David R. Mickel

David R. Mickel comes to us with a strong background in Marriage and Family Counseling. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, he also grew up in a multicultural / multilingual setting. Later he lived in South America, and upon his return he decided to complete his first degree in Spanish. Heeding his father’s advice, he undertook a class schedule of 18-21 units his final year which enabled him to graduate with a Teaching Certificate, although he never expected to teach school at the time. (Always listen to your parents.)

Over the past twenty years he has started several successful businesses, naming each of them after one of his children. For the past ten years he has served as a guest presenter on several national lecture circuits. He has now spoken or been interviewed on radio or television in every state of the union and several foreign countries on a variety of topics, generally in the fields of intrafamilial communication, education, motivation, and business. But this necessitated too much travel. He tired of spending so much time in hotels and airports and felt a yearning to return to the classroom. Invited to return to teach at the college level, he noted that Wasatch offered several advantages that had great appeal to him…enough that he has decided to work with students at the secondary level instead. “I was impressed with the strong extended-family approach at Wasatch, and really liked the opportunity to be able to give the kids more personal attention because of the smaller class sizes”, he said. After teaching seminars with hundreds and sometimes thousands of students, he’s looking forward to this as a pleasant change.

Another definite advantage is the cultural setting. “Few people realize the advantages of being able to learn in the wonderful setting of mountains such as these”, he continues. "The fresh air, pure water and more relaxed atmosphere provide an optimum learning environment you can’t really feel in the large metropolitan areas”.

As a young boy, growing up so near to both the beach and the mountains instilled a deep love and respect for nature. He worked as a life guard at the beach for several years, taught swimming, and has even volunteered to coach Wasatch Academy’s first-ever Water Polo team (“as soon as a benevolent benefactor agrees to donate a pool for us”, he grins.)

With doctoral studies in the field of Neurolinguistics, he is particularly fascinated now in the machinations of the brain, and how to make the learning process simpler and more enjoyable for more people. His students will benefit from a number of new learning techniques he has taught throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico that have proven to be quite successful.

He and his wife Cindy bring with them the final three of their nine children and Grandma. They are excited to be a part of the highly successful Wasatch Community.

Email Mr. Mickel anytime at davidmi@wacad.org. Click on the Class Links above to view Course Descriptions and Syllabi for each of these classes.