Westmont College announced the addition of four new professors on Monday.
Katherine Bryant, alumnus Daniel Gee, Robert Haring-Kaye and Blake Victor Kent are joining the faculty at the Montecito college.
Ms. Bryant, who was a visiting assistant professor at the school for three years, graduated from USC and earned a doctorate from Texas A&M.
At left, Katherine Bryant
At right, Daniel Gee
“While teaching at Westmont, I have always admired how students and faculty consistently integrate their academic studies with deeper questions of faith, purpose and justice,” Ms. Bryant said in a statement issued by the college. “I eagerly look forward to contributing to this broader purpose in service to our Lord.”
Following an outstanding academic career at Westmont that culminated in 2013 with a valedictorian honor, Mr. Gee is returning to the school to teach music and conduct the Westmont College Choir.
He completed majors in both music composition and philosophy at Westmont, before earning a Master of Music degree from the USC Thornton School of Music. Mr. Gee has nearly finished studies for his doctor of musical arts degree at USC.
“Music in all of its manifestations is breathtakingly diverse and a rich gift from God,” Mr. Gee said in the Westmont statement. “Choral music contributes uniquely to this manifold witness in its accessibility and humanness. It seems that we often reserve our most important words for song.”
Mr. Haring-Kaye, who completed tenure as a professor of physics and astronomy at Ohio Wesleyan University, taught at Purdue Northwest. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Florida State University before completing a doctorate there in nuclear physics.
Mr. Haring-Kaye has been a principal or co-principal investigator on four National Science Foundation grants. The last two focused on cultivating research experiences for undergraduates.
“I am constantly amazed at the beauty, order and complexity of the world around us, and in the universe as a whole,” Mr. Haring-Kaye said in the Westmont news release.
Mr. Kent is a scholar who specializes in population health, medicine and religion.
He has been working the past two years as a postdoctoral research fellow with Harvard Medical School’s Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations and Health Disparities, and at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Mr. Kent graduated from Wheaton College, earned a master of arts in theological studies at Regent College in British Columbia, and a master’s and doctorate in sociology at Baylor University.
“I’m thrilled to be entering a community where students are eager to learn about and face down the daunting social challenges that loom large in our contemporary environment,” Mr. Kent said in the Westmont release.
email: gfall@newspress.com
