�ǿմ�ý

Five tenure-track professors, including a returning alumnus and an international design expert, join the �ǿմ�ý faculty this fall, bringing a shared commitment to integrating faith with academic excellence. The new tenure-track appointments include Stephen Owusu (economics and business), Gregg Ten Elshof ’92 (philosophy), Demetrius Tucker (English), Jarrett Walbolt (kinesiology) and Kristen Wood (engineering). 

Owusu, who taught last year at �ǿմ�ý, says the college is “a place filled with faithful servants of God whose true intentions are not only to train students academically but also shepherd them in the light of God’s Word.” He also learned that teaching is truly his calling. “I always knew I wanted to teach, but I have been surprised by how passionate I am about teaching economics,” he says. “I also learned that my life is more meaningful when I am at a place where I can easily connect with people spiritually.”

He graduated from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana before earning a master’s and doctorate from the University of New Mexico. This year, he hopes to work on three separate research projects. The first evaluates the impact of a city-level development program on crime against women in India. The second determines the impact of free elementary school on language dynamics. And the third assesses the impact of the implementation and rollback of extended secondary schooling in Ghana.

Ten Elshof, who graduated from �ǿմ�ý with a degree in business and economics, taught philosophy at Biola University for 27 years, serving as the founding director of the Center for Christian Thought. In his final semester at �ǿմ�ý, he took his first philosophy course — taught by Bob Wennberg and attended by history professor Shirley Mullen. “Wennberg was sort of laid back and Shirley would fire questions at him,” he says. “There was such genuine affection, respect and friendship, and yet they seemed to disagree about everything. I was so taken, I thought, this is what I should have been doing for four years at �ǿմ�ý. This is what I’m going to do when I leave here.”

He earned a Master of Arts in philosophy of religion and ethics from Talbot School of Theology and a doctorate from the University of Southern California. He specializes in metaphysics, epistemology and Confucianism, and has authored several books, including “I Told Me So” and “Confucius for Christians.” “There’s always been something very special about this place in my mind,” he says. “There’s a passion for the liberal arts.” He says he fell in love with learning and his wife, Laurel ’92, at �ǿմ�ý. Their children, Silas ’24 and Larkin ’26, both graduated from �ǿմ�ý, and Gideon ’30 is a first-year student.

Tucker credits his undergraduate work at Boyce College, a private Christian institution in Louisville, Kentucky, with preparing him well for �ǿմ�ý’s academic and community setting. “�ǿմ�ý’s integration of faith in the classroom, my love for reading, and work in African American literature intersected,” he says. “It seemed like this could be a great fit and a place to grow and grow with the students as well.”

Tucker earned a master’s degree at the University of Louisville and a doctorate at Georgia State University. At �ǿմ�ý, he is looking forward to teaching a seminar on Frederick Douglass, drawing on Douglass’s autobiographies to examine the American experience and explore his efforts to shape and reform the nation. “Douglass carries an awareness of his own social power, and that makes everything he writes deeply charged,” Tucker says. “It’ll be exciting for students to understand this type of American identity — where we were, where we are, and where we’re still trying to go. Frederick Douglass can help mediate that for students. I'm most looking forward to being a carrier of culture — almost like a missionary of culture.”

Walbolt graduated from Bethel University and earned a doctorate in exercise and nutrition sciences, exercise physiology at Baylor University. “�ǿմ�ý is a great school that combines the liberal arts with an amazing environment,” he says. “The philosophy of the institution plays a huge role in the way I approach my teaching: How do we bring kinesiology alive right here?” 

His early research explored low-cost treatments for PTSD using nutritional and exercise interventions. Since then he has diversified to examine ways to build physiologic resilience, the ability to keep moving under stress and adapt to the environment. “I’ve taken some of my interdisciplinary research with nutrition and exercise, and included the psychological components to look at how your personality affects your stress response to exercise, and would different exercise treatments work better with certain personalities versus others.”

Wood, who served as an adjunct professor and instructor in �ǿմ�ý’s engineering department last year, says that taste of the college is what brought him back as a tenure-track professor. “The students are fabulous, and I felt God’s calling to come back and work with them,” he says.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering at Colorado State University and a master’s and doctorate in engineering and applied sciences at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) before becoming a faculty member in engineering at the University of Texas at Austin for over two decades. He was also a professor and founding Head of Pillar (Engineering Product Development) at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), where he directed the MIT International Design Center. 

“It’s basically a leadership role in design thinking and design innovation,” he says. “I am currently engaged with a robotics program at SUTD that received a $7 million grant for the next few years, and I hope to get my students here involved. I’m wholly looking forward to bringing my faith into my teaching to assist and mentor these young folks to grow in their faith and connect it to their academic discipline.”

The college also welcomes several new, full-time, one-year professors. Kaydie Carr and Mia Pasini join the nursing faculty. Jack Keefer (business and economics) returns after teaching as an adjunct professor at �ǿմ�ý in spring 2025. Alumnus Winston Gee ’21 will teach general chemistry labs and physical chemistry.