Twelve new professors joined John Brown University this fall to teach in fields including human relations, healthcare, art, education and engineering.
The Family and Human Services department saw the arrival of Geoff Reddick and West Loveland, both of whom also work in the graduate counseling program.
Geoff Reddick, assistant professor in the Counselor Education department, has worked full time as a couples’ therapist for the last four years. He lives in Fayetteville with his wife and two children.
Reddick studied psychology at the University of Arkansas. In 2011, he received his master’s degree in Counseling at John Brown University. Three years later, he earned his doctorate in Family Therapy at Saint Louis University.
Reddick says he never considered becoming a professor as an undergraduate student. However, he said his mind changed when he came to John Brown University pursuing his master’s degree.
“Being here at John Brown, the Lord really opened my eyes and my heart to this field,” he said. “I don’t think I would be teaching if it wasn’t for the faculty I had here. [Professors] believed or saw things in me that I wasn’t paying attention to, and they were able to call that out and to motivate me and encourage me.”
Reddick said that people often came to him for advice. “It is pretty common for a lot of us in this field. We like people to get along, and we do not want to see people hurt or in unhealthy conflicts,” Reddick said. “I was [counseling] my family and friends, and now I just get paid for it.”
As a new member of the JBU community, Reddick said he has a clear sense of purpose on campus. “Part of my mission here at John Brown is to really just help these students to discover God’s call in their lives and, if they had discovered [their mission] it is to help them, encourage them and motivated them to continue to be the man and woman that God had designed them to be.”
The Family and Human Services department also welcomed another professor, West Loveland. Loveland does not consider himself to be from any specific place, since he and his family used to move a lot. “I don’t really have a ‘where I am from,’ but ‘where I am’ is where my wife and son are,” he said. Loveland lives in Southeast Kansas with his wife Stef and his two-year-old son, Shepherd.
Loveland obtained his undergraduate in Psychology with a minor in Family and Human Services and a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at John Brown University. Over the last three years, Loveland worked in private practice, providing counseling and family and marriage therapy.
During his first two years of college, Loveland studied chemistry and business management. After his sophomore year, he said that the Lord called him to the fields of Psychology and Family and Human Services. “I was going to be a dentist, I had already got all my clinical hours for dental school applications and I was already pre-approved for University of Kansas City Dentistry School,” Loveland said. “Everything was right on track and then the Lord said, ‘After sophomore year, you are not going to do that.”
Along with the change in major, Loveland’s life became even more complicated his senior year when he was diagnosed with cancer. He traveled to Tennessee for about a year to receive treatment while working on his master’s degree. It has been five years since his last treatment. Now he only has to visit his doctor every six months for a routine check-up.
Loveland said that being a father and professor has been an insightful experience. “When I teach sexuality, when I teach parenting or family communication, how would it not impact my normal life outside of school?” he asked. “You are so invested in those courses while you are teaching them, so you are growing in class, and you also are going to grow outside the class.”