February 17, 1999

Faculty Profiles
___ Donna Burney, Howard Payne University
___Each morning before she goes to work, Donna Burney asks God to place one person in her path who needs a word of encouragement that day. The prayer helps Burney keep perspective as she teaches English courses at

DONNA BURNEY

Howard Payne University, counsels with freshmen struggling to adjust to college life or ministers through her local church.
___She was named Outstanding Faculty Member in 1993, a recognition of her excellence in teaching. But her influence extends well beyond the classroom.
___For example, she has sponsored the university's Student Government, where she encouraged and modeled servant leadership.
___And she has provided students a role model for ministry by deep involvement in her local church and the community. Every Wednesday, she picks up neighborhood children so they can attend missions and choir activities at church. What started with three girls from one family three years ago has grown to a ministry that touches 30 children who fill two church vans.
___This ministry, which Burney does with her husband, Munger, also involves a number of Howard Payne students as volunteers.
___"As a Christian, it is vital that I strive for excellence in academics, because that is part of my witness," she said. "Then, it's important to walk through those other doors that God opens for me."
___ Steve Williams, Baylor University
___Lecturing in a classroom and working with students in a laboratory are standard duties for professors, but Steve Williams at Baylor University goes a step further. He helps students make the transition into higher-level engineering courses.
___

STEVE WILLIAMS

Williams, in his sixth year as associate professor of engineering, and Byron Newberry, also an associate professor of engineering, developed a distinctive course that allows engineering students to set their own pace of learning and testing.
___"Engineering is an academically challenging discipline, and it's easy for freshmen to become discouraged. Dr. Newberry and I tried to come up with an approach that would give our engineering students experience in how to take college-level exams and how to study," Williams said.
___The class, now in its third year, is so successful that Williams recently presented a paper on the benefits of the course at the American Society of Engineering Education conference.
___But students learn more from Williams than just engineering, said James Bargainer, dean of Baylor's School of Engineering and Computer Science. "A talented electrical engineer and outstanding teacher, he also is an excellent role model who exhibits his faith in the manner in which he interacts with his students and others."
___Williams said he enjoys sharing his faith with students.
___"I've learned that my life can be an example to people who are going in the same direction I did in my Christian faith," he said. "And it's a motivation to me in my Christian walk to know there are students looking at me while they are at a point in their lives wondering what decisions they need to make."
___ Rhonda Furr, Houston Baptist University
___Rhonda Furr wants to create an environment in her Houston Baptist University

RHONDA FURR

classroom where students find opportunities to achieve mastery of the subject.
___"I challenge my students to work hard, to give their best effort to assigned tasks and to take responsibility for their own actions," said Furr, associate professor of music.
___That commitment to learning was applauded by students in 1995 when she was elected to receive the Opal Goolsby Award for Outstanding Teaching and in 1993 when she was named Faculty Woman of the Year.
___Her commitment to education extends beyond the classroom as well. She leads an annual tour to Europe for an interdisciplinary Culture and Human Experience course. Through this experience, she strives to develop good relationships with each student.
___Furr combines her academic excellence with a commitment to Christian ministry, serving as a guest speaker for weekly worship services, faculty sponsor for Christian Life on Campus and hosting student fellowships in her home.
___She also is committed to local church ministry, serving 21 years as a church organist.
___ Larry McGraw, Hardin-Simmons University
___Come to Hardin-Simmons University at

LARRY MCGRAW

lunchtime and you're not likely to find Professor Larry McGraw hiding out in an office or faculty lounge.
___Look for him in the student cafeteria, learning from students, faculty and staff.
___McGraw makes an effort to know as many students as possible and has developed a reputation for helping students in need of academic advice--of always shooting straight and caring about students. He is said to be able to fix the unfixable schedule.
___As a professor of Bible, McGraw packs students into his classes, which usually fill early in preregistration each semester. Thus, in 1996 he received the Cullen Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching and just last year was named Professor of the Year. In addition to teaching, he now serves additionally as associate dean of the Logsdon School of Theology.
___McGraw maintains a fresh perspective by close involvement with churches as well. He frequently preaches and speaks in local churches, when not serving in his home church as a deacon and Sunday school teacher.
___ Ed Spann, Dallas Baptist University
___"I consider my work at Dallas BaptistUniversity as much of a ministry as any other position I've held," said Ed Spann, professor of music and dean of the College of Fine Arts.
___Encouraging servant leadership among students at DBU is a meaningful way "to help determine the eventual outcome

ED SPANN

of careers and extend my own life experience and training," said Spann, a former music missionary in Brazil.
___Students give him high marks with such glowing terms as "extremely knowledgeable," "an excellent, enthusiastic instructor" and one who "encourages learning and represents his faith and Christ-like behavior."
___He also has a reputation as somewhat of a Renaissance man--teaching arts-related courses and pursuing his own artistic expressions in music, painting and writing. Spann is founder and director of DBU's University Ringers handbell choir and teaches music to the DBU Lab School children as a labor of love. He also is active in the choir at his local church and promotes community arts activities.
___ Bruce Tankersley, East Texas Baptist University
___Students have a hard time keeping up with Bruce Tankersley, professor of religion

BRUCE TANKERSLEY

at East Texas Baptist University.
___It's not that Tankersley (or "Tank" as he is called) talks too fast in the classroom, but that he's so active at 61 that he outpaces some 21-year-olds.
___He seldom misses a campus recital or athletic contest. He makes custom furniture in his home wood shop. He rides every year in the Wichita Falls "Hotter Than Hell" 100-mile bike race. He and his wife are avid campers, and he has led several recent lecture tours abroad to places such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
___This enthusiasm and energy spill over into his classes in Christian ethics, Greek, philosophy and New Testament. In the classroom, he draws upon his experiences working at Bell Helicopter, becoming a theology student later in life and starting a new career at age 40. He also draws upon the real-life context of ministry in the local church, where he serves as a bivocational pastor.
___ George Musacchio, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
___At the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, George Musacchio not only teaches

GEORGE MUSSACCHIO

students to achieve academic excellence, he demonstrates academic excellence himself.
___UMHB trustees twice have recognized the professor of English for "Excellence in Scholarship."
___He is actively involved in professional travel, research and writing and has been a visiting professor at schools such as Baylor University, Calvin College and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
___Keep an eye peeled for Musacchio away from the academic world as well, though. He also enjoys being an extra on the television series "Walker, Texas Ranger."
___ Philip Almes, Wayland Baptist University
___When the books are opened in his math classes, Philip Almes seeks to ensure the work is challenging, yet accessible to all those enrolled in the course.
___His enthusiastic teaching at Wayland Baptist University has been a hallmark of his career.
___"I have a deep desire to help

PHILIP ALMES

students learn," he said. "To make this work, I am constantly motivating students to continue trying.
___"My philosophy has always been that teaching is not so much lecturing, but helping students discover for themselves how to relate concepts and to understand material. It is fun to see a student's face light up with the sudden realization of where a line of involved reasoning is going in a proof, or how a solution can be obtained to a problem."
___His success in motivating students comes from the interest he expresses in students as individuals and from his own strength as a role model.
___"The first and highest way to integrate faith and discipline is to, with God's help, live the Christian life and encourage students to do the same," he said.
___He uses unique ways to present illustrations of faith to students in his classroom. "The Apostle John was a logician," he said. "In his writings are 18 examples of the use of the contrapositive to set forth the equivalence of ideas."
___His Calculus IV class ends with a Bible study on the order of God's creation. "This study is followed by a week of using vector calculus to derive the basic laws of celestial mechanics," he said, "which govern planetary motion and show that every equation that expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God."

---

Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!