Jay Beaman was raised in the Assemblies of God in Southern Oregon, graduated from Northwest College in Kirkland, Washington, and North American Baptist Seminary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology at Iowa State University. He has taught sociology at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas and George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. He is Director of Institutional Research at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he resides with his wife, Rockie. He is an ordained American Baptist and member of Rivergate Community Church.