
Category: Faculty Spotlights

Nil Santana | Assistant Professor of Art and Design, Director of Maker Lab
The integration of technology into the 21st-century classroom is an essential part of the ACU experience. However, for professors in ACU’s creative arts programs the use of technology requires – ironically – more creativity. Today, there is a sense of communal construction of knowledge. Students are not restricted to the walls of the classroom, nor … Continued

Rusty Towell: Innovative scholar, down-to-earth teacher
Remember the adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” when meeting Dr. Rusty Towell (’90) for the first time. More to the point, don’t pre-judge Towell based on the cover of his scholarly books, publications and presentations. Don’t let titles like “Recent Measurements With the NIFFTE Fission TPC and the Potential to Advance Thorium … Continued
Dr. Mark Riggs | Professor of Mathematics
Dr. Mark Riggs’ area of expertise is statistics, but at heart he is a musician. And, he notes, the two often go hand in hand. “Many people seem to link an aptitude in mathematics with music, and I am no exception,” says Riggs, professor of mathematics at ACU. “I have played the viola almost all … Continued

Jessup challenges students to ‘real world’ research
On the soccer field students know him as Ryan, striker, and one of the “old guys” who are – to students’ surprise – actually good. When he began teaching at ACU, Dr. Ryan Jessup helped start a weekly pick-up soccer game where faculty, staff and students play as equals. He came to ACU in 2011, … Continued
Chemistry professor, students bring message of love to children in Peru
Brad Rix went from zero children of his own to helping “raise” more than 1,000 who belong to other people – and he wouldn’t change a thing. Brad, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, began that journey 10 years ago when he lived in Austin and one of his church friends … Continued
10 Questions with Debut Dagger winner Sherry Rankin
When Sherry Rankin heard her first full-length novel, Strange Fire, had won this year’s Crime Writers Association’s Debut Dagger competition for unpublished writers, she was stunned. “To be honest, I entered it mostly as a way to toughen up and learn to deal with rejection,” said Rankin, assistant professor of English at ACU. She had just completed … Continued
Centuries-old play unearthed by professor takes the stage in London
It’s not every day you find something significant when searching the internet. But Dr. Joe Stephenson recently did just that. He unearthed a manuscript of a play called The Dutch Lady, hidden for centuries in the archives of the Boston Public Library. The play is more than 300 years old and has been chilling … Continued
Bible professor Dr. John Willis retires after 61 years
Moody Coliseum was brand new and half the buildings on campus today had not been built when Dr. John Willis (’55) returned to his native Abilene in 1971 with his wife, Evelyn (Forrest ’56), and four school-aged children. He brought with him 15 years of experience on the faculty at Lipscomb University and a scholarly … Continued

Teacher education professor turns trauma into encouragement
Pregnant and restricted to a hospital room for 11 weeks, Dr. Jenn Rogers found comfort in handwritten notes from a group of mothers she had never met. Those mothers had once been on bedrest too, and their words gave Rogers solace through the dark time in the hospital. After her son was born at 36 … Continued