Westmont Magazine Five New Faculty Arrive at Westmont
David L. Anderson
Economics and Business
Anderson’s background includes both business and academic experience. He has worked in strategic planning and technology for BlueCross/BlueShield of Illinois, Hewitt Associates, IBM and Andersen Consulting. He has taught full time at Trinity International University and Wheaton College. While working in industry, he taught part time at DePaul, Loyola, and Northwestern Universities. He has written several textbooks, including “Entrepreneurship and Technology,” “Marketing with Web 2.0: Social Networking and Viral Marketing,” and “Management Information Systems: Solving Business Problems with Information Technology.”
After graduating from Wheaton, he earned a law degree from George Washington University, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan, a doctorate in education at Harvard University and a Master of Science in computer science from Northwestern University. He belongs to the federal, U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio and District of Columbia bars.
“It’s wonderful to teach at a place that works hard to develop a comprehensive, integrated student experience,” he says. “In preparing for business careers, students need to work collaboratively as an integrated team, drawing on the expertise of people on campus. This approach helps them formulate cases, papers and technology.
“Students here are committed, gracious and apply their faith,” he says. “When they go into business, they are going to operate as individuals of conscience and compassion.”
Anderson wants students to graduate with a portfolio of business projects and skills so they can apply for positions with an online collection of business cases, well-written articles and a video or graphic piece that demonstrate what they’ve accomplished.
Michael Everest
Chemistry
Everest says liberal arts education is in his DNA. His parents, Dan and Sherry Sonneveldt Everest, both graduated from Westmont with degrees in psychology in 1967, Sherry with a double major in education. Michael, a Wheaton College alumnus, earned his doctorate from Stanford University and most recently taught chemistry at George Fox University, where he worked for the past decade.
Everest’s research leans toward the physics end of chemistry, focusing on the use of lasers. He completed a one-year sabbatical at the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas in Heraklion, Greece, in June 2010, where he studied the interaction of polarized light with matter.
“Chemistry is a way of knowing,” he says. “It’s a field of inquiry. It’s investigating a particular aspect of how the world works.” He hopes to instill that sense of amazement in his students.
He explains there’s a single principle that describes why every chemical reaction goes forward instead of backward and why ice freezes at zero and water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. “That amazes me,” he says. “It’s beautiful that at the core there’s a truth with all these implications when on the surface it looks like crazy and unconnected observations.”
Everest has earned numerous grants, fellowships and awards, including a grant from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund and five faculty research grants from George Fox. He has contributed scholarly articles to Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Chemical Education and Review of Scientific Instruments, to name a few.
Heather Keaney
History/Westmont in Istanbul
Heather Keaney ’93 has returned to Westmont as an assistant professor of history, but in January she and her husband, Jim Wright, venture back to the Middle East to co-lead the inaugural semester of Westmont in Istanbul. Keaney has spent the past 11 years living and teaching in Cairo at the American University in Cairo and for the Middle East Studies Program of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
Keaney graduated from Westmont with a degree in history. “When I enrolled, I wanted to go into medicine — teaching seemed really boring,” she says. “I was going to be a missionary doctor in Africa, and then I fell in love with history. My professors made such a huge impact on me at a critical part in my life. I knew that I, too, wanted to be involved in that educational process in students’ lives.”
She then earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in Middle East history at UC Santa Barbara. “In many ways I ended up a missionary doctor in Africa — just not the way I had originally thought,” she says.
In Egypt, Keaney was the acting director of MESP in fall 2009, leading 30 students through Turkey, Syria and Israel-Palestine. She enthusiastically shares her love and passion for the Middle East and its people. “There are great students at Westmont who are keen to learn and make a difference in the world, which is exactly why we signed up,” she says. “I’m struck by the college’s mission to cultivate compassionate and informed students. You can’t just run off and do good without understanding what the problems are.”
Kristi Lazar
Chemistry
As a student, Kristi Lazar ’00 says the unique living and learning environment at Westmont shaped her life. “I felt blessed to have four years here to devote my time to learning and growing as a person. My professors encouraged me every day.”
Ten years later, Lazar, assistant professor of chemistry, returns to Westmont, seeking to impart a joy for learning. “I hope my students feel motivated to apply themselves, embrace the material and learn to think about the world in terms of God’s handiwork,” she says.
Lazar, who earned a master’s degree at Princeton University and a doctorate from the University of Chicago, returned to Westmont as a visiting assistant professor in January 2010 and began her tenure-track position this fall.
Her area of expertise is in protein aggregation, including the deposits of misfolded proteins thought to be responsible for many degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. She completed a 10-week summer research program with two Westmont students.
Lazar enrolled at Westmont with the intention of becoming a pharmacist, but after conducting research in the chemistry department, her professors encouraged her to attend graduate school.
She undertook two years of postdoctoral research at Genentech Inc., a biotech company, before applying for the Westmont teaching position.
“I worked as a teacher’s assistant while I attended Westmont, and I always dreamed about teaching,” she says. “I reread my prayer journal recently, and I mentioned it would be wonderful to teach at a place like Westmont. It’s a little surreal.”
Alex Moore
Kinesiology
Moore is no stranger to the college. A Wheaton College alumnus, he taught classes as an adjunct instructor at Westmont for the kinesiology and biology departments from 2004-06, including anatomy, tennis, physiology and a biochemistry lab.
Alex then accepted a prestigious fellowship to study at the University of Missouri, which has one of the best microcirculatory programs in the country, and he earned a doctorate in biomedical sciences there.
He returned to Westmont in fall 2010 as a sabbatical replacement in the biology department and began the tenure-track position this fall in the kinesiology department, teaching physiology, biomechanics and a research course.
“There’s a lot of overlap in what I do, working with students going into health professions,” he says. “I was a kinesiology major as an undergraduate, and it’s where my heart is even though my doctorate and recent experience focused more on biology.”
Moore’s research specializes in micro-circulation, studying hair-sized arteries and the regulation of blood flow to tissue. “We’re interested in the microvessels’ responsiveness and how they change as we age,” he says.
Moore, who ran track in high school and college, earned his master’s degree in exercise and sport science from the University of North Carolina. “I want to spend my career teaching students and getting them excited about a topic they have little experience with,” he says. “The fellowship allowed me to focus on my research, but I enjoy teaching. Role models can make a great impact on students’ lives.
“My message to students is to explore and take risks. I love when a student discovers their passion and their calling and place in God’s kingdom.”
Moore met his wife, Kirsten, at Westmont when she was hired as head coach of Westmont’s women’s basketball team in 2005. They got married in 2008.