Prior to his appointment at UW-Milwaukee, Peters chaired the industrial and systems engineering department at Texas A&M University.
[1] Peters received a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas in 1987.
He completed a masters of science degree in industrial engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1988, followed by a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering at Georgia Tech in 1992.
He was a professor of industrial and systems engineering at Texas A&M University from 1992 through 2011, serving as the department chair from 2002 through 2011.
His appointment as dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at UW-Milwaukee by chancellor Michael Lovell in 2012 filled the position vacated when Lovell was appointed chancellor in April 2011.