Meet the Faculty

"During one trip to Belize recently I had one student who said, 'I'm not sure what I want to do. Maybe I want to do biology; maybe I want to do something else.' And the first full day in Belize we started off with a birding boat ride. We floated for several miles at dawn looking at every bird. And it was during that boat ride that the student became an ornithologist. And he is one today because of that experience. And I think that's the essence of teaching--providing those kinds of experiences to help students see the world in a different way."
Larry Davenport, Professor of biology, Director of the Vulcan Materials Center, 2007 Professor of the Year, Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching"The big thing I see as a contemporary artist on a Christian campus is that there's just this huge potential for learning. I mean contemporary art isn't always maybe that well known as much on Christian campuses, and it can sometimes be misunderstood, but then the potential there as a teacher is wonderful because you're involved with getting a student who comes into the program and maybe they can draw real well but they never really thought about taking that next leap from being able to draw well to making art. And when you start seeing them taking off, that curve is so great."
Larry Thompson, Professor and chair, art department"The other thing that's unique about this place compared to bigger schools is the opportunity to have the time to actually mentor students rather than just teach them in the classroom. So the development of the professional in classroom is half our job and then the other half is developing the person, and Samford provides the opportunity and encourages the opportunity to develop that personal side, that spiritual side. I really cherish that because it provides the opportunity to get to know students better on a personal level and I think that makes the teaching experience better. Because I know my students better, I'm a more effective teacher in the classroom."
Alan Jung, Professor and chair, exercise science and sports management department

"The other aspect that I enjoy about teaching here at Samford is that we have so many interdisciplinary opportunities--opportunities for me to interact with faculty from other fields of inquiry. It's an opportunity to learn from my colleagues and translates into making the students make better connections among all the facets of their learning in and outside the classroom. If you have a sense of what's going on in other disciplines and departments, then you have a better sense of the students. They're experiencing these other educational experiences as well."
Amanda Borden, Associate professor of communication studies"We expect students to take a very active role in their education and not all schools are like that. At some schools, you become a psyche major and they say, 'Take this, this, this and this.' We expect our students to come and say this is my interest. The major here is very flexible. In addition to the core required courses, everything else are choices that allow the students to tailor everything to their career goals."
Stephen Chew, Professor and chair, psychology department"One thing I love about Samford is the ability to balance teaching—to be at a school that cares so much about teaching and where there’s frankly high expectations for teaching but also with the ability to engage in relevant timely scholarship. I think if you're conducting relevant research, it's definitely going to have applications in the classroom, so I certainly have found ways to involve students in lots of research."
Betsy Holloway, Assistant professor of business