all designed, developed, and taught by Tom for Virginia Wesleyan College. Tom has been a facilitator for several summer technology workshops sponsored by Microsoft, National Geographic, Virginia Geographic Alliance, Old Dominion University and WHRO Public Television. He has been published in the Virginia Geographer, Odyssey of the Mind, Who's Who Among American Teachers, and has had numerous newspaper articles covering his teaching and musical career. In the area of business, he is the former President of Soft Pubs Incorporated, makers of Educational and IEP Internet Database software. The flagship of the Soft Pubs' line was Easy IEP®, an internet database for compiling, manipulating, and querying Special Education IEP's and their data. It is currently being sold by PCG, Inc. and is utilized by school systems and districts nationwide....including Charlotte and Chicago. A co-founder and former President of Soft Pubs, Inc., he has been responsible for contributing to the design, help section development, and training development for all Soft Pubs’ products.