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Calvin faculty and staff

Charsie SawyerCharsie Sawyer Professor, music

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average American will change careers three to five times in their lifetime. For Calvin professor of Spanish Ed Miller, that statistic does not apply.

Ed MillerEd Miller Professor, Spanish

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average American will change careers three to five times in their lifetime. For Calvin professor of Spanish Ed Miller, that statistic does not apply.

Ruth GroenhoutRuth Groenhout
Professor, philosophy

College freshmen are notorious for quite a few things. One is changing their area of study. Professor of philosophy Ruth Groenhout was no different when she was a Calvin student.

Sergio da SilvaSergio da Silva
Professor, psychology

Calvin psychology professor Sergio da Silva conducts research that puts people to sleep. He recently completed four years of research on sleep apnea, a disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep.

Jeff TatumJeff Tatum
Professor, sociology

Lawyer turned professor is a common enough story. But Calvin professor of sociology Jeff Tatum’s story is anything but common—he was not supposed to survive a traumatic brain injury he got as a toddler.

Matt HeunMatt Heun
Professor, engineering

Voyaging to Mars. Preventing ozone depletion. Achieving carbon-neutrality. Calvin engineering professor Matthew Heun has contributed to all three recent “scientific” challenges.

Corwin SmidtCorwin Smidt
Professor, political science

Reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today  have sought the opinion of Calvin professor of political science and director of the Henry Institute, Corwin Smidt.

Jon WitvlietJohn Witvliet
Professor, music and religion

This winter John Witvliet, Calvin professor and director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship turned 40. He has a closet talent for mathematics. He holds five degrees. He teaches in two Calvin departments and the director of one groundbreaking institute.

Jim JadrichJim Jadrich
Professor, physics and astronomy

Growing up, he had two ambitions: to be either a professional baseball player or a mad scientist, the professor of physics and astronomy said about himself. The baseball dream did not pan out. The mad scientist dream, on the other hand, just might have.

John WertzJohn Wertz
Professor, biology

Meet a new biology professor who dissects termites for a living but says he is deathly afraid of grasshoppers.

Jeanette Henderson, Ecosystem Preserve managerJeannette Henderson
Ecosystem Preserve manager

The windows of Jeannette Henderson’s new office look over the South Pond in the Calvin Ecosystem Preserve, but she hasn’t spotted the Green-backed Herons out there.

Don De GraafDon De Graaf
Profesor, HPERDS

He showed up at Calvin as student in 1978, thinking he would get a degree in business and from there find a job. He has, however, deviated from this initial plan. He has become things and been to places he has least expected.

Dale De YoungDale De Young
Associate director of the physical plant

For 27 years Dale DeYoung has been doing work at Calvin that he almost hopes no one notices.  De Young, an associate director for the physical plant, serves as the general contractor for remodeling projects and additions.

Elizabeth Vander LeiElizabeth Vander Lei
Professor, English

"Many would call it staggering around and falling into things. I look at that as God’s providence,” said Calvin professor of English Elizabeth Vander Lei of what life has thrown her way.

Roger DeKockRoger DeKock
Professor, chemistry

He does not have cable, and he subscribes to The Atlantic Monthly. He owns a 1983 Goldwing motorcycle, and his great uncle hid Jews in his barn in the Netherlands during WWII. His favorite molecule is water.

Ken BrattKen Bratt
Professor, classics

After 30 years in the classroom, teaching is still a thrill for Calvin College classics professor Ken Bratt, the 2006 winner of the college's Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching.

Barbara CarvillBarbara Carvill
Professor emerita, German

Beginning at age 10, when she and her family fled East Germany, Barbara Carvill has often felt like the new person in a strange place. But at most stops along the way she was made to feel welcome, and she’s never forgotten what that was like.

Ken ErffmeyerKen Erffmeyer
Vice president, advancement

In his new post Ken Erffmeyer will oversee Calvin's alumni and public relations department, its communications and marketing team and the development office (Calvin currently is in the midst of a $150 million capital campaign).

Lee HardyLee Hardy
Professor, philosophy

Lee Hardy learned some valuable lessons as a young boy, working for his dad in Fullerton, Calif., at the family-owned drugstore. "I got to see how my father related to people," he recalled.

Bob SpeelmanBob Speelman
Supervisor, landscape operations

When this time of year rolls around, Bob Speelman is eyeing the willow buds: “They get very, very large and green,” he said of this first sign of spring on the Calvin campus.

Todd VandenbergTodd Vanden Berg
Associate professor, sociology

Worlds collided for Calvin professor of sociology Todd Vanden Berg on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. “I had just started teaching my anthropology of religion class, and my parents walked in … ,” he said. “It was a little disconcerting."

Judy Vander WoudeJudy Vander Woude
Professor, speech pathology

Growing up as one of 11 children, including four siblings adopted from Korea, Calvin College professor Judith Vander Woude had plenty of opportunities to listen to the conversations around her.

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