Baylor Connections

Paul Martens and Elise Edwards

The Baylor Ethics Initiative is a community of scholars across campus who engage in purposeful conversation to elevate the role of ethics in their research and teaching. Paul Martens, associate professor of ethics, serves as Baylor Ethics Initiative director; Elise Edwards, assistant professor of religion, is co-convener of the Initiative’s Ethics in Leadership working group. In this Baylor Connections, they share how faculty come together to discuss interdisciplinary issues and sharpen a focus on ethics in their work.

Dan Peppe

Dan Peppe, associate professor of geosciences, is part of an international team whose decade-long research project has shifted Africa’s prehistoric timeline by ten million years. Their revolutionary discoveries were featured in the journal Science and supported by National Science Foundation funding. In this Baylor Connections, Peppe takes listeners to Eastern Africa, where multi-disciplinary collaboration yielded insights that have a major ripple effect throughout the scientific community.

President Livingstone

As another semester draws to a close, Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., reflects on the 2022-23 year at Baylor and looks ahead to important initiatives and projects on the horizon. In this Baylor Connections, she shares more about next steps in strategic planning, Baylor’s live bear mascots, construction projects like the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center and Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion, the Big 12 Conference and more.

Kenyatta Gilbert and Malcolm Foley

Last month, Baylor unveiled statues honoring the University’s first Black graduates, Rev. Robert Gilbert and Barbara Walker. Despite physical limitations and the burdens of being a trailblazer, Rev. Gilbert served his hometown of Waco and made an impact far beyond campus. In this Baylor Connections, his son, Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, expands on his father’s journey and legacy. Dr. Gilbert, professor of homiletics at the Howard University Divinity School, is joined by Rev. Dr. Malcolm Foley, Special Advisor to the President for Equity and Campus Engagement and Director of Black Church Studies at Truett Seminary, sharing more about Baylor’s efforts to tell the University’s complete history and honor trailblazers like Rev. Gilbert.

Jessica Beachum and Allison Chew

Narrative as Reality: Constructing an Identity is the newest exhibit at Baylor’s Martin Museum of Art, featuring pieces from the Jessica and Kelvin Beachum Family Collection. The exhibit brings together 21 works of art from 19 artists across the globe, with a focus on human experiences, discovery and expression of oneself. Jessica Beachum, a 2011 Baylor graduate who shared her family’s collection with the University, and Allison Chew, Martin Museum of Art director, take listeners inside the collection on this Baylor Connections.

Mitch Neubert

Research within Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business yields insights in business ethics, management, leadership, human behavior and more. Mitch Neubert serves as Senior Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, Chavanne Chair of Christian Ethics in Business and Professor Management. In this Baylor Connections, he examines the role of business research at Baylor and takes listeners inside the factors that make Hankamer scholarship distinct in higher education.

Michael Trakselis

DNA replication and repair is a constant process with implications for health challenges like cancer, infertility and more. Michael Trakselis, professor of biochemistry and director of graduate affairs in Baylor Chemistry and Biochemistry, is a leading researcher into this process. In this Baylor Connections, Trakselis helps listeners better understand DNA replication and repair and its impact on human health, and examines the impact of graduate program growth on chemistry and biochemistry research.

Jared Alcantara

Preparing the next generation of pastors is central to Jared Alcantara’s work at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, and his research advances understanding of cultural engagement, race and ethnicity in preaching. In this Baylor Connections, Alcantara shares more about his role as holder of the Paul W. Powell Endowed Chair in Preaching, highlights figures whose work animates his research, and examines qualities he hopes to nurture in future ministers.