Dr. Dan Carden
Dan Carden was born in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He attended the Tuscaloosa City Schools before moving to Connecticut where his father could attend graduate school. He graduated in 1971 from Coventry (Conn.) High School. He attended a Christian college in New York (The King's College) for one year and then transfered to the University of Alabama where he received a B.S. in Biology with a minor in English in 1976. He married Janie Christensen in August of 1975. The two met when they were 14 and 13 years old at a church where the Cardens attended while Dan's dad conducted research at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.
In 1976 he began teaching. He was offered a job in the Tuscaloosa County schools but chose to teach at a local Christian school. He started to work on his Master's degree and received that degree in 1979 from the University of Alabama. After 3 years in the science department at West End Christian School and the birth of their first son, Chris, they moved to the Bahamas to teach in a mission school for Bahamian children. Two years later their second son, Kevin, was born. They also moved to northeastern Montana that year where he became the headmaster of Lustre Christian High. He served in that capacity for three years. At the end of this term a third son, Nate, was born.
Wanting to be close to family the Cardens moved back to Tuscaloosa where Dan became the business manager and salesman for a vinyl siding company owned by his brother-in-law. After two wonderful years and the birth a daughter, Meagan, an opportunity opened as a headmaster at the school where he began his teaching career. He assumed that title in 1986. Three years later he moved to American Christian Academy where he remains today. He completed his doctorate in July of 2005.
He is the oldest of six children. His father, Dr. A.E. Carden, is a noted metallurgist who was a professor at the University of Alabama for over 30 years. His mother, Patsy, worked in the home all of his life. Four of his siblings are educators and his brother, Ben, teaches his clients the art of physical exercise. The family traveled extensively across the United States while he was growing up. He lived in places like Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Cape Cod; Iowa; Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Dr. Carden loves to travel and leads most of the field trips taken by the students at ACA. 
He traveled to the former Soviet Union three times to help their Department of Education implement a curriculum that is based on Biblical morals and values. He is a passionate reader and loves to videotape events involving people. He has taught numerous classes on photography. He is a member of the Church at Tuscaloosa.
Email Dr. Carden: dcarden@acacademy.com