Alan Lockard graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Film in 1975. Over a period of 21 years, he has worked as a photofinisher, a video technician, a draftsman and a CAD/CAM engineer. For 19 of those 21 years he also attended classes in the evening, earning degrees in Mechanical Engineering (University of Hartford 1985, summa cum laude) , Computer Engineering (Florida Atlantic University 1989) , Business Administration (RPI 1993) and Economics (Trinity 1997). He eventually acknowledged that his career was interfering with his studies, so he abandoned it to earn a PhD in economics (George Mason University 2001) and enter academia full time.

After 27 years of study, the subject he knows the most about is being a college student. His primary objective in the classroom is to help his students derive as much pleasure from the educational process as he does.