Our professors are distinguished scholars, active researchers, published writers, and faithful Christians who demonstrate what it means to be both Christ-followers and leaders in their academic fields. As mentors and role models, they play a huge role in the integration of faith and learning at Bethel.

Faculty

Aryn Baxter

Adjunct Faculty | arb64867@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2020

Dr. Aryn Baxter works at the intersection of international higher education and international development. Her mission is to enhance the capacity and commitment of individuals, teams and institutions to create a more just, peaceful and sustainable world by informing and expanding access to transformative global learning opportunities

Randy Bergen

Adjunct Faculty | r-bergen@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2013

Randy's primary job as associate provost is to help ensure the academic quality of all adult undergraduate, seminary, and graduate programs. Before becoming an academic administrator, he was a psychology professor with research interests in academic success and failure.

Neil Best

Adjunct Professor | nabest@alaska.edu | Started at Bethel: 2021

Dr. Neil Best has been working in Higher Ed for almost 20 years now. He received his PhD from Azusa Pacific University in Higher Education and his dissertation explored on the campus climate predictors of sexual assault victimization. His Master’s degree is in Leadership from Trinity Western University. He has professional experience working in the areas of Equity and Compliance, Residence Life, Student Engagement, Leadership Development, and Student Conduct. He currently serves as De. . . read more.

Jolyn Dahlvig

Adjunct Faculty | jed35737@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2018

My personal commitment/guiding statement: As a leader, teacher, family member, and friend living at my highest and best I am strong, courageous, spacious, and wise so that I can contribute to Shalom (inclusive community) so that others can freely live into their vision. I am a student affairs leader for Oregon Institute of Technology who works from the Portland-Metro campus, about 20 miles from S of Portland. My research areas of interest include student success and assessment, positive . . . read more.

Jessica Daniels

Doctor of Education | j-daniels@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2015

Before becoming a faculty member, Jessica served as the Assistant Provost at a private west coast university. In this role she supported the deans, faculty, and students in the six colleges and schools at the University. She also has student development experience, managing community life, housing, student conduct, orientation, student programs, etc. as the Assistant Dean of Students. Jessica's research interests are under the broad umbrella of higher education as a platform for positive so. . . read more.

Joel Frederickson

Adjunct Faculty | frejoe@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 1996

Frederickson's research interests include the psychological impact of apologies and how students change over four years from participating in college. This includes changes in cognition, beliefs, and spirituality.

Todd Harmening

Adjunct Faculty | trh46824@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2017

Todd has been in public higher education for 17 years engaging in system and institution level strategic and academic planning and in advancement of academic programs and initiatives. His professional and research interests are development of organizational leadership and effective governance and collaboration within and across institutions.

Ross Jahnke

Adjunct Instructor | ross-jahnke@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2011

Ross Jahnke teaches courses on leadership and higher education administration. His research has examined empowering leadership behaviors and trust in higher education contexts. Ross has also presented at accreditation conferences on topics including assessment of student learning and strategic decision-making. With graduate degrees in both theology and higher education leadership, he seeks to foster the integration of students' deepest beliefs and values with their approaches to leadership.. . . read more.

Michelle Louis

Adjunct Faculty | mlouis@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2000

Dr. Michelle Louis is the founder of The Leading Mind, LLC which is dedicated to merging positive psychology and applied leadership practice. She is an executive coach, consultant, and speaker who specializes in translating concepts from psychology into practical strategies for developing leaders holistically and helping organizations thrive. Dr. Louis has spent 20 years in faculty roles in higher education, most recently as Associate Professor of Doctoral Higher Education at Azusa Pacific . . . read more.

Scott Moats

Adjunct Faculty | moatss@crown.edu | Started at Bethel: 2018

I have been in Christian Higher Education for about 28 years. I have worked in many areas including: teaching, administration, and operations.

Kristen Nichols-Besel

Teaching Partner | kmn39985@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2015

Nichols-Besel's areas of interest include Literacy Education, Writing Centers, Education for Multilingual Learners, Academic Writing, Qualitative Research.

Jeanine Parolini

Dissertation Adviser | j-parolini@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2007

Dr. Parolini has developed thousands of leaders in hundreds of organizations throughout the world. Her passion is to invest in principled people, leaders and learning organizations. Jeanine coaches leaders, teams and organizations to be continuous learners, self-aware, trustworthy, responsible, collaborative, empowering and innovative. She speaks and writes on a variety of topics involving effective leadership, teams and organizational life.

Craig Paulson

Professor | craig-paulson@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2002

Craig is a tenured faculty member within the Bethel University Doctor of Education: Leadership in Higher Education Program as well as the Doctor of Education: Leadership in K12 Administration and K12 Administrator Licenses Program. He has moved from full-time to phased-in retirement focusing on Comprehensive Examinations, Institutional Review Board approvals, and dissertation advising.

Patricia Paulson

Professor of Science Education Emerita | patricia-paulson@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 1999

Paulson focuses her research on trustworthy practices for teaching and learning, focusing specifically on integrating scientific practices. She has led the GEMS program, coordinated the STEM program, and taught Life Science Concepts, Applied STEM Practices, and Science Curriculum and Methods at all levels. With the completion of her phased in retirement in June 2020, Paulson serves as an adjunct instructor in the Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership program, teaching the Curriculum and Inst. . . read more.

Heather Petridis

Adjunct Instructor | hip77679@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2017

Currently serves as the Vice President for Enrollment Management and Chief Enrollment Officer for Azusa Pacific University. Her leadership experience in higher education spans private and for-profit education, career services, enrollment management, military-veteran resources, student affairs, and regional campus operations. Dr. Petridis is the founding vice president at Azusa Pacific University for the Offices of Military-Veteran Resources and Graduate and Professional Student Affairs. . . . read more.

Ruben Rivera

Associate Professor of History Emeritus | ruben-rivera@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 1997

Ruben was the Chief Diversity Officer at Bethel University, and has long been a faculty of the history department and taught one course each semester at the college and one in the summer at the graduate school. As Chief Diversity Officer, Ruben engaged in numerous strategic initiatives across all our schools, including the Shalom seminar, developing institutional capacity in cultural intelligence and intergroup dialogue, racial and other forms of bias mitigation, hiring for inclusive excell. . . read more.

Hendrika Schoon

Adjunct Faculty | h-schoon@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2021

Hendrika (Hennie) Schoon has served in various capacities within the student life department for the past twenty years including dean of students, judicial advisor, and community life director. She has earned a B.S.W (Calvin University), an M.S.W (Western Michigan University) and an Ed. D, (Bethel University) and has worked in both Canadian and American universities. Along with serving as an adjunct professor, Dr. Schoon serves as an Area Coordinator at Calvin University and is a Mental Hea. . . read more.

Marta Shaw

Adjunct Instructor | gilmara@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2015

Marta Shaw is a lecturer in the Institute of Public Affairs at Jagiellonian University in Poland, and an Adjunct Professor in the Doctor of Education program at Bethel University. Her research has focused on leadership and management of education, comparative and international education, intercultural leadership, and the implications of research in neurobiology for the theory and practice of educational leadership.

Krista Soria

Adjunct Faculty | ksoria@umn.edu | Started at Bethel: 2016

Dr. Soria teaches research courses for the Educational Leadership program.

Maya Sullivan

Adjunct Faculty | mas43936@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2019

I work full time as a higher education administrator. Teaching other future higher education leaders is my great pleasure!

Teresa Maria Taylor

Adjunct Faculty | t-taylor@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2018

Dr. Taylor is a teacher at heart. Since 2014, she has served as an educational leader in higher education. Before transitioning to her current administrator role, she served as a K-12 educator. Dr. Taylor is passionate about empowering others through education and teaches a variety of graduate-level courses. Her research is in culturally responsive teaching and is an advocate for educational equity. Dr. Taylor received her doctoral degree from Bethel University.. . . read more.

Safary Wa-Mbaleka

Associate Professor of Leadership in Higher Education | Wa-Mbaleka@Bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2022

Associate Professor of Leadership in Higher Education

Mary F. Whitman

Associate Professor | m-whitman@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 2004

Whitman’s research interests include expatriate and repatriate adjustment, motivation, and job satisfaction. She has also worked on research exploring personality factors with both organizational and self-identified expatriates. Her research participants include expatriates and repatriates from around the world.

Samuel Zalanga

Professor of Sociology Emeritus | szalanga@bethel.edu | Started at Bethel: 1999

Zalanga's doctoral fieldwork focused on the comparative role of ruling elite coalitions in development policy formulation and implementation in Malaysia and Nigeria. He specifically studied the process and politics of neoliberal economic reforms and implementation in the two countries as part of a broader global political-economic issue of the relative role of states and the market in the contemporary incarnation of global capitalism. Zalanga grew up in the rural, social margins, and peri. . . read more.