Joel Brady teaches as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh in the Departments of Religious Studies and Slavic Languages and Literatures. His courses include Vampire: Blood and Empire, Madness and Madmen in Russian Culture, and the History of Orthodox Christianity. Occasionally, he competes on the NBC television show American Ninja Warrior as “The Vampire Professor,” aka #vampireninja, and still can’t believe that making it to the Las Vegas Finals hasn’t gotten him tenure.Since they met in junior high, his wife Peg, has given him the inspiration for most of his story ideas, and oh yeah, their four children.