Pepperdine Magazine Vol. 15, Iss. 1 (Winter 2023)

This Veteran’s Day, the Phillips Theme Tower was illuminated in purple in commemoration of the 240th anniversary of our nation’s Purple Heart award. Pepperdine was the sole California representative of the Light to Unite initiative led by the National Flag Foundation and the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

Melina Livadas, Waves women’s soccer forward p. 38

Tech and the City

Pepperdine experts offer their thoughts on how technology can—and can’t—improve the urban experience 20

The Curiosity Commitment

Across industries, founders are innovating in extraordinary ways simply by asking, “What’s the problem?” 26 Page

Turners

From self-improvement to historical nonfiction, find out what the University’s faculty members at all five schools are poring over beyond their office hours

“Pepperdine has given us a platform to lift us up and let our voices be heard.”

Always Looking Forward

A debilitating accident will not slow down Sam Schmidt (’86, MBA ’87) 38

Equal Footing

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, female student-athletes past and present share how they have been shaped by Pepperdine Athletics 42

A Study in Context

Far from home, Seaver College students experience life in a different context through a new pilot program in Uganda

44

More Than a Story

An Academy Award–winning alumnus and a screen arts professor lead two Pepperdine students on a documentary project in purposeful storytelling

46

How to Run the World Foreign policy scholar Kiron Skinner brings her commitment to the value of a liberal arts education to the School of Public Policy

VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 1 | WINTER 2023

Pepperdine Magazine

editor Gareen Darakjian

art director Courtney Gero writers Amanda Pisani Abigail Ramsey

graphic designers Danae Doub Taleen Keldjian

photographer Jacob Erbes (’22) Ron Hall (’79)

copy editor Amanda Pisani

production manager Jill McWilliams

Published by Integrated Marketing Communications

Sean Burnett

Senior Vice President for Integrated Marketing

Communications

Michael Thomas

Vice President for Integrated Marketing Communications

Nate Ethell (’08, MBA ’13)

Senior Director of Communications and Brand Development

Keith Lungwitz

Creative Director

Allen Haren (’97, MA ’07)

Director of Media Production

Mauricio Acevedo

Director of Digital Marketing

Tamara O'Brien Director of Operations

Pepperdine Magazine is the feature magazine for Pepperdine University and its growing community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends. It is produced with guidance from an advisory board representing a cross section of the University community.

Manage your subscription to Pepperdine Magazine: magazine.pepperdine.edu/subscription

Each issue of Pepperdine Magazine contains a limited number of half- or full-page

opportunities for University departments and initiatives. To learn more about advertising, contact magazine@pepperdine.edu

Send letters to the editor and other queries: magazine@pepperdine.edu

All material is copyrighted ©2023 by Pepperdine University, Malibu, California 90263.

Pepperdine is affiliated with Churches of Christ, of which the University’s founder, George Pepperdine, was a lifelong member.

We all have something to learn. And for some of us, we have people in our orbits who have generously given their time and wisdom to teach, guide, and shape us into better versions of ourselves. As members of a community steeped in the values of purpose, service, and leadership, a coach or mentor is a mere stone’s throw away, and a vital life lesson is never too hard to come by. In this issue of Pepperdine Magazine, we meet both the teachers and the students of these lessons.

In our cover story, we meet the women who, through the perseverance of those who came before them, are excelling in their sports and making strides for the women who will benefit from the opportunities they were able to seize. In “A Study in Context,” we discover a group of scholars who left the comfort of Malibu to learn from the dynamic people of Uganda who taught them, from prisons and playgrounds, how to view life through unfamiliar lenses. We meet a faculty/student team that explored deeply the experiences of Native American students in Arizona and helped them tell their stories in meaningful ways through the art of documentary filmmaking. And we hear from the founders and entrepreneurs who have been the bestowers and benefactors of lessons in problem- and solution-finding so they and their teams may change the world.

As a student of varied disciplines during my 12 years at Pepperdine, I have learned countless lessons from my mentors who have shaped and challenged me in ways that have tested both my personal and professional limits. They saw my potential and pushed me to see it through the pinhole I was looking through. They cast a vision so big and so far that it took much focus and, sometimes, binoculars to see what they were imagining. It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me as a writer, as a colleague, and as a friend.

As I continue to learn and grow in my own position of leadership, I will cling to the lessons my mentors at Pepperdine have instilled in me and in our community to pursue your passions relentlessly, to advocate for one another in ways that push everyone forward, to raise your voice and champion the causes you believe in, and to never, ever stop at good enough.

GAREEN DARAKJIAN editor

Celebrating 25 Years of Preparing Policy Leaders

Twenty-five years ago, the Pepperdine School of Public Policy (SPP) began with a question: “What is public policy?” The school is built on a distinctive philosophy of preparing public leaders to use tools of analysis combined with their moral sense to affect successful implementation and real change. Through a curriculum grounded in understanding policy’s inherent philosophical and historical dimensions, along with a commitment to viewpoint diversity, SPP prepares cross-sector leaders for careers that strengthen the institutions of the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. At SPP, future policy leaders learn to emphasize the public, who they are, and how they should be considered in the creation of policy.

BE PART OF OUR FUTURE:

u Refer future public policy students (Fall 2023 application portal is now open.)

u Be part of the 25th anniversary 25 for 25 gift challenge (give $25, $250, $2,500, $25,000) to invest in the education of policy students

u Attend upcoming events with expert policy leaders, educators, and scholars

u Save the date for the School of Public Policy 25th anniversary dinner on February 11, 2023

“Because Pepperdine remains anchored in values, it can communicate itself to the region as seeking not just numbers and statistics, not just fancy formulations, but value in our public life—by which I mean both religious and philosophic value, the philosophia perennis, the perennial philosophy, and the Judeo-Christian tradition which has shaped our civilization. It is only rarely that academic discourse directly refers to these values, yet they remain implicit in what is being thought and said.”

Kevin Starr, American Historian and California’s State Librarian School of Public Policy Opening Ceremony | February 4, 1997

Adoption and Faith: Trusting God with Unresolvable Questions

By Zachary Luben Director of Graduate Student Ministries

In February of 1983, at 8 months old, I flew from Seoul, South Korea, to Los Angeles where I was given to a couple whom I call mom and dad.

I am an intercountry and transracial adoptee. Intercountry refers to being born in Korea and adopted into the US. Transracial refers to being adopted into a different race; my parents and older brother are white. I was the first but not the last child my parents would adopt. My younger sister and brother are also Korean American adoptees.

My parents’ deep Christian faith led them to consider adoption, and their church community helped support them spiritually, emotionally, and financially in my adoption. My name, Zachary, means “God remembers,” and it was given to me because my parents believed that God remembered me in Korea and remembered their desire to have a larger family. From the very beginning, God and the Christian faith have been and continue to be integral to my story. My faith has given me the strength to ask difficult questions.

My life is full of questions, and I am learning to live with the idea that many of them do not and will not have answers. I do not know much about my birth parents. I have never seen a photo

of them. I wonder who they are. If I look more like my birth mom or birth dad. If I have biological siblings. As violence against Asians increased during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself asking what it means to be Korean, American, and, particularly, a Korean American adoptee.

These are hard questions, and at times I have been afraid to ask them—or I’ve been afraid to pursue their answers. It is not uncommon for adoptees to delay searching for their birth parents in fear of hurting and disrupting their adoptive families. This was true for me in my late 20s. Asking questions about identity may lead to rejection, which is already something many adoptees feel. Perhaps the greatest fear is that pursuing these kinds of questions will not lead to resolution but more questions.

In 2021 I initiated a search for my birth mother. I wrote a letter, included some photos, and sent it off not knowing when or if I would hear anything. A couple of weeks before Christmas, my adoption agency notified me that they had found her. Sadly, she had died in 1984, and they could not tell me more beyond that. I had overcome my fear and received an answer, but it only led me to more questions. What did she die from? Where is she buried? What was her life like those two years between giving birth to me and dying?

My Christian faith has helped me learn to live with the unknown and has given me the strength to ask unresolvable questions. My identity in Christ is my foundation to explore the questions that arise from my adoption when it comes to my identity. I have often encountered people who think one’s identity in Christ trumps all other identity questions. My experience has been the opposite—my identity in Christ has freed me to explore the difficult identity questions of being an adoptee. My trust in the Good News of Jesus allows me to overcome my fear and keep asking questions. My faith in God gives me the strength to live without knowing all the answers.

“My Christian faith has given me the strength to ask unresolvable questions.”

Kelsey Knox

Kelsey Knox, archivist for Special Collections and University Archives, holds the keys to Pepperdine’s past

Archivists like Knox process archival collections, organizing them in a way that preserves the original order of the materials and arrange and describe them so that researchers can find them and understand what is in the collection. Knox also answers reference questions about Pepperdine’s archival and rare book collections, curates exhibits using the University’s materials, and teaches class sessions that give students hands-on experience with those materials.

Knox discovered archives as a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in a course called Documenting America, which introduced her to different types of archives, why they are important to preserving history, and how to pursue a career in the field. She went on to complete a master’s in library and information science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“I’m intrigued by the ways in which the past shapes our present, seeing direct results of events or movements across history and how they’ve informed how we do things today.”

Archives and special collections offer patrons the opportunity to work with rare and unique materials that often can’t be found anywhere else and provide research opportunities in very focused areas; in Pepperdine’s case, the school’s history, Malibu history, Churches of Christ and the Restoration Movement, and film and television.

“Margaret Brock’s papers were fascinating to work on because she had such a remarkable life and kept absolutely everything (an archivist’s dream)! Her collection includes dozens of letters from sitting presidents and photographs of her at early events on the Malibu campus.”

Pepperdine’s most impressive and unique pieces include 16th-century manuscripts and a collection of tiles from Malibu Potteries, a historic Malibu ceramic company owned by May Knight Rindge that played an influential role in local architecture. The archives also contain George Pepperdine’s dedicatory address from 1937 and the roommate contract drawn up by Helen Mattox (Young) (’39) and her roommates in 1938.

When handling materials, Knox ensures she is not compromising their preservation by making sure that her hands are clean, the table is big enough for the materials so nothing is hanging over edges, and books are supported, typically by a book rest.

A lover of vintage fashion, Knox is fascinated by photographs of what women were wearing in the 1950s and 1960s. “Our University archives are a treasure trove in that regard.”

“I would love the opportunity to teach a full course about archives and rare books. I know how life-changing a class like that was for me in college. I’d love to inspire the next generation of archivists.”

Forward Together

The Pepperdine community came together on September 10 for this year’s Step Forward Day to get to know their neighbors and serve in the places they call home.

CHATTER

Pepperdine friends near and far celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Malibu campus.

DANIEL HUDSON (’75)

I was in Malibu that first year and was the first elected student body president. It helped me become the person I needed to be, a good father, and a Christian.

CONNIE NEAL (’80)

Our years living on the Malibu campus—from ’76 to ’80—were some of the best of our lives. Seeing our founders and the campus as I remember it reminds me how truly blessed we were.

LUNELL GILLILAND (’76, MA ’78)

Having been there for the first year on the Malibu campus—when there were no trees yet, some of the interior wasn’t quite finished in the dorms, and there were few of the incredible buildings featured in this video—this was quite inspiring.

SOUND BITES

Explore a collection of some of the most notable moments from recent events held across the University.

“Research shows that people who take part in religious communities in the United States are better neighbors, better citizens, more generous with their time and money, and more active in community life. The key is not what you believe. It’s that you are part of a community in which you have a common moral framework.”

Jonathan Haidt, Professor of Ethical Leadership at the New York University Stern School of Business and New York Times best-selling author

EVENT: President’s Speaker Series: Free Speech and the Academy: A Conversation with Jonathan Haidt

“The ministers, the deacons, and the attendees were all prisoners; inmates’ families would come to worship and then spend time in the visiting room. It changed the culture of the whole prison. It became the safest prison in America.”

Burl Cain, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections, Former Warden of Louisiana’s Angola Prison

EVENT: Coffee with Jim: Faith-Based Prison Reform

“Everything now is about storytelling. You have to be a good storyteller if you want to be a cultural actor and create value in 2022. Those in Gen Z are expressing their own personal brands through the brands they purchase, and now the stakes are much higher in this very connected world.”

Daniel André Langer, Executive Professor of Luxury Strategy, Graziadio Business School; Chief Executive Officer, Équité

EVENT: Luxury Recalibrated: Pepperdine Disruptive Luxury Symposium

“It seems that we don’t always think of joy as a serious matter. Too often we think of joy as a bonus rather than a necessity. We think of joy as a spontaneous reaction to something good that happens naturally. But that’s not all that it is. Joy is a serious business. It is of the utmost importance for our careful consideration and application.”

Jim Gash (JD ’93), President and CEO, Pepperdine University

EVENT: Founder’s Day

An

FROM THE ARCHIVES

The nationwide Nintendo Campus Challenge came to Pepperdine in 1991, when students competed for a chance to win a variety of prizes at 112 game stations, 48 Game Boy units, and other attractions installed around campus.

Source: University Archives Photograph Collection

exhibition on “human-centered” artificial intelligence was hosted at Payson Library as part of the annual Human-Centered AI Conference held in November.

DID

Pepperdine University Mourns the Loss of Former Caruso School of Law Dean Ken Starr

Pepperdine University mourns the passing of Kenneth W. Starr, who served as the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean and professor of law of the Caruso School of Law from 2004 to 2010.

“I had the privilege of serving on the faculty and in the administration of the law school during Ken’s tenure as dean,” said president Jim Gash (JD ’93). “In that period, I witnessed firsthand Ken’s deep love for our students and his commitment to advancing Caruso Law as one of the preeminent Christian legal education programs in the US and around the globe. I am profoundly grateful for Ken’s friendship, mentorship, counseling, guidance, and encouragement through the years.”

In the six years under Starr’s leadership, Caruso Law made significant academic and reputational strides as the school began its ascent into the top tier of law schools. While serving as dean at Caruso Law, Starr devoted himself to the academic enterprise and brought his considerable legal knowledge to the classroom. He regularly taught courses in his areas of expertise, including current constitutional issues, religion and the constitution, advanced constitutional law, and appellate advocacy.

During his deanship, Starr modeled the servant leadership he hoped to inspire in future lawyers by taking on pro bono cases and volunteering at local humanitarian organizations. He was the law school’s greatest advocate and established the Dean Ken Starr Excellence Fund in order to support important initiatives. As an academic mentor and leader, Starr is warmly remembered by his former students and colleagues for taking a personal interest in their endeavors and encouraging them to pursue academic and scholarly excellence along with generosity of spirit.

In 2007 Starr oversaw the establishment of the annual William French Smith Memorial Lectures on Law and the Judiciary, a lecture series designed to bring judges, attorneys, and law professors to Caruso Law to speak on judicial issues. A gala held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum to introduce the series was attended by former attorney general Edwin Meese, former governor of California Pete Wilson, and former first lady Nancy Reagan. Starr continued to raise the visibility of the law school by inviting Supreme Court justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito, and chief justice John A. Roberts to speak at events such as the William French Smith lecture series and the annual School of Law dinner.

Prior to his deanship at Caruso Law, Starr served as solicitor general of the United States and argued 36 cases before the Supreme Court. He also served as United States circuit judge for the District of Columbia, counselor to United States attorney general William French Smith, and law clerk to chief justice Warren E. Burger and Fifth Circuit judge David W. Dyer. Starr served as independent counsel for five investigations. Following these appointments, Starr worked as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and as a visiting professor at New York University, Chapman University School of Law, George Mason School of Law, and Caruso Law. In recent years he authored a book on religious liberty and practiced appellate law at the Lanier Law Firm based in Houston.

Pepperdine Worship Summit 2022 Unites Community in Praise and Fellowship

On Saturday, September 10, 2022, Firestone Fieldhouse on the Malibu campus was filled to capacity for the 2022 Pepperdine Worship Summit, a powerful evening of worship and fellowship that brought attendees together in a shared experience to lift unified voices in praise. “As members of a Christian university community, we are blessed to be able to share precious moments together in worship and fellowship,” said president Jim Gash (JD ’93). “The Pepperdine Worship Summit united our friends, family, and colleagues in praising God and celebrating our cherished, faith-filled community.”

The event featured return appearances by Dante Bowe of Bethel Music and Maverick City Music and author and international speaker Christine Caine. Bowe’s 2021 album Circles debuted at number seven on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart in the United States and earned him nominations for New Artist of the Year, Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song of the Year, and Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year at the 2021 GMA Dove Awards. Caine is an international speaker and activist and the host of the Equip & Empower podcast.

Joining last year’s headliners were Aaron Moses of Maverick City Music and music ministry United Voice Worship. Attendees also enjoyed remarks from President Gash and dinner from local food trucks.

Deborah Crown Named Dean of the Graziadio Business School

On November 1, 2022, Deborah Crown began her tenure as the 10th dean of the Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School. David Smith, associate provost for online programs and professor of economics at the Graziadio School, served as interim dean throughout the dean search.

Since 2016 Crown served as professor of management and dean of the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College. In that role Crummer increased overall fundraising by nearly 150 percent and secured critical grant funding for the school’s Centers of Excellence. Crown’s prior administrative positions include service as dean of the College of Business and professor of strategic leadership at Hawai‘i Pacific University and associate dean of the Lucas Graduate School of Business and Lucas Endowed Professor of Strategic Leadership at San José State University. Throughout her career, Crown has been devoted to elevating academic programs and enhancing

student learning technologies for in-person, hybrid, and online programs.

Crown began her career in education as a teacher at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She has received many awards for her teaching, research, mentoring, and service, and she has been recognized for her influential leadership in the business community and for incorporating social responsibility into her teaching and research.

She earned a bachelor of science in psychology from North Central College, a master of science in business administration from the University of Colorado at Denver, and a PhD in business administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“I am excited to welcome Dr. Crown to the Pepperdine community,” said Pepperdine provost Jay Brewster. “She brings an earnest excitement for Christian higher education partnered with proven success as an academic leader.”

Photos: Matt Benton

Andrea Gyorody Named Director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art

Art historian and curator Andrea Gyorody was named the director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in August 2022. Gyorody served as interim director since October 2021, succeeding longtime director Michael R. Zakian, who passed away in January 2020.

“Andrea Gyorody is a dedicated, passionate leader committed to thought-provoking and inspiring exhibitions,” said Rebecca Carson, managing director of the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine. “The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art is in excellent hands under her thoughtful guidance.”

Gyorody brings more than a decade of expertise in 20th- and 21st-century European and American art to the Weisman Museum. As interim director, she oversaw the installation of The Cultivators: Highlights from the Kinsey African American Art and History Collection, one of the country’s most significant collections showcasing African American history. She curated the summer 2022 exhibition Gwynn Murrill: Animal Nature, which was initiated by the late Zakian and featured elegant sculptures from the breadth of Murrill’s career, and she partnered with Bridge Projects in the recent restaging of their exhibition To Bough and To Bend at the Weisman this fall. Gyorody is also overseeing the speaker series Thought Partners featuring conversations about art and religion, which began in August, and is organizing the first West Coast solo exhibition of paintings by Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson for fall 2023.

School of Public Policy Receives $10 Million Endowment to Launch the Edwin Meese III Institute for Liberty and the American Project

In May 2022 the School of Public Policy announced the founding of the Edwin Meese III Institute for Liberty and the American Project. Endowed with a $10 million gift from Pepperdine alumni Chandra (’99, JD ’02) and Adam (’99) Melton, the Meese Institute will be led by the Melton Chair, a leading scholar in American history and politics. The Melton Chair will teach, organize events, and engage the media on current political and policy debates from the school’s unique perspective.

“With its longstanding commitment to grounding public leadership education in civic virtue and America’s founding principles, the School of Public Policy is the perfect home for this new institute,” said the Meltons in a joint statement. “We all must act to protect the constitutional rights that have made America what it is today. The Meese legacy acts as a compass—a true north—for all of us.”

Meese was United States attorney general from 1985 to 1988 during president Ronald Reagan’s second term. “I’m extremely pleased to have my name adorn this new institute at Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy, which is committed to making relevant the nation’s founding principles to today’s public policy challenges,” said Meese. He served Reagan during his tenure as California governor in 1966 and traveled with him to the White House in 1981 before leaving for the Department of Justice four years later. Meese received an honorary doctorate from the School of Public Policy in 2007 and has made many trips to campus for lectures and events over the years.

Pepperdine Annual Giving Day Raises More Than $1 Million

Waves gave in record numbers at Pepperdine Gives, the University’s annual day of giving, which kicked off at midnight on Wednesday, October 19, 2022.

Nearly 3,000 gifts totaling more than $1 million were raised on one remarkable day when Waves were invited to give to a Pepperdine school, program, or passion of their choice. The community celebrated throughout the day with festivities across Pepperdine’s four campuses that featured games, giveaways, phone-a-thons, and opportunities to come together with the shared purpose of advancing University initiatives.

“I continue to be amazed at the spirit and generosity of our Pepperdine family,” said Pepperdine president Jim Gash (JD ’93). “This spirit shined brightly once again as our community rose to the challenge to propel Pepperdine and its students forward into our increasingly bright future.”

Pepperdine’s athletic programs, the Sudreau Global Justice Institute at the Caruso School of Law, the Youth Leadership Initiative, and various initiatives at Pepperdine’s five schools led the charge with total dollars raised. Beyond the community’s deep desire to give back to the place that prepared them for lives of purpose, the success of Pepperdine Gives was bolstered by impactful messaging that reinforced Pepperdine’s culture of giving, commitments from the University’s leadership boards, and a phone-a-thon that connected hundreds of student, administrator, and executive leadership volunteers with community members throughout the day.

“Our community gives because of a culture of giving that is driven by the purpose-driven mission that is cultivated and nurtured at Pepperdine,” said David Johnson (’92, MA ’94), vice chancellor of engagement and mass appeal.

“George Pepperdine didn’t just create a college that delivers a superior academic experience. He created a Christian college where its students, faculty, staff, and alumni become servant leaders in the image of Christ, and that has been the driving force behind the success of Pepperdine Gives.”

Women’s Swimming and Diving Team Wins First-Ever Conference Title

In a record-breaking meet, the Pepperdine women’s swimming and diving team claimed the first team title in program history after winning the 2022 Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference (PCSC) championships by more than 100 points. This year was the team’s 36th in the conference, having finished as a runner-up for the past three years in a row.

“We showed a lot of grit, and I couldn’t be happier to celebrate this well-deserved win,” said head coach Ellie Monobe, who was named PCSC Championships Swim Coach of the Meet for the second consecutive season. “This wouldn’t be possible without the support of our parents and staff. Everyone had a role and delivered. This is how championships are won, and it’s good to say we finally did it.”

President’s Speaker Series Welcomes Social Psychologist and Author Jonathan Haidt

On September 21, 2022, Jonathan Haidt, professor of ethical leadership at the New York University Stern School of Business and author of New York Times best-seller The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, led a discussion on the topic of free speech and the academy, the first event in this academic year’s President’s Speaker Series. Haidt, one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of morality, uses research on moral psychology to further understanding in interpersonal relationships and to help social institutions be more effective.

Haidt shared his belief that America’s universities have been struggling for the past decade with a failure to serve as venues of open-minded, civil discourse, which should be the hallmark of the academy. One of the most impactful sources of these limits to expression, he said, derived from the changes to social media in the mid-2010s, when hostile and derogatory speech of anonymous posters was shared and rewarded, incentivizing complaint and harassment, rather than the courteous exchange of ideas.

Haidt noted that in this time in which open communication in higher education has fallen out of the norm, Pepperdine’s active efforts to ensure viewpoint diversity and civil discourse on the campus were exceptional. “We get smarter,” he said, “by the opposition, by coming together in civil ways and improving each other’s thought.”

Pepperdine Begins Collaborative Investigations on the Impact of Religion on Human Flourishing at the Center for Faith and the Common Good

Pepperdine has initiated a series of collaborative research projects through the University’s Center for Faith and the Common Good, a research-focused, collaborative enterprise that encourages the scholarly investigation of faith structures that influence positive social action and improve outcomes of social and behavioral services.

Byron Johnson, Distinguished Professor of Social Sciences at Baylor University and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religious Studies and the Common Good at the School of Public Policy, will lead these initiatives guided by his expertise in the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice. The center aims to integrate key components of Johnson’s work while contributing to further studies and wider societal impact. Johnson and president Jim Gash (JD ’93), united in their shared interest in and passion for improving prison conditions and recidivism, serve as the center’s executive directors.

“Our vision for the Center for Faith and the Common Good reflects the very heart and mission of Pepperdine—to see our Christian faith bring new life to a broken world through research, scholarship, and personal engagement,” says Gash.

Cameron McCollum, director of the Caruso School of Law Sudreau Global Justice Institute, serves as the center’s administrative director, and vice provost Lee Kats leads the center as academic director. Kats has also invited Grant Duwe from the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Michael Hallett from the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of North Florida, and Andrew Johnson from the School of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, to serve as research partners in an effort to better inform the institute’s work in the area of faith-related questions and their intersection with the fields of psychology, social and behavioral services, and prison reform.

Pepperdine University Unveils New Dining and Catering Experiences through Bon Appétit Management Company

On August 1, 2022, Bon Appétit Management Company began its service as the University’s new dining services provider. The restaurant company succeeded Sodexo, a Pepperdine partner that has provided exceptional hospitality services to the University for more than four decades.

The new campus dining and catering experiences are focused on Bon Appétit’s foundational values—cooking from scratch using locally produced, seasonal ingredients; an innovative approach to menu development and a dedication to using whole foods as the foundation of a healthful diet; diverse menu offerings that accommodate a variety of dining restrictions and allergen concerns; and a commitment to sustainability and responsible food sourcing whenever possible.

“Pepperdine’s best partners have historically been those who share in our pursuit of excellence through a values-driven approach to work and community,” said Pepperdine vice president and chief business officer Nicolle Taylor (’98, JD ’02). “Bon Appétit is just that kind of partner, and I couldn’t be more excited for the delicious food, commitment to integrity, and exceptional customer service it will bring to our shared life together at Pepperdine.”

Farzin Madjidi (MBA ’88, EdD ’91) Appointed Interim Dean of Graduate School of Education and Psychology

Upon the conclusion of Helen Easterling Williams’ eight years as dean of the Pepperdine Graduate School of Education and Psychology on July 31, 2022, associate dean of education and professor of leadership Farzin Madjidi assumed the role of interim dean. He will serve in the interim position while a national search for Williams’ successor is conducted. Madjidi has served at GSEP as an educator and as a scholar in the areas of management, leadership structure in educational organizations, and technology in teaching practice.

“Dr. Madjidi is an exceptional scholar in the GSEP community who has displayed strong leadership skills, a heart for our students, and strong support for the Christian mission of Pepperdine,” said provost Jay Brewster. “I look forward to working closely with him in this transitional season.”

Madjidi earned a master of business administration in management from the Graziadio Business School and served on the business school’s faculty for three years in the mid-1990s. He also earned a doctor of education in institutional management from GSEP and began his tenure as a GSEP faculty member in 1997. Madjidi holds a bachelor of science in engineering and a master of science in structural engineering and applied dynamics from California State University, Northridge.

Jonathan Winder (’08) Named Men’s Volleyball Head Coach

Jonathan Winder, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion and former national player of the year as a student-athlete at Pepperdine, began his tenure as the ninth head coach of Pepperdine men’s volleyball in June 2022. Winder previously served as volleyball head coach at California State University, Fresno, and as an assistant coach and head coach at the University of Washington.

“Jonathan is one of the best and most decorated student-athletes ever in our program,” said Steve Potts (JD ’82), Pepperdine’s director of athletics. “We are very excited about his return to lead our team as the head coach. He so completely embodies the commitment to our institution’s Christian faith, to the academic success of our student-athletes, and to maintaining our championship-caliber men’s volleyball program at the highest level.”

As a Wave, Winder was a four-time All-American, a 2005 NCAA champion, and the 2007 AVCA National Player of the Year. Following several years as a professional player, Winder returned to Malibu as an assistant to head coach Marv Dunphy in 2014. He left Pepperdine the following year to accept the position at the University of Washington.

Pepperdine Honors Professor Stephen Davis with Endowment for Undergraduate Research

In honor of the retirement of Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biology Stephen D. Davis in May, the University established the Stephen D. Davis Endowment for Undergraduate Research, which has raised more than $166,000 to date.

Reflecting on Davis’ service to the Pepperdine community and his commitment to empowering students in the field, provost Jay Brewster said, “Steve’s legacy is a legacy of love, of care, and of spirit that will carry on for many years with this endowment.”

For 46 years Davis served as a highly regarded faculty member and mentor at Pepperdine. He is best known for his work in Pepperdine’s backyard as one of the most prolific researchers of chaparral, the native vegetation of the Santa Monica Mountains surrounding the Malibu campus. He also studied the impact of climate change on increased fire frequency and on the fire-resilient and adaptive chaparral. Davis and his wife, Janet, a former professor and longtime staff member at Seaver College, regularly invited students to their home, providing encouragement and friendship in students’ spiritual and personal growth.

TECH CITY and the

Pepperdine experts offer their thoughts on how technology can— and can’t—improve the urban experience

BY AMANDA PISANI

As we increasingly rely on technology to manage so much of our daily lives, it’s easier than ever to imagine our hometown as a smart e-topia . The smart city movement—a metropolis’s efforts to improve operational efficiency, share information, and achieve strategic outcomes through information and communication technology— is in full swing. It touches upon every aspect of urban living , including healthcare, education, entertainment, recreation, industry, jobs, climate, transit, housing, and open space, to name a few.

Jonathan Reichental, author of Smart Cities for Dummies and adjunct faculty member and designer of the Leading Smart Communities program at the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Leadership, notes that every city has its own culture and priorities. Thus, the efforts of one city may not be appropriate for another. Common threads, however, are fast and reliable internet service and effective telecommunications at the municipal level.

“What’s important to São Paulo, Brazil, is different from what’s important to Melbourne, Australia,” he says.

“Probably the most important aspect of building a smart city for every community in the world is connectivity— ensuring that everybody can have access to goodquality internet.”

As the chief information officer for the City of Palo Alto from 2011 to 2018, Reichental elevated the city’s technological services to a new level. He oversaw more than 250 technology projects, implementing a website that allowed citizens to file complaints, creating an open database displaying city finances and building permits, and establishing free WiFi at all public facilities. During his tenure, Palo Alto was heralded as one of the country’s top five digital cities for four consecutive years.

The need for the strong digital infrastructure and reliable internet service that Reichental fulfilled became all the more crucial during the pandemic as cities’ internet deserts became an apparent inequity earning the attention of service providers and city leaders.

“No one realized how important being connected was to getting an education and to accessing healthcare,” Reichental says.

For example, the City of Los Angeles partnered with a public benefit foundation, a nonprofit organization, and the Los Angeles Unified School District to ensure that city residents could locate affordable internet service and access computers.

Activists seeking to enhance internet access citywide in Cleveland, Ohio, obtained city funding for community internet projects. The local government in Austin, Texas, furthered its work of providing internet access to those living in low-income areas.

The pandemic also gave rise to a significant upgrade to the digital environment in Henderson, Nevada. Leading a community made up largely of seniors, Joseph Chidiac (MPP ’19), Henderson’s long-range planner for community development, and his colleagues were particularly wary of moving away from analog interactions. Online services have refined much of the city’s transactions, but city employees do not insist that citizens use online tools.

“That’s a catch-22 for us,” Chidiac says, “as many in our community aren’t as knowledgeable or proficient in certain technologies. They have the option of doing things on paper if that is more comfortable for them.”

If they want, however, residents seeking to build an addition to their home can file their request online and obtain approval for it much more rapidly. A new portal to the city’s updated development code allows developers and other individuals to quickly identify all the specifications for a particular building project, such as how many parking spaces they need to provide for their commercial enterprise. The upgrades have made a marked difference in how residents interact with and feel about their local government.

“We’ve had nothing but positive comments about the changes we’ve made,” says Chidiac. “They’re very user friendly, and you can quickly search almost anything.”

This type of good customer service goes far in creating brand loyalty for businesses but also works for local governments, notes Charla Griffy-Brown, Graziadio’s senior associate dean of executive and part-time programs and professor of information systems technology management.

“Thinking through digital processes in terms of ‘customer’ engagement is what we like to experience as citizens,” she says.

Thinking through digital processes in terms of “customer” engagement is what we like to experience as citizens.

CHARLA GRIFFY-BROWN

Joseph Chidiac (MPP ’19)

Fast and reliable connectivity doesn’t just benefit a metropolis’s transactions. Reichental relates that Chattanooga, Tennessee, had found itself a city adrift. At one time a manufacturing hub, the city’s economy floundered with the loss of factories and jobs. Partnering with the local city-owned utility, the city invested in the expansion of its network to offer the fastest internet service in the country in 2010. As the only utility in the area, the provider serves every home and business in Chattanooga, and a few years ago, it had created America’s most comprehensive fiber network. Along with a low cost of living compared with other US cities, the high-speed internet has attracted new industry, new tech companies, and conferences and conventions.

“Over the past decade, people have started moving to Chattanooga for the quality of life and the new career opportunities,” says Reichental. “Chattanooga demonstrates the relationship between very fast, low-cost internet and economic advancement. It has been a game changer.”

Connectivity is also critically important to people experiencing homelessness, advises GriffyBrown, who has worked with the unhoused community in Seattle, Washington. With a charged cell phone and access to WiFi, a person who is homeless is better able to locate essential services such as the address and hours of food banks and shelters. They can find local transit routes and stops, which makes it possible to get to healthcare clinics and libraries, the latter of which provides them with computers to assist in job hunting, completing forms for government services, and the like.

“The information and internet access public libraries provide are a huge part of the life of a homeless person who’s really trying to escape homelessness,” notes Griffy-Brown, “But you’re not going to solve homelessness with digital architecture.”

Americans generally agree that homelessness is an urgent problem, and Reichental cites the creation of innovation districts in some US cities as efforts to mitigate it through revitalization. Often developed in areas that were once the home of industry, innovation districts seek to attract new businesses, startups, universities, and hotels, thereby creating new economic opportunities.

He points to the dramatic efforts initiated in Aurora, Illinois, where the city’s chief information officer decided to turn the entirety of the city into an innovation district. The project includes expansion of the city’s fiber network, which has attracted skillful business partners and, perhaps most importantly, the trust and support of the entire city government.

“Aurora is a great example of a smart American city that is working to bring more prosperity to more people and reduce homelessness,” Reichental says.

Cities around the world report record numbers of unhoused residents, and some urban areas outside the US have taken the dramatic steps needed to alleviate it. An uplifting example Reichental offered was the prioritization of eliminating homelessness in Helsinki, Finland. Beginning in 2008, the government adopted a “housing first” policy, which, rather than providing short-term shelter for people experiencing homelessness, placed them in permanent housing. The government provides housing by supporting an NGO that buys and builds it and hires social workers to assist the residents with financial and other issues. In Helsinki, the number of unhoused individuals dropped substantially. What we seem to find an unsolvable problem is actually solvable. “The city took an all-hands-on-deck approach,” Reichental points out. “Leadership made it a priority.”

As noted earlier, what is most important to each city will differ, and solutions to a given concern will vary from one city to the next. Fast, convenient, and sustainable transportation is a need that most of today’s cities share. In Henderson, Chidiac and his office are using GIS technology to locate areas where transportation services are lacking. The specificity of the data is invaluable.

“It’s useful in addressing both particular issues and in making broader policy changes,” he says.

Many readers of this magazine will know that the journey from one place to the next in Los Angeles falls outside its “great place to live” factors. Los Angeles actually takes fifth place in the worst traffic competition in the US, and the occasional added lane on the freeway seems unlikely to move the city into the sixth-place slot.

“Over the last 100 years, we have built our cities for cars with parking lots with thousands of spaces,” says Reichental. But today’s smart city is reevaluating the value of the auto to both the individual and the larger community. As of January 1, 2023, developers in California cities no longer have to provide a minimum number of parking spaces for residential buildings situated within one-half mile of public transit. The law was designed to encourage increases in housing, but it speaks to a broader rethinking of cars as the primary form of transportation.

One rather low-tech answer to the traffic problem being adopted by many smart cities—New York City, San Francisco, even Riyadh—is the bicycle. While many Europeans have been cycling their way around town for the past century, Paris, France, was an outlier. Reichental relates that Paris’ residents expressed little interest; queries from the government were met with “It just isn’t Parisian.”

But the city leaders gave it a try, launching a pilot project in 2007 by placing a number of trackable bicycles around the city. The response was overwhelming. Now Vélib’, the Parisian bike-share program, offers 20,000 bicycles, both manual and electric, to its 400,000 subscribers. Using the company’s app, you can find station locations and how many bikes are available at each. “Every photo of Paris today shows people cycling,” says Reichental. “People are outdoors, it’s healthy for the person cycling, it diminishes carbon emissions, and it creates community,” he adds.

Reichental predicts that transportation in the city of tomorrow will be very unlike it is today. Contemporary city planners are focused on strengthening public transit, building bicycle lanes, and making cities walkable—closing some areas to cars altogether. Electric, self-driving cars will have a great impact on traffic congestion, noise pollution, and urban air quality. And they’ll remove a significant volume of the gas emissions responsible for climate change. He’s eager for this shift in the way we design our urban areas. “I see a future city that is less about cars and more about people,” he says.

As our metropolitan areas evolve and technology matures, what goes into our vision of an e-topia will undoubtedly shift. In venturing forward wisely, we should surely follow Griffy-Brown’s advice to think about the larger, long-term consequences of urban living technology, particularly in terms of data collection and use. “We should be proactive,” she says, “in terms of thinking—not just about how we do things, but why we do things and about how we help all members of a community while preserving their privacy and dignity.”

Managing the small city that is Pepperdine’s Malibu campus includes providing housing, power, water, transit, and waste treatment services to its 2,800 residents and regular visitors. Much of campus planning is the brainchild of, and is overseen by, the University’s Planning, Operations, and Construction (POC) office led by its associate vice president, Ben Veenendaal (’02). The POC team is constantly searching for ways to make daily life as safe and comfortable as possible for everyone on campus, and with that end in mind, it has implemented some very smart technology.

For example, Veenendaal and his office have installed and operate a state-of-theart energy management system that allows them to remotely monitor and control the temperature inside every building on campus. The system is finely tuned, permitting the team to regulate the largest air conditioning and heating units down to their smallest component, a variable air volume system. It is both precise and financially sound. “We can set every single thermostat,” says Veenendaal. “By doing so, we can not only maximize our efficiency, but also maximize comfort for each of the occupants.” When buildings are unoccupied, POC can remotely shut down the system—a particularly useful ability that proved to be a cost-effective tool during the pandemic.

An added layer to the energy management system will be its connection to the 25Live Pro space reservation system. When the integration of the two systems is complete, POC will be able to provide precise temperature control for a particular space when it is in use. For example, a conference room reservation is automatically communicated to the energy system, which will respond by bringing the room to a comfortable temperature at the time the meeting begins and will return it to the correct energy-efficient midpoint after it ends. “The automation of the energy use is a great way to conserve power and is leaps and bounds above controlling it manually,” says Veenendaal.

Yet another layer of the smart technologies employed on the Malibu campus is an ultramodern access-control network. It interfaces with the currently used dual-authentication program, whereby a community member’s ID card and four-digit code provide them with building or room access. With this network, a POC manager or Department of Public Safety staff member is enabled to remotely lock or open any space on campus—a high-tech, immediate safety measure. Additionally, the access-control network provides data that helps POC optimize use of the limited space in Malibu.

Veenendaal stresses that he and his team are always monitoring industry breakthroughs and evaluating them for their sustainability and feasibility. It’s important that any new innovation employed is sound and a good fit for the campus. “We don’t want to just jump into new technology before it is proven,” Veenendaal says, “and we then want to incorporate it in a seamless way.” The office’s professional goal is to always improve the buildings and infrastructure in ways that go unnoticed. But layered over that goal is a desire to simply make the campus more user friendly. Veenendaal emphasized that this is made possible through the leadership of University administration and the dedication of the entire team across POC. “For all of us,” he concludes, “the student experience—and that of the entire community—is at the heart of all the decisions that we make.”

BY GAREEN DARAKJIAN

ALBERT EINSTEIN FAMOUSLY QUIPPED, “IF I HAD AN HOUR TO SOLVE A PROBLEM, I’D SPEND 55 MINUTES THINKING ABOUT THE

PROBLEM AND FIVE MINUTES THINKING ABOUT SOLUTIONS.”

As humans of typical intellectual ability, our natural instincts for solution finding are a bit different and much harder to quiet. Whether at work, home, or play, our brains are wired to constantly seek easy, convenient, and accessible explanations for our everyday quandaries both big

and small. But while we generally focus on problem solving, we are significantly less adept at problem finding—a skill that founders, who are seemingly born with an above-average capacity for identifying inconsistencies and inefficiencies across industries, have apparently mastered.

Across industries, founders are innovating in extraordinary ways simply by asking, “What’s the problem?”

Larry Cox, associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Graziadio Business School and lead faculty of Graziadio’s entrepreneurship programs, distills the delicate dance of reframing our thinking down to a practice rooted in a person’s commitment to curiosity.

“Curiosity is about recognizing your interest in something and then making a commitment to explore it to the fullest extent possible,” Cox says. “Curiosity is volitional. It’s an act of the will.”

A professor of entrepreneurship for more than 30 years, Cox has been developing future founders by teaching them how to find a gap in the market—essentially, how to find a problem to solve in the world around them. He believes, with proven results, that thinking problem-first and guiding aspiring entrepreneurs through mindful creative solution-finding processes reaps the most rewards both personally and professionally.

Now in its 12th year of programming, the entrepreneurship program is ranked number seven in the country by Bloomberg—due in no small part to Cox’s own discovery of a problem that was keeping him from imparting the tools he knew would benefit his students on their own professional paths. As he refined the process of becoming an entrepreneur and homed in on the critical steps required to launch a product or service, the results spoke—and continue to speak— for themselves.

“If you could hear the ideas that are pitched in my class each term, you’d be amazed,” he says. “Students always comment on the variety and uniqueness of the ideas their peers come up with. If you look at the businesses started by Graziadio students, you’ll see that they are novel, compelling, and life changing, all because our students know how to use curiosity to unlock their creativity.”

Cox remembers former students Michael Lucarelli (MBA ’16) and Paul Sirisuphang (MBA ’16), the founders of RentSpree, who discovered inefficiencies in the apartment-finding process on both the renters’ and real estate agents’ sides and developed and pitched their idea for the online rental application and tenant screening platform in Cox’s entrepreneurship class. They just closed a $17 million Series B round this summer and employ more than 150 employees.

Or Fouzia Babar (MBA ’17), who helped launch a technology company that develops life-saving solutions designed to allow individuals to immediately respond to sudden cardiac arrest emergencies. As head of finance, Babar just helped Avive Solutions close a $22 million Series A round,

and Avive’s product is scheduled to launch this fall. Or Jerry Lee (MBA ’12), founder of Project Wonder and a self-described art entrepreneur, who will tell you he uses what he learned in his entrepreneurship class every day as he trains other artists to think beyond creating and channel their talents into a business that makes large-format art installations at major events and festivals.

“That’s the essence of the Graziadio entrepreneurship program,” says Cox. “That’s what we aspire to do. To have students use what they have learned in our classes not only for themselves

commitment to curiosity is tremendously productive and necessary for the kind of innovation founders seek in their businesses.

“Innovation and entrepreneurship are just subsets of creativity,” he says. “Creativity generates things that are novel and useful. Innovation produces improvements that are novel and have market value.

Entrepreneurship develops concepts that are novel and foster new businesses. In sum, you can’t get entrepreneurship or innovation without creativity. So, when we teach people how to unleash their creativity—this muscle that has been dormant—they’re much more likely to launch a new venture.”

Cox admits, however, that he got the formula wrong in his early years at the head of the classroom. His focus, he says, was misguided.

“My transition to this new approach for teaching entrepreneurship occurred when I noticed that every venture capitalist I knew was bemoaning a lack of deal flow,” he explains. “It dawned on me that in order to create deal flow for these downstream investors, some needed to focus on the very beginning of the startup process. I had always thought that the beginning was the creation of a business plan. But as it turns out, the business plan is step six.”

The series of steps Cox mentions refers to the eight phases he says are common to every entrepreneur’s journey. These steps sequence a founder’s linear problemsolving process from finding a problem, to discovering the circumstances of the problem, to launching the business or service that will help solve that problem. Between the problem and the solution are six other steps that encourage entrepreneurs to reframe the problem; develop a variety of solutions by thinking through different processes to solve the problem; identify the good ideas and the bad; create a model or plan that outlines how the idea works as a business; gain support and resources through funding, personal contributions, or technology; and, finally, take action.

but for others. It’s remarkable. I could not have taught Jerry about doing art installations, for example. He embraced the creative problem-solving process and said ‘This is where I’m going to apply it.’ Entrepreneurship is a discipline that helps people use creative skills to build incredible new businesses—from scratch.”

Cox maintains that creativity is not a lightning strike, but a process that uses tools, principles, and skills that can be taught. He shares that the trick is not to become more creative but to lean into a process that uses curiosity to uncover and understand compelling problems. Cox says this type of

“It was a big revelation for me when I discovered this creative problem-solving methodology for the first time,” he says. “Once I incorporated it into my teaching, everything changed. Suddenly we were launching businesses.”

CURIOSITY is volitional. It’s an act of the WILL .

LARRY COX

Like many founders, Gajaba Hewamadduma (MBA ’04) discovered a problem in the corporate world that ignited in him a desire to create greater efficiency for companies on their way to becoming midsize. An accountant by trade with an education in software engineering supplemented with a deep interest in business management, in 2015 he became curious about companies that were advancing to the next step in their business and finding themselves still operating on smallscale accounting processes as they scaled up.

“When that happens, these companies realize they have to spend a whole lot of money to set up the proper systems and processes, often overnight, while at the same time cleaning up the processes they were operating with for a long time,” he says. “They receive life-changing funding, and all of sudden they have a different set of needs.”

Hewamadduma is the founder and CEO of CFOPlans, a company that provides the third-party operational accounting, CFO services, finance tools, and HR payroll services needed to manage back-office tasks and roles. He advises small business owners that CFOPlans’ services guarantee that their company’s accounting will be managed seamlessly from the day they launch until the moment they go public with a customized team of accountants organized to address their particular needs. While many companies seek third-party accounting services for temporary assistance such as tax services or external audits or consulting assignments,

Hewamadduma discovered that no one was doing full-scale operational accounting for back offices at the time.

“We had some convincing to do with potential clientele,” he recalls. “Most companies don’t know what they don’t know or what they need and don’t need. They don’t always know the differences between what an accountant does and what a CFO does, so they immediately think about hiring a CFO. We tell them they don’t actually need one. They know everything about their specific product, but when people start a business, they shouldn’t focus on the back-office operations. They should focus on their growth and their product.”

Subscription services for businesses such as CFOPlans, Hewamadduma shares, are becoming the norm in various industries. “It’s the future,” he says. “Paying by the hour is abstract and creates a lot of unknowns for our clients. With CFOPlans, they know they are getting a customized package for a set price with a suite of services designed exactly for their needs.”

Hewamadduma, as it turns out, is a founder who developed a way to help other founders become successful by avoiding the common pitfalls of startup enterprises. As he was building his own business, he discovered that focusing on building back-end services such as legal, marketing, accounting, and IT often takes attention away from bringing a product to market.

“Not knowing what we didn’t know was very unsettling,” he admits. “Once you go through the steps, you realize where you made mistakes and where you were successful. But if we can help companies minimize mistakes in their early days, it would help them save money and speed up the product development process. It’s very fun for me to see these businesses grow and become successful. It’s fulfilling to know we are part of their journey.”

Problem finding—and solving—is a family affair for Hewamadduma, whose wife, Sue Weerasinghe (MBA ’04), founded her own entrepreneurial venture that serves the operational needs of small to midsize businesses. It was a risky endeavor. Weerasinghe left a successful and secure corporate job managing a team of up to 50 employees as the chief accounting officer and co-chief operating officer for a leading real estate investment trust company. After witnessing her husband take a risk and find success as a founder, Weerasinghe was inspired by the idea of building something from the ground up for a different community of business owners, this time in healthcare.

Invoisync, which launched in 2020 in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is structured similarly to CFOPlans and provides back-office solutions for medical offices such as billing, revenue cycle management, collections, and accounting services, including payroll.

“We know that doctors are best at doing what they do, which is patient care,” Weerasinghe says. “If they have to worry about managing their back office and being up-to-date on billing, their quality of care diminishes. Our vision was to free them of that administrative burden and at the same time help them secure their financial future.”

However, the vision that launched in 2020 was blurred by the massive shakeups experienced by the medical community due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Anybody would think that a pandemic would be a good thing for the medical industry,” Weerasinghe says. “But a lot of doctors’ offices

Gajaba Hewamadduma (MBA ’04) (top), Sue Weerasinghe (MBA ’04) (bottom)

closed. Many doctors we worked with got sick. Some of our providers and their staff passed away. It was a very chaotic situation.”

While Invoisync had a physical office space, staff could not start working on site due to mandatory closures. The circumstances were ripe for another pivot, and Weerasinghe once again considered deeply the greatest problems facing the healthcare field. She determined the areas with the most pressing need: urgent care and medical testing and research facilities that were working on the front lines of the pandemic.

“These places were functioning at high rates despite COVID,” she says. “But while we were able to provide support in critical ways for their businesses to continue functioning during a time of crisis, it took a herculean effort to find those businesses and retain them in the chaos. We were motivated by knowing we were helping the situation somewhat by providing our services.”

The pandemic also created challenges that made launching a business difficult. Marketing efforts such as pitch meetings or trade show and panel appearances were limited by local mandates. Weerasinghe and her team relied on online marketing efforts and word-of-mouth recommendations to get the business off the ground. Despite the challenges, Invoisync grew beyond expectations and continues to thrive due to Weerasinghe’s sharp problem-finding and diligent problem-solving instincts. She maintains that the founder’s mentality can be cultivated regardless of a person’s position at an organization and encourages Invoisync staff at all levels to think like an entrepreneur even while working for somebody else.

“Entering the workforce with an employee mindset is a hindrance to personal and professional growth,” she says. “Think as if you own these accounts you’re handling. Look for ways to make the business more profitable. Think of how you can add value to an organization. Find the problems and explore the solutions.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles to a college track star father and ballet dancer mother, Trae Smith (MBA ’20) was destined to become an athlete. A quarterback at Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley, Smith was a standout player who earned a walk-on spot on the University of California, Los Angeles, football team after transferring in 2016 from Santa Monica College. But he quickly realized his experience as a college student-athlete would differ significantly from his high school glory days on the field.

“I wasn’t getting the treatment I was used to, but I was still grateful to be surrounded by premier athletes,” Smith recalls. “That part of my career was different for me, but it helped me cultivate and maintain my competitive nature.”

Though Smith didn’t explore a career as a professional athlete after college, he pursued an MBA at the Graziadio School and was enjoying a career in wealth management when he found himself at a commercial shoot for Therabody, the manufacturer of a popular percussive muscular therapy device. Of the five football players on set, Anthony Arnou, a quarterback from California State University, Fresno, approached Smith about the NCAA’s latest ruling that allowed college athletes to enter into

Trae Smith (MBA

’20)

We have to make sure they interview well and are charismatic, but it’s also important to me to sign GOOD PEOPLE WHO CARE about their families and their communities. These are the qualities the NFL looks for BEYOND PHYSICAL SKILL

.

TRAE SMITH (MBA ’20)

endorsement deals pertaining to their name, image, and likeness. After spending three 12-hour days on set, they developed a rapport, and a few months later, Smith agreed to represent Arnou as he transitioned to the National Football League. Less than one year later, Smith’s PowerHaus Agency has signed nearly 40 athletes—including their first professional tennis player, Dennis Novikov, and first National Football League athlete, De’Anthony Thomas—and employs seven staff members, including an NFLPA-certified agent.

“The problem I’ve seen is that a lot of agencies are similar to universities,” Smith says. “They’re going to call you while you’re putting fans in the stands. But as soon as you hang up your cleats, you’re left hanging. Having played the sport, I understand what the players go through. My experience helps me evaluate talent and determine which players should be signed. I can look at statistics and film footage and really gauge whether we should sign an athlete. But I can also relate to the athletes in a lot of subtle ways.”

Beyond statistics, Smith is passionate about signing athletes of superior character with strong communication skills and the ability to represent themselves and their team with integrity. He favors athletes who give back to their community at both the collegiate and professional levels and can leverage their professional status, income, and celebrity to create foundations that benefit local youth.

“Part of the responsibility of the agency is securing marketing and endorsement opportunities,” says Smith. “We have to make sure the athletes interview well and are charismatic, but it’s also important to me to sign good people who care about their families and their communities. These are the qualities the NFL looks for beyond physical skill and talent.”

Smith’s founding vision was to support young men while they are thriving in their professional careers while ensuring they are set up for success on and off the field for years to come. He shares that 72 percent of retired NFL athletes face financial difficulty due to their early retirement age. Smith’s knowledge of, experience in, and enthusiasm for wealth management has played an integral part in PowerHaus’ plan for its athletes to make diversified investments and strategic financial moves to develop their portfolios.

“When an athlete retires at 27 years old and is not making an income until they are 65, it makes sense that they would lose a significant amount of their earnings,” Smith says. “While athletes are making a substantially high income during their careers, they should be investing and creating businesses that generate income for them year to year so they don’t have to be

part of that 72 percent. Our goal is to build them up as athletes and entrepreneurs as well as valued members of their community.”

Smith relates that close attention and genuine care for student-athletes during their Division I days is critical to their success following graduation. “Many college athletes don’t know where to begin after college,” he says. “That’s where our agency comes in—to connect the players to different fields outside of sports. We can try to get you to the NFL, but if that doesn’t work out, you can still connect to other worlds such as sports management, coaching, business, or law.”

One of PowerHaus’ quarterbacks—a biochemistry major—will graduate college with a 4.2 grade point average. If football doesn’t pan out, PowerHaus will set him up to pursue his alternate goal of going to medical school.

development by providing pathways for startup funding and inspiring entrepreneurial spirit across the nation. Each year, more than 4,000 companies across all 50 states apply for the program, which is supported by the Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship. Winners have raised more than $125 million since the program’s launch.

“We’re not a pitch competition,” says Craig Everett, executive director of Most Fundable Companies and assistant professor of finance at the Graziadio School. “Even though we pick fewer than 20 winners, our primary purpose is educational to all participating entrepreneurs— the benefits are not just for the winners.”

Not limited to Pepperdine student and alumni startups, Most Fundable Companies provides objective feedback on how a business will be viewed by potential investors beyond the introductory pitch and aims to help founders think about how to structure their business and position their service or product so that they are seen as a worthy investment.

“Our proprietary methodology focuses downstream on the diligence process of angel and VC investors,” Everett continues. “Whether they make the list or not, every company that goes through our Most Fundable Companies process receives free feedback. Our goal is to help all startups who participate to be better prepared to receive funding.”

CRAIG EVERETT

“A lot of kids who come from lower-income backgrounds think they can only make it if they become professional athletes,” Smith says. “But PowerHaus exposes them to other industries and other avenues for success. Our relationship doesn’t only end with football.”

As a platinum sponsor of Most Fundable Companies, Hewamadduma prizes the mentorship and guidance offered by the opportunity and incorporates it into his own entrepreneurial ventures on a daily basis. He shares that laying the foundation of CFOPlans was a two-year process, no doubt due to his commitment to personally training talent to understand deeply the company’s systems, strategies, and mission—essentially coaching them to think like a founder. He says building a collaborative learning culture that prioritizes relationships and customer service is paramount to the success of any business owner and entrepreneur.

He also ensures that the talent on his teams remains marketable because he hopes they will eventually take what they’ve learned from his experiences and leadership and start their own businesses.

Beyond training students to think problemfirst in the classroom, the Graziadio Business School is also committed to helping founders bridge gaps in their pursuit of securing funding for their startup businesses. Since 2018 the Graziadio School has invited US-based startups with less than $10 million dollars in annual revenue to compete for a space on the Most Fundable Companies List. Now in its fifth year, the program promotes startup business

“I tell them, ‘At some point, you may take over this company,’” he says. “If you have thoughts and ideas about your own entrepreneurial journey, bring them up. We will help you. You don’t have to be an employee for the rest of your life. Every leader in the company encourages their staff to be more qualified and more marketable so they may pursue their own thing. I tell them, ‘Your job is to do that, and my job is to try and keep you.’”

Whether they make the list or not, EVERY COMPANY that goes through our Most Fundable Companies process receives FREE FEEDBACK. Our goal is to HELP ALL STARTUPS who participate to be better PREPARED to receive funding.”

Leverage Your Legacy Care for Your Family Make Your Voice Heard Minimize Taxes Maximize Your Impact

Pepperdine Planned Giving is composed of estate planning attorneys and financial and tax planning experts who are Pepperdine alumni and part of your Pepperdine family. Discover the benefits of working with a team dedicated to supporting your long-term financial goals and accomplishing your charitable vision.

PLANNED GIVING

Explore the resources designed for your needs related to capital gains taxes, building income ahead of retirement, estate distribution plans, making a lasting impact after you’re gone, and more.

PEPNET PROFESSIONAL NETWORK

Are you an attorney, financial planner, tax adviser, or CPA? Join the PEPNET professional network to connect with fellow Waves in your field.

PEPPERDINE HERITAGE SOCIETY

Have you already given Pepperdine a gift in your will, trust, or other charitable planning tool? The Pepperdine Heritage Society recognizes the generosity of our legacy givers with gifts, events, and other fun communication.

Contact Pepperdine Planned Giving for a consultation or to join one of our communities. susan.christopher@pepperdine.edu | 310.506.4003

PageTURNERS

While students explored the fascinating and foundational books that were assigned to them this fall, PEPPERDINE FACULTY MEMBERS enriched their minds and expanded their knowledge in various disciplines outside the classroom. From self-improvement to historical nonfiction, find out what the University’s faculty members at all five schools were poring over beyond their office hours.

– KWANGJIN LEE

KWANGJIN LEE

Assistant Professor of Accounting GRAZIADIO BUSINESS SCHOOL

Grow the Pie

By Alex Edmans

As a Christian business faculty member, finding practical and feasible ways to earn a profit and serve a purpose at the same time has been my personal, decade-long aspiration. During a conversation with one of my colleagues, Woo-Jong Lee at Seoul National University, this book was recommended to me to learn about how purpose-driven businesses are consistently more successful in the long term.

Grow the Pie shows that earning profits or serving purposes is not an either-or choice and provides an actionable roadmap for company leaders to put purpose into practice. This book also highlights the crucial role that citizens can play as employees, customers, and investors in reshaping business to improve our world.

As educating and developing Best for the World Leaders is the vision of the Graziadio Business School, reading this book would inspire our students to be moral and compassionate leaders at the top of their fields, encouraging them to be cognizant of the impact their business decisions hold on their local and global communities.

STEWART DAVENPORT

Professor of American History SEAVER COLLEGE

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

By Eric Foner

The central message of The Fiery Trial, a Pulitzer Prize–winning book by one of America’s foremost historians, is that people do and can change as they confront seemingly intractable social problems. By reading this book I was hoping to better understand exactly what the subtitle advertises: what Lincoln, throughout his life and presidency, thought about the institution of American slavery and how those thoughts changed over time. Lincoln was always opposed to slavery, but he had to change—and move beyond some of his own racism—to develop into the heroic figure we revere. This book tells that story beautifully (and accurately), offering readers a model about how they, too, can change and move beyond some of their own limitations when it comes to understanding the pain that systemic racism has inflicted on people of color in America. I definitely understand Lincoln better: his limitations, his failings, and his strengths. I know his flaws better now and still revere him for his accomplishments and character.

RICHARD CUPP (’83)

John W. Wade Professor of Law CARUSO SCHOOL OF LAW

Cognitive Disability and Its Challenge to Moral Philosophy

By Eva Feder Kittay and Licia Carlson

In this collection of essays, I was particularly focused on the book’s chapters addressing justice and the personhood status of humans with severe intellectual disabilities. In addition to being a prominent academic philosopher, Eva Feder Kittay is also the mother of, in her words, “a severely cognitively impaired child.” In the book chapter she authored, Kittay makes herself quite vulnerable by combining her scholarly analysis with reflections about her experiences and emotions regarding her child and arguments related to the personhood status of humans like her child.

Some prominent philosophers have questioned whether it is just to recognize personhood in humans with severe intellectual disabilities while denying personhood to highly intelligent animals. Academic philosophy is often far removed from the necessarily pragmatic nature of our legal system. Reading this book is helping me as a legal scholar to contemplate academic philosophy’s potential contributions and limitations regarding the question of how courts should address legal personhood’s parameters.

Reading this book would INSPIRE OUR STUDENTS to be moral and compassionate leaders at the top of their fields.

JAVIER MONZÓN Associate Professor of Biology SEAVER COLLEGE

Good Enough Parenting: A Christian Perspective on Meeting Core Emotional Needs and Avoiding Exasperation

By John Philip Louis and Karen McDonald Louis

I started reading Good Enough Parenting when it first came out in 2012 and my daughter was 2 years old. I remember enjoying it but didn’t get past the first few chapters before getting distracted. Now my daughter is almost 12 years old, and I need a good, scripture- and evidence-based book to prepare for the challenges of parenting an adolescent.

The book’s central message is that all children have “four plus one” core emotional needs: connection and acceptance, healthy autonomy and performance, reasonable limits, realistic expectations, and spiritual values and community. When those core needs are not met, children feel exasperated and are likely to develop “lifetraps,” which are negative patterns of thinking and behaving that distort the ways children view themselves and others. Fortunately, unhealthy lifetraps can be corrected if we reconnect with our children and tap into the power of a functional, spiritual community.

In Ephesians, the Bible instructs fathers to avoid exasperating their children and to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. However, that is easier said than done! I was hoping to learn practical ways to connect with my daughter and avoid what the authors call the Vortex of Conflict Escalation. Lifetraps can carry over into adulthood, marriage, and even one’s parenting. Thus, I have been reflecting on and addressing my own lifetraps, while simultaneously identifying ways to prevent their formation in my daughter. As someone who is not overtly emotional and who has downplayed emotions for most of my life, the book convinced me of the reality of my own emotional needs and the importance of parents meeting their children’s emotional needs to help them grow into healthy adults.

STEVE BAUER

Assistant Instructor of Teaching of Marketing SEAVER COLLEGE

Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage the Multicultural World

By David A. Livermore

Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage the Multicultural World was recommended to me by Daniel Rodriguez (’78, MA ’81), dean of the Religion and Philosophy Division at Seaver College, during a discussion we were engaged in about cultural sensitivity. This topic is a critical one in my international marketing course, as one of the key themes in the class focuses on the importance of understanding and adapting to foreign cultures during international business transactions.

The book describes a cultural intelligence quotient as the ability to address cultural differences in ways that are loving and respectful. It approaches the topic from knowledge/interpretive, motivational, and behavioral perspectives and shares that understanding yourself and your own culture is a critical first step in becoming more culturally sensitive. In addition, the whole process of understanding the nuances of other cultures requires much reflection and mentorship from people knowledgeable in the cultures. I intend to drive these points home in my classes and also develop group exercises to help teach them more effectively.

SHELLEY ROSS SAXER (’80)

Laure Sudreau Endowed Professor of Law CARUSO SCHOOL OF LAW Origin

By Jennifer Raff

I was compelled to read Origin to increase my knowledge of the early migration of humans to the Americas before colonization. I was surprised to find out how much cultural myths influenced science in the analysis of archaeological, historical, and genetic information over time. When I teach property law and the concept of what constitutes property, I will be more knowledgeable about the existence of Indigenous peoples and how their property interests were treated by the colonizers.

I was surprised to find out how much CULTURAL MYTHS

INFLUENCED SCIENCE in the analysis of archaeological, historical, and genetic information over time.

– SHELLEY ROSS SAXER (’80)

The book has EXPANDED my appreciation of the CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING OF IRONY in American history.

– PETE PETERSON (MPP ’07)

COLIN STORM

Assistant Professor of Communication SEAVER COLLEGE

Empire of the Scalpel:

By Ira M. Rutkow

The History of Surgery

Rutkow knits together his experiences as a surgeon with highlights (and lowlights) of the road to modern medicine to create a compelling examination of the history of surgery. From barber-surgeons and Galen to Semmelweis and Lister, Rutkow’s work explores the innovation within the field of medicine and argues the success of modern-day surgery is based on four key pillars: understanding human anatomy, controlling bleeding, anesthesia, and antisepsis. Along the way, you encounter the quirky, brilliant, and bizarre ways the science community reached those four pillars. This is an extremely accessible book for anyone interested in the fields of history, science, and/or medicine, and it will challenge your views of human behavior and society.

REYNA GARCÍA RAMOS

Professor of Education, MAT Director, and CABE Pepperdine Faculty Liaison

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY

Of Love and Papers: How Immigration Policy Affects Romance and Family

By Laura E. Enriquez

As a member of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, I was asked to read several books this year for consideration for the annual book award. Part of my attraction and attention to Of Love and Papers were the stories of lives made, shattered, and put on hold because of the immigration status of one or both partners in a relationship, including the author.

The central message of the book is to put a human face to the immigration debate. Regardless of where you are on the immigrant debate, 11 million-plus persons are already part of our society, in our schools and universities, and working alongside us in some cases. Remember that DACA recipients were brought to this country as young children and have only known this country and see themselves as Americans like you and me.

What I learned from reading some of the stories is that even if DACA students complete their educational careers, especially at private institutes of higher education, they face uncertain futures, as their status can change at any moment, and their investment in education may not allow them to pursue the American dream.

PETE PETERSON (MPP ’07)

Dean and Braun Family Dean’s Chair SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY

We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

By Robert Tracy McKenzie

McKenzie argues that America’s founders viewed human nature as being fallen, but that this view changed during the Jacksonian era in the 1830s when Americans were seen as inherently good. The author, a historian at Wheaton College, does an excellent job of introducing the subject of irony, which has run throughout human and American history.

The book has expanded my appreciation of the Christian understanding of irony in American history. Churchill famously quipped that “democracy is the worst form of government there is except for all the others that have been tried.” America’s founders through its critics (including Christians like Reinhold Niebuhr) have understood that majority rule doesn’t always produce moral outcomes, but the freedom offered by our constitutional system combined with humble, informed citizens can propel us toward a “more perfect union.”

As someone who trains local government officials to improve their public engagement procedures, McKenzie’s book is an important reminder that democratic processes alone—even the most inclusive— won’t necessarily reach moral policy conclusions. Process must be combined with humility and a love of community—by citizens and political leaders—to do this.

CHRISTINE CHAMBERS GOODMAN

Professor of Law CARUSO SCHOOL OF LAW

The Lost Apothecary

By Sarah Penner

Exploring The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner was emotionally and intellectually satisfying. The book alternates between the perspectives of the apothecary, an unmarried woman living in the late 1700s in London, and a married woman in modern times on a wedding anniversary vacation without her spouse. On the emotional front, we engaged the stories of women and girls living without status or recognition in jolly England. I found myself rooting for the underdogs, but also came to sympathize with the housewives and society ladies who sought out the apothecary’s services for similar reasons as other women.

On the intellectual front, the modern protagonist has given up her dreams of studying at Oxford or Cambridge because of a marriage proposal, and on vacation knowing that her marriage was on shaky ground, she pursued her dream of doing historical and anthropological research based on an item she found while trekking through the mud on the banks of the river. She reapplies to university and turns this research into a thesis and obtains the advanced degree that had been put on hold while she tended to her husband and his career.

So many lessons in this book apply to our current world. Back then, women were subordinated based solely on their sex, and power eluded most of them. The apothecary garnered power by providing a means for women to avoid unjust oppression by mixing poisons that the women could distribute to their male oppressors.

The apothecary’s courage— protecting the names of the women she had aided—in the face of accusations provides hope for those who fear that the subjugation of women’s bodies to the will of state legislators is one large step toward complete subjugation.

LYNDA PALMER (MBA ’91)

E2B Program Director/ Practitioner Faculty of Marketing GRAZIADIO BUSINESS SCHOOL

Horse Brain, Human Brain: The Neuroscience of Horsemanship

By Janet L. Jones

I had the opportunity to organize a riding clinic this year with an iconic equestrian named Hilda Gurney, who won a bronze medal in team dressage at the 1976 Summer Olympics. At 79, she still rides 10 horses a day, competes, and trains riders. She highly recommended this book on the similarities and differences between human and horse brains and how we negotiate the world.

As a competitive equestrian, I speak to my horse in nonverbal, tactile language, asking her to perform a number of complex movements. The more I can understand how horses think and negotiate the world, the better I can communicate with her on her terms.

My focus in riding and competing has always been on my mental discipline and other traditional training methods. I did not always consider how a horse’s brain works when I was asking the horse to do something. It helps me to think about seeing things from a different perspective (the students’) and not always focus on how I am viewing a situation.

STEPHANIE WILLIAMS Assistant Professor of Legal Research and Writing CARUSO SCHOOL OF LAW

The

Warmth of Other Suns:

The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

By Isabel Wilkerson

Based on more than 1,000 interviews and a deep inspection of historical data, The Warmth of Other Suns tells the story of the Great Migration of Black Americans from the South to northern cities and Los Angeles from 1915 to 1970. Wilkerson takes the time to show how many of the migrants were fleeing violence and not just leaving the South for economic reasons. She also draws compelling parallels between these internal migrants, who were already US citizens, and the immigrant Europeans who came to America in earlier generations.

While I believe Wilkerson’s overall conclusion is one of hope, I was struck by the way many Black migrants leaving the South only traded a terrible situation for a bad one. The three people she chronicled moved to their new homes during the decades my mother-in-law and her family members arrived in the US, but their opportunities were so different. I am married to a first-generation American whose mother was born in a Nazi camp. The United States was very good to his family. Of course, his mother had the usual immigrant struggles, but she succeeded here. I wish I could say Wilkerson showed me this American dream is equally accessible to everyone.

It helps me to think about seeing things from a different PERSPECTIVE (the students’) and not always focus on HOW I AM VIEWING a situation.

– LYNDA PALMER (MBA ’91)

Golden WAVES

FOR 50 YEARS, PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY’S MALIBU CAMPUS

has been home to an extraordinary community of thinkers, leaders, innovators, and believers who have cultivated a spirit of excellence that stretches beyond the wildest dreams of founder George Pepperdine.

It began with a group of colleagues and friends who saw an opportunity to invest in the future of George Pepperdine College beyond its original Los Angeles campus. Together, they dedicated their lives to the advancement of a Christian college education steeped in faith and the values of purpose, service, and leadership. Today, Pepperdine University has expanded that dream in ways those early visionaries could have never imagined.

Take a look back at the community members and milestones that shaped the Malibu campus into a place that has fostered the intellectual, personal, and spiritual growth of exceptional individuals who have made a difference in their own distinct ways.

Campus Under Construction

Pepperdine College administration had been giving serious thought to establishing a second campus in Malibu since the early 1960s to expand the school’s footprint. A formal committee evaluated 40 different locations in the area and narrowed it down to three sites with potential: Calabasas, Westlake Village, and 138 acres in Malibu owned by the prominent Adamson family. On October 7, 1968, then chancellor and later president M. Norvel Young announced that Pepperdine College had accepted the Adamson family’s gift and launched an initiative to raise the funds to build the Malibu campus that would be designed by architect William L. Pereira.

Birth of a College

Amid the buzz surrounding the building of a new college campus in Malibu, 3,000 friends and supporters gathered at two locations—the second added to accommodate the overflow of guests—for the Birth of a College gala on February 9, 1970, at the Century Plaza Hotel and the Beverly Hilton. Featured guests included then governor Ronald Reagan, recording artist Pat Boone, and others who believed in the future of Pepperdine and committed to supporting it for years to come. From left to right, Pereira, Reagan, Young, Clint Murchison, and Pepperdine president William S. Banowsky pose with architectural plans of the new Malibu campus, which were revealed for the first time at the event.

Brock House

Following the Birth of a College event, Margaret Brock, heir to a commercial jewelry fortune, was so inspired by the potential of Pepperdine’s future that she committed $325,000 to build the official residence of the University president. The result was a 9,000-square-foot house overlooking campus that was completed in 1973 and dedicated in 1975 in Brock’s name. Brock would later endow student scholarships at the law school and give beachfront property to the University. Here, she tours the Malibu campus as it nears the end of its construction with President Banowsky.

Payson Library

The library was named for Charles S. Payson, a native of Maine, whose son, John, transferred to Pepperdine from Bowdoin College in 1963. The Paysons were grateful for the care with which Pepperdine professors Wade Ruby and James Smythe (’45) developed John into a scholar of English literature and agreed to help fund the new library at the Malibu campus.

Phillips Theme Tower

The Malibu campus opened before the completion of the Phillips Theme Tower, president Bill Banowsky’s vision for a clear signal of Pepperdine’s commitment to its Christian mission. Though Pereira drew up the plans for the 125-foot obelisk-shaped structure in early 1972, significant opposition to the tower developed within the Malibu community that halted its progress. Work on the tower ceased for six months, and the campus opened with the tower only half built. By September 1973, the structure was completed and dedicated as the Phillips Theme Tower, named for Benjamin Dwight Phillips and his wife, Mildred, who were deeply rooted in the Stone-Campbell movement and eager to support an institution associated with Churches of Christ.

Stauffer Chapel

Stauffer Chapel was constructed during the first academic year on the Malibu campus. The chapel features 3,000 square feet of stained glass designed by Robert and Bette Donovan and created from thousands of pieces of handblown glass in more than 100 hues. After 13 months of work, Stauffer Chapel was dedicated on November 4, 1973, in the name of John and Beverly Stauffer, who had come to appreciate Pepperdine’s citizenship education program and its strong Christian mission.

Firestone Fieldhouse

While the facility opened for student use in the 1973–74 academic year, Firestone Fieldhouse, Pepperdine’s gymnasium, appears here in March 1973, midway through construction. Construction was delayed because classrooms, laboratories, the library, and other academic and residential spaces were given priority. Leonard Firestone, who gave a gift in support of the construction of the fieldhouse, was the son of the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and had served on Pepperdine’s president’s board.

LOOKING FOR W ARD

BY AMANDA PISANI

A debilitating accident will not slow down Sam Schmidt (’86, MBA ’87)

Sam Schmidt’s trust in divine providence was never more evident than during his daunting mountain ascent in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, the second-oldest motor sports race in America, held annually on the last Sunday in June. Also known as the Race to the Clouds for its gorgeous panoramic views, the drive up the 14,000-foot mountain in the Colorado Rockies has about 150 switchbacks, sharp turns, and, for the most part, no guard rails. In his 2016 race to the summit, Schmidt made it to the top averaging 50 miles per hour, steering the car only by turning his head.

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is just one of many races and race car exhibitions Schmidt, a person with quadriplegia, has participated in since he first drove a specially designed car in 2014. The car is outfitted with interior cameras that respond to sensors on Schmidt’s helmet, directing its movement.

“When you’re driving, you’re looking in your mirrors, you’re looking at what you’re passing. I can’t do that,” says Schmidt. “I can’t turn my head prematurely, or else.”

Schmidt’s passion in life has always been racing. As the son of a race car builder and driver, he is hardwired for speed. His parents moved to Southern California shortly after he was born, and family life was centered around the sport. While his friends were learning to ride bikes, Schmidt’s first set of wheels, at age 5, was a motorcycle.

He continued to dabble with racing throughout his youth, but he also knew the lifelong value of a good education. As a high schooler, Schmidt found Pepperdine’s beautiful location irresistible. And while he originally toured 11 schools, he ultimately applied only to Pepperdine. While on campus, Schmidt worked to charter the Psi Upsilon fraternity and in time became its president. Traveling to schools and orphanages in Mexico with the fraternity instilled in the budding leader a sense of purpose and ignited in him a passion for service. “Everybody around Malibu knew our organization, and if they needed something they would know to call us,” he remembers.

Four years in Malibu were not quite enough for Schmidt, and he stayed on to earn his MBA at the Graziadio Business School in 1987. The lure of the business world then took hold. Schmidt put his degree to work as a hospital administrator, worked for a car auction service, and even purchased his father’s auto parts company—for a while sharing occupations with University founder George Pepperdine. But he also continued racing cars, and he felt in his heart he would always regret bypassing the chance to make it a career. He couldn’t not race. “My perspective was always to look forward,” says Schmidt.

Photos courtesy of Arrow Electronics

Schmidt was an excellent race car driver; he won the West Coast championship his first year racing and finished third out of 42 cars in the National Championships. “That persuaded me I was pretty good at it,” he says. He then stepped up from the Sports Car Club of America to professional open wheel racing. Schmidt raced in the IndyCar Series for three years, and in 1999 he had a great year, winning the Vegas.com 500 and leading at times in many other races, including the Indy 500. He was determined to win it the following year. But in January 2000 Schmidt crashed into a wall during a routine test drive. Remarkably he survived, but his C3 and C4 vertebrae were destroyed, and he was paralyzed from the neck down.

At the time of the accident, Schmidt had been married for seven years and had two very young children. He had a family to care for, and believing that this journey was God’s plan for his life, Schmidt faced his circumstances head on.

“I meet a lot of people who after their accident ask, ‘Why did God do this to me? How can I have faith when I’m in this situation?’” But giving over to despair would belie Schmidt’s trust in God and his determination to always look to the future. “God makes us a promise,” he says. “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act.”

Inspired by this faith, which steeled his gratitude to be alive and to be able to watch his children grow up, he devoted himself to his rehabilitation. Schmidt had seen the effect of physical rehabilitation firsthand, having witnessed his father, who had himself lost the use of his right side in a racing accident at the age of 30, recover the use of his right leg and live a productive, successful life.

“For those with paralyzing injuries, intensive rehabilitation is important,” says Schmidt. “You have to give it 120 percent.”

In 2013 Arrow Electronics partnered with Schmidt to create a car that he could drive using only his head. They devised the Arrow Corvette, also known as the SAM (semi-autonomous mobility) car, which is controlled by a combination of head motion, breath, and, for street driving, voice. Schmidt’s helmet and sunglasses contain sensors that are tracked by four infrared cameras facing him from the windshield of the car. The beams from the cameras monitor the movement of the sensors, calculate the turn’s degree and direction, and relay that information to the wheels.

“Thousands of customers have driven the car in exhibitions, and you need to give them a big parking lot, because they want to turn their head too early,” Schmidt notes.

Schmidt directs the speed of the car with a straw in his mouth. He blows out to move forward—his top speed to date is 201 miles per hour—and sucks in to slow down and brake. He keeps the car in motion by biting on the straw to retain the pressure inside it. It takes practice to control the speed well.

“If I whisper a breath, it is like coming upon a stop light; if I blow hard, the car’s going to do donuts,” he says.

When not racing, Schmidt controls features such as turn signals and lights with voice commands, not unlike Amazon’s Alexa technology. The car’s engineering is under constant development; a recent innovation is the creation of a right-side driver’s seat for Schmidt, which is easier for him to access than the left.

The technology used in the SAM car has allowed Schmidt to be a race car driver again. He recently returned from a tour of England where he raced in a similarly converted McLaren 720S, a road car that reaches a speed of 225 miles per hour. “It’s an amazing feeling to be in control of the car. I’m steering it, I’m driving it,” he says.

But what is even more powerful is the twofold potential this technology has for changing lives. Its tangible uses for people with disabilities are almost limitless. “This technology can help someone get back to work, whether it’s a farmer harvesting a farm or someone driving a train or driving a forklift,” Schmidt says. In addition, the potential for self-sufficiency and the purposefulness that Schmidt demonstrates as a race car driver serve as a great inspiration to others. His personal tenacity attracts people to the DRIVEN Neuro Recovery Center, the rehabilitation arm of his research foundation, Conquer Paralysis Now (CPN). “At the foundation, we get emails and texts from people every day who are motivated to get off the couch and get back to work and get something of their life back,” he says.

Although motivating others became a theme of Schmidt’s life by default, he has decided to make it a mission. The intensive rehabilitation program offered at his rehabilitation center requires clients to commit to a lot of hard work, and Schmidt admits his limited patience for people who give up easily. “I enjoy kicking people back to life,” he says.

Schmidt’s arguably aggressive stance to motivation was an outgrowth of his own experience. As his father had regained the use of his leg after his accident, Schmidt was determined to recover the use of his arms. “I was working out two to three hours a day just to get my arms back, just to be able to hug my kids.” But his efforts didn’t work, and it eventually occurred to him that he was not meant to regain the use of his limbs. “I can look anyone who has a lesser injury in the eye and say, ‘What are you waiting for? I have nothing. You have the use of your arms, or you have the use of your left side.’ I’ve given that speech hundreds of times.”

Schmidt has found ways to bring the worlds of car racing and disability recovery together through CPN and other organizations that have brought great meaning to his life.

Arrow McLaren SP, Schmidt’s IndyCar race team, hosts “days at the races” programs for veterans and individuals with spinal cord injuries, both for fun and to offer visions of active, meaningful lives post-injury. More broadly, the motorsports community gives significant financial support to the foundation and to further the development of vehicles for people with disabilities.

“Helping others is my true purpose in life,” he says. “While my dreams and goals were important forces in my life, I know that serving others is why I was placed on this earth.”

Schmidt’s work has successfully given many people with disabilities the will, confidence, and, through the Neuro Recovery Center, the physical ability to live fully and productively. He relates the story of a teenager he met through the center who had earned a scholarship to Duke University. He became a person with quadriplegia after an accident, and the young man’s family asked Schmidt for his help. With a year of physical rehabilitation, the teen attended Duke unescorted, thereafter earned a Rhodes scholarship, and started his own foundation providing academic

scholarships for those with disabilities. “He’s a force of nature,” says Schmidt, “but I wouldn’t have had the authority to empower people like him if I had the use of my arms.”

When it comes to himself, Schmidt always looks forward, but he never stops looking back at the support of his family. His parents, having undergone paralysis and illnesses, are living proof of the strength that comes from faith. His wife of nearly 30 years, Sheila (’87), has been his unwavering partner, and he says he would not be alive if it were not for her.

“Our family just grows stronger and stronger, and if we didn’t have faith, I don’t think we would still be here together,” he says. Together, they are also very much a Pepperdine clan. The couple met as students at Seaver College, and both of their children, Savannah (’19) and Spencer (’22), the latter

of whom now resides in Indianapolis and is pursuing a race car driving career, attended Seaver as well. Along with Schmidt’s parents, they were all at Alumni Park in April of last year when he received an honorary doctorate at Spencer’s graduation.

But, Schmidt says, even more significant to him than his many deep ties to the school is the understanding of himself and his purpose that Pepperdine instilled in him. It was in Malibu that his faith and his commitment to serve were deepened. “I came to Pepperdine already having received Christ as my savior, but the University experience taught me how to have a relationship with God that transcends everything in my personal and business life,” he says. “I would not be the father or businessman that I am today without having attended Pepperdine.”

I can look anyone who has a lesser injury in the eye and say, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?”

EQUAL FOOTING

On the occasion of the 50 th anniversary of the passage of TITLE IX , female student-athletes past and present share how they have been shaped by Pepperdine Athletics

By Amanda Pisani

It’s not quite boot camp, but the daily life of a student-athlete is extremely rigorous.

For golfer Kaleiya Romero, a Seaver College junior, workouts start at 6:30 am, a sort of precursor to a four-hour stretch of classes that is followed by five hours of practice before a night of homework. Although this type of schedule may be routine for student-athletes at all colleges, what’s less typical is Pepperdine’s focus on building the skills that will help the women athletes thrive long after their playing days are over.

“Confidence and leadership are part of being an athlete,” says associate director of athletics for academics and compliance and senior woman administrator Amanda Kurtz, “and fostering these qualities is built into the school’s mission and everything we do at Pepperdine.”

The world of women’s sports on college campuses nationwide reflects the enormous impact of Title IX, the federal law requiring that male and female athletes be rewarded equally in higher education. Passed 50 years ago, the law is expansive, requiring that scholarship funding be proportionate for male and female athletes and that athletes of both sexes receive comparable services and benefits.

With the wide scope of Title IX’s provisions, implementing it proved challenging for colleges across the country. Pepperdine was at a disadvantage structurally when compared with other schools—the brand-new campus in Malibu opened without a completed gymnasium in 1972—but by 1975 the school had women’s teams in basketball, tennis, and volleyball. By the end of the 1970s the Waves added women’s soccer, swimming, golf, and cross country to their roster.

Becci Roehl (’98), a former volleyball player for the Waves, relates that in the ’90s, most colleges didn’t treat men’s and women’s athletics equally. At Pepperdine, it was different. “We had the exact same resources that the men’s volleyball program had,” says Roehl.

The school’s efforts continue, and today, Kurtz assists in ensuring that the school meets the Title IX standards, including the important provision that the athletics participation figures are proportionate to the student body. Title IX, however, is only one factor in the story of the University’s commitment to women’s sports and to empowering its female students, and that commitment has unfolded in myriad ways.

A senior on the cross country team, runner Olivia Miller has transformed from a shy teenager to an advocate for mental health awareness. During her first year on campus, Miller felt overwhelmed and alone. With the assistance of Kurtz and Steve Potts (JD ’82), director of athletics, Miller started a chapter of the Hidden Opponent, a nationwide studentathlete mental health group, at the school.

As the organization’s representative, she has offered advice at student-athlete orientation and worked with the counseling center to let other student-athletes know what mental health resources are available to them. She also makes sure they know they’re not alone. “Olivia has been instrumental in helping break the stigma of mental health concerns among our student-athletes,” says Kurtz. “She’s found her voice and what she was passionate about.”

Kurtz and Potts have furthered Miller’s opportunities outside the campus as well, inviting her to the West Coast Conference (WCC) Executive Council meeting this year, where she learned about council members’ ideas for making men’s and women’s sports more equitable in the NCAA. “I think that Pepperdine has done a really good job of being ahead of that curve, similar to what they’ve done with mental health,” Miller says. She plans to go to law school next year, ready to apply her developing advocacy skills and grateful for the leadership opportunities that she’s had. “I’m excited for the next chapter because I know that I’ll step into it with confidence,” says Miller.

A member of both the WCC Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Waves Leadership Council, sophomore and first-generation student Savannah Broadus is motivated by her desire to be a role model. On the committee, she represents the University’s students and, as a person of color, the diverse population of

Learning to LEAD and developing CONFIDENCE is part of being an athlete, and fostering those qualities is built into EVERYTHING we do at Pepperdine.

AMANDA KURTZ

KELSEY BROCKWAY (’16)

student-athletes in the conference. She feels that the ways in which she’s been able to grow at the University have been truly exceptional and that her Pepperdine experience has furthered her passion to be an exemplar for other female tennis players. “I hope I can inspire other girls to have big dreams and know that they are achievable,” she says.

The big dreams nurtured by Pepperdine may also emerge for students along the way.

Former Waves basketball player Kelsey Brockway (’16) became one of the school’s first sport administration majors at the suggestion of the Athletics staff. “The way the school expressed its mission reinforced for me that I was there to find my purpose,” says Brockway.

Brockway, an ESPN top-ranked recruit at the time, points out that Pepperdine’s recruiter, the late Maurice Hilliard, was determined she find the perfect home for her unique talent—even if it wasn’t at Pepperdine. “He genuinely wanted to find the right place for me,” says Brockway. “Many universities want student-athletes to attend because it will make the

school look better,” she says. “But Pepperdine was always trying to make me happy, make me better.”

Now the director of global partnerships for the Los Angeles Lakers, Brockway leads the team’s international partnership expansion strategy, finding commercial opportunities to grow the Lakers brand. The communication skills she learned at Pepperdine help her build relationships with those outside the team’s direct sphere.

After Brockway graduated, the University continued to contribute to her development, giving her the chance to hone her marketing skills as a corporate partnership and sales intern for Pepperdine Athletics. While an intern, Brockway was accepted into the Los Angeles Sport and Entertainment Committee Professional Development Program and began her career with the Lakers shortly thereafter to help launch the team’s first Naming Rights Training Center partnership with UCLA Health. “Pepperdine allowed me to understand my purpose in life and gave me the tools to pursue it,” says Brockway.

While the University empowers women to succeed as professionals, Kurtz relates that it also provides a springboard for student-athletes to turn pro. Lynn Williams (’15), a player for the Kansas City Current in the National Women’s Soccer League and a 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, is among the country’s 2 percent of college athletes who have professional careers. Williams’ Pepperdine coaches saw her potential and helped her improve her athletic skills significantly.

“Assistant coach Twila Kaufman saw something in me that I don’t know if I saw in myself,” says Williams. “She encouraged me to be a better soccer player and also to be a leader.” Williams is very much that leader, serving as a key advocate for equal pay for the US national soccer team. Due in part to her efforts, women soccer players won a $24 million collective bargaining settlement this year and the promise to bring pay rates for women players into alignment with the US men’s team.

Fifty years after the passage of Title IX, Pepperdine’s rising leaders are emerging as the game changers of tomorrow, bolstered by both implicit and explicit manifestations of the law’s commitment to maintaining a level playing field for all studentathletes and the University’s exceptional strides to support its community as they discover their endless potential. And while the athletic success of student-athletes is desired, school is the first priority. “We want these women to succeed,” Kurtz says, “as athletes and as people.” At this year’s commencement ceremony, swimmer Lindsey Marian (’22) and fellow student-athlete beach volleyball player Peyton Lewis (’22) demonstrated the outcome of the support they received as students when they were presented as the co-valedictorians of their graduating class for earning the highest grade point averages—4.0—among their peers.

“So many doors have been opened by the passing of Title IX,” reflects Brockway. “It gave my mom the opportunity to develop her love for athletics, and she passed on that love to me. It laid the groundwork for my passion to lead by example and encourage other women to pursue their dreams.”

“Title IX and our experiences as student-athletes have made such a difference for all of us, whether we’re learning in the classroom or playing on the field,” adds Miller. “No matter where I go next, I’ll know what it’s like to face challenges and to overcome them because of the support I’ve had at Pepperdine.”

Many universities want student-athletes to attend because it will make the school LOOK BETTER . But Pepperdine was always trying to make ME HAPPY, make ME BETTER .

CONTEXT STUDY IN A

Far from home, Seaver College students experience life in a different context through a new pilot program in Uganda

By Gareen Darakjian

In June of this year, 20 Seaver College students departed Malibu for Kampala, Uganda, to join faculty members and Caruso School of Law students working with the Sudreau Global Justice Institute (SGJI) for a pilot program that would initiate opportunities for Pepperdine to expand its international footprint.

Pepperdine’s presence in Africa has long been a highlight of the University’s global experience offerings. SGJI, continuing the nearly two-decades-long work of president Jim Gash (JD ’93) and vice president Danny DeWalt in Uganda, has made a deep and transformative impact on access to justice and criminal justice reforms in the country by providing critical legal resources for imprisoned individuals awaiting due process and has shaped its justice system in tremendous ways. Made in the Streets, a local partner program in Kenya, sends Seaver College biology students, alongside faculty, to provide education, vocational classes, and sustainable living practices to the underserved children of the city of Kamulu through relationships, academic learning, and hands-on training each year.

Unlike many service and educational opportunities in developing countries, this pilot program emphasized how Ugandans support themselves and the different ways they care for each other by immersing students in the vast landscape of Ugandan life. Traveling to government operations and NGOs as well as churches and schools, students walked alongside the Ugandan people, learned about their history and religions, and observed the ways in which their own lives in the United States both aligned with and differed from that of the Ugandans.

The program began in Malibu, where students spent two weeks steeped in two courses that would prepare them for their journey. The first, Faith and Advocacy, taught by the program’s codirector, former dean of international programs Charles Hall, introduced students to the practice of evaluating their lives and circumstances in relation to the circumstances they may face in a different context or setting. The second, Practicing Incarnation: Uganda, examined the role of Christianity in Ugandans’ response to recent conflict and its aftermath and emphasized the incarnation of Jesus as a model for advocacy. Taught by the program’s other codirector, Ron Cox (MDiv ’96), interim dean of international programs and Seaver College professor of religion, the lesson plan also explored the ways in which these social aspects influence Christian life and faith in Uganda.

Less than a week after students arrived in Kampala, they traveled to Gulu to meet with President Gash, Vice President DeWalt, Caruso Law students, and American and Ugandan lawyers participating in SGJI programming. The next day, the students found themselves in Gulu Main Prison, where they observed the work being done by SGJI to help the imprisoned individuals understand whether their various cases were eligible for immediate access to justice. Alongside Caruso Law students, Seaver students evaluated cases and learned Uganda’s complex judicial process that had prevented incarcerated Ugandans from accessing justice for generations.

At the prison, Seaver first-year Faith Chang understood the significance of context and the lessons she learned in Cox’s class as she surrendered her cell phone and entered the guarded facility. In close quarters, Chang, along with Ugandan and US lawyers, Ugandan and Caruso Law students, and prison guards sat with people accused of crimes ranging from minor to heinous.

Despite her assumption that the prison would be a place of despair and devastation, Chang instead found glimpses of peace, hope, and even joy and was grateful that the Ugandans allowed her and her fellow students to be part of a deeply vulnerable passage in their lives.

“For the most part,” she says, “despite their situation and the crimes they committed, there wasn’t an attitude of bitterness, but hope and responsibility. That speaks greatly to the character of their culture and their people and their resilience and sense of justice in its truest form.”

Emma Rydholm, a transfer student who had been considering pursuing law school after her undergraduate studies, described the experience as a test and reinforcement of her faith and confirmation of her career calling.

“These people had committed the most atrocious crimes, and we were supposed to fight for their rights?” she recalls wondering. “I believed they didn’t deserve us. I believed they didn’t deserve the lesser sentence we were there to get them. But Jesus died to forgive me of my sins, and Jesus died for them too. Who was I to think they had committed sins worse than I had? Who was I to think I deserved Jesus more than they did or that they were past the point of God’s redemptive powers? If I claimed to love God and his people, that meant loving the prisoners on remand just as much as the friends and professors beside me.”

Still reeling from the poignant experience the next day, students and faculty were scheduled to visit Restore Leadership Academy, a secondary school in Gulu, Uganda, founded by Bob Goff, whose students were previously child soldiers, rescued from lives of forced sex trafficking, orphans, or from backgrounds of extreme poverty.

Beyond an opportunity to supplement Pepperdine’s international programs, University leadership was clear about involving students in the development and advancement of such experiences where they may engage in and be a part of world solutions. Traveling abroad, discovering the joy of learning a new culture, and engaging with that culture in the emerging world has been a significant driver of DeWalt’s life’s investment and calling.

DeWalt, who serves as the executive director of the SGJI in addition to his roles as vice president and chief of staff, has visited Uganda nearly 30 times himself in the last 16 years. He shares that people who have traveled to the emerging world typically experience a sense of purpose when invited to partner with other countries to support their needs and help them develop their own ability to overcome the challenges they face. He holds closely the practice of training and equipping the people of Uganda with humility to learn from them and collaborate on tangible solutions.

AWAKENS

“We are not trying to rescue people or save the day,” he continues. “We walk alongside them and walk that path with them, building friendships around the world and seeing humanity thrive with justice as the foundation.”

Ron Cox (MDiv ’96)

As Pepperdine considers its position as a top national university, University leadership continues to prioritize providing students with powerful service opportunities and global experiences that will give them new perspectives and insights into their life’s purpose.

“Our students dealt with distressing criminal cases on Thursday and encountered these beautiful and active young minds on Friday,” says Cox. “They were confronted with not only the differences between life in the US and life in Uganda but also the commonality of humanity. The International Programs office often uses the language of transformation, but we can also use the language of discovery or self-discovery. You truly find yourself and become yourself more through these experiences. It awakens things in students they don’t know are there.”

Students visit the primary school at Restore Leadership Academy in Gulu, Uganda.

“This provides a broader, deeper, and richer experience than the classroom alone,” says DeWalt. “This work connects to our faith, connects us to serving our world, and connects us with leadership around the world to discover even more opportunities to learn and serve.”

You truly find YOURSELF and become yourself MORE through these experiences.

It

things in students they don’t know are there.

A group of students stands with members of the Ugandan government at a leadership conference.

More Than a

By Abigail Ramsey

BATHED IN THE GLOW OF A NORTHERN ARIZONA SUNSET

radiating from the burnt-orange mountain landscape dotting the desert skyline, a group of students from the Holbrook Indian School pedal up a winding trail. The sound of loose earth crunches beneath their bicycle tires while filmmakers Terry Benedict (’81) and Paul Kim, with the help of Pepperdine students Dane Bruhahn and Nadine Borum, capture their journey up the rocky path. As they reach the summit, they survey their progress, recognizing the inner strength that pushed them to the top of the mountain.

In 2014, Benedict, the producer of the two-time Academy Award–winning film Hacksaw Ridge, launched Shae Foundation, a nonprofit that supports other nonprofits and influences global humanitarian change through high-quality media productions. Empowered by the confidence instilled in him by his own academic and spiritual life mentors as an undergraduate at Pepperdine and beyond, Benedict positioned the foundation to also focus on mentoring young people as they pursued their deepest passions within their craft.

When Kim, Benedict’s mentee-turnedcolleague, joined Pepperdine as a professor of screen arts in 2021, the two filmmakers devised a unique screen arts internship program that brought Shae and Pepperdine together to inspire Pepperdine students to create mission-driven, humanitarian storytelling that honors their personal values and convictions.

“Our hope was to create an environment within the safety net of their education that also pushed them outside of their comfort zones and exposed them to the real and actual challenges people are facing around the world every day,” says Benedict.

Throughout nearly two decades of experience in filmmaking, Kim’s work has centered, like Benedict’s, on supporting

mission-driven organizations in telling their powerful stories. They also share a deeper motivation of mentoring young students and artists in their pursuit of unlocking their own value system and purpose in their artistry.

“This partnership and program allow us to demonstrate to students, particularly in creative classes, that they aren’t limited to just the entertainment and advertisement industries,” says Kim. “Instead, they are seeing how they can provide a unique service to the world that fulfills their own personal value-driven goals and life mission. Giving students opportunities to explore the connection between their values and their career is a uniquely Pepperdine experience.”

In May 2022, with the support of Seaver College dean Michael Feltner, protégés Bruhahn and Borum, alongside mentors Benedict and Kim, commenced a weeklong, hands-on production for the inaugural Pepperdine and Shae documentary collaboration. Their subject was the Holbrook Indian School located in a small town in Navajo County about 100 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona. Their focus was on illuminating the school’s unique approach to supporting and advancing Native American students’ education, mental and physical health, and spirituality.

An Academy Award—winning alumnus and a screen arts professor lead two Pepperdine students on a documentary project in purposeful storytelling

For more than 75 years, the Holbrook Indian School has provided a safe educational environment for Native American youth. In order to allow students to flourish academically, Holbrook staff members believe in a holistic approach to students’ well-being.

“I have worked with Holbrook for nearly a decade, and I am always amazed by the student stories,” says Benedict. “They are all a testament to the power of Holbrook’s emphasis on healing and nurturing students first and foremost.”

As Native American students discover and learn how to navigate their own ethnic and cultural history, Holbrook incorporates Indigenous traditions into each level of the student experience, especially in art classes and agricultural studies. A majority of Holbrook’s students are from the Navajo and Diné tribes yet are largely unable to speak to their elderly family members due to the diminished use of Native languages. To enable and reinforce their relationships with their families and heritage, Holbrook students receive rigorous language education and are provided with mental health care, physical health and nutritional support, spiritual mentorship, and outdoor excursions that focus on connecting them to their cultural heritage, personal strength, resilience, and leadership skills.

Informed and inspired by Benedict and Kim’s vision for the documentary, Borum and Bruhahn quickly went to work to capture Holbrook’s unique story. The students took active roles alongside their mentors behind the camera and in the field to bring the production—featuring moving student testimonials of Holbrook’s impact on their lives and the healing effects of outdoor excursions such as the mountain biking experience—to completion. The team captured authentic student life at Holbrook, showing how the school’s multifaceted treatment of student well-being is put into tangible action.

“In documentary filmmaking, all ego is stripped away,” says Kim. “It’s an intimate experience, and Nadine and Dane really jumped in to facilitate each element of the project while adding in their own expertise and personal flavor.”

With a unique blend of studies in education and screen arts, Borum soaked up as much as she could from the school staff and, especially, from the Holbrook students. Following the advice of her mentors, she worked closely with the student subjects to break down the power dynamics between interviewer and subject. Her empathetic, human-centered style of storytelling and her deep care for the students’ success allowed them to beam with radiant confidence and tell their stories in front of the camera with ease.

“Dane and Nadine were able to see firsthand and in real time how their talents make a tremendous impact on communities and the lives around them,” says Benedict, who is now in the midst of the project’s postproduction. Once completed, the documentary will live on Holbrook’s website, communicating the school’s mission to prospective students, donors, staff, and supporters across the nation.

Giving students opportunities to explore

THE CONNECTION between their VALUES and their CAREER is a uniquely Pepperdine experience.

The most SACRED GIFT our creator gave us is CREATIVITY. We must do whatever we can to facilitate and PROTECT it so we may contribute authentic and sincere work to this world.

TERRY BENEDICT (’81)

“I can’t quite put into words what this experience meant to me as a future educator and as a filmmaker,” says Borum. “It was surreal to learn so much about Holbrook’s pedagogy while also learning how to be gentle and patient in nonfiction storytelling.”

Bruhahn was able to put his keen eye for beautiful production and cinematography into spontaneous yet remarkably well-composed shots. He masterfully piloted a drone to capture spectacular aerial views of students mountain-biking their way up the trail. Encouraged by Benedict and Kim, he instinctually composed scenes depicting the authentic Holbrook experience, most notably capturing a break from the hot sun in a nearby stream during their outdoor excursion.

“We were treated like professionals, which I think allowed us to really flourish and take so much away from this experience,” reflects Bruhahn. “Plus, seeing Paul and Terry work through their intuition and instincts to create a powerful story—something not formulaic— was really amazing.”

Kim believed that the two Pepperdine students were instrumental in supporting the Holbrook subjects in trusting their own abilities and feeling empowered to speak honestly and openly, an experience that would stay with Holbrook students long after their project wrapped.

PAUL KIM

The week-long experience was just the first of many documentary productions Kim and Benedict are eager to facilitate. Through the annual internship program and with the continued support of the Seaver College dean and the Shae Foundation, they hope to encourage more students to cultivate their talents and artistry with their hands-on field work on humanitarian, mission-driven projects that highlight storytelling as a way to influence global change.

“The most sacred gift our creator gave us is creativity,” says Benedict. “We must do whatever we can to facilitate and protect it so we may contribute authentic and sincere work to this world and pass on to the next generation all that we have received from our mentors before us.”

ཁ Watch the documentary on the Holbrook Indian School website: magazine.pepperdine.edu/holbrook

How Run to the

World

Foreign policy scholar KIRON SKINNER brings her commitment to the value of a liberal arts education to the School of Public Policy

By Amanda Pisani

At age 14, Kiron Skinner,

the recently appointed Taube Professor of International Relations and Politics at the School of Public Policy (SPP), was already pondering how to run the world. Having landed an internship with congressperson Pete McCloskey, the teenager drew the attention of a local reporter. In response to a question about her career goals, Skinner recalls telling him that she wanted to be an ambassador, although at the time she didn’t really know what an ambassador did. “I knew I was interested in a wider world,” she says, “realizing that what happens locally is connected to the far-flung parts of the world. Foreign policy was something I was thinking about for a long time.”

As a renowned policy scholar and an advisor in the complex machinery of the federal government, Skinner has continued to think about foreign policy ever since, and now the students at SPP—and the entire Pepperdine community—have the good fortune to share in the insights she’s gained from her decades of experience. Skinner was raised in the San Francisco Bay area, but then spent much of her life on the other side of the country. After completing her PhD at Harvard University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles, she taught for 22 years at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There she founded and directed the school’s Center for International Relations and Politics, Institute for Strategic Analysis, and Institute for Politics and Strategy, the latter of which is Carnegie Mellon’s first intellectual home for the study of political science. She also served as a humanities and social sciences faculty member and as the Taube Professor for International Relations and Politics at the university’s Institute for Politics and Strategy.

Concurrently, Skinner held the role of special government employee in the Department of Defense, where she was a member of the Defense Policy Board and Defense Business Board, the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, and the National Security Education Board. She also served on the National Academies Committee on Behavioral and Social Science Research to Improve Intelligence Analysis for National Security. From 2012 to 2015, Skinner served on Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett’s Advisory Commission on African American Affairs. During the Trump administration, she was director of the Office of Policy Planning at the State Department and senior advisor to the Secretary of State.

As a trainer of future policy makers, Skinner is clear that sound foreign policy on behalf of the United States can be devised and implemented by only those with a robust education in US history and US government. “You can’t go to Washington and defend the West if you don’t know what the West is in the first place,” she says. Skinner advocates that students obtain a strong background in economics and political, diplomatic, and military history, and she unequivocally supports SPP’s Great Books approach to its curriculum. Noting that this liberal arts foundation is unique among policy schools, the use of this traditional Western canon provides a solid framework of the premises on which the country was founded. “When students are introduced to enduring ideas, the core philosophy of Western civilization, they’re equipped with the intellectual tool kit to be highly effective policy analysts or statesmen,” she says.

While Skinner endorses a deep exploration of the roots of Western thought, she also insists on

the importance of a wide understanding of many disciplines for success in any field. Her years at Carnegie Mellon—a school best known for its excellence in the sciences and engineering—provided her with a great laboratory in which to practice academic outreach. “It made me a lot more of an intellectual entrepreneur,” she says. Rather than succumb to the expectation that she would find ways to make the social sciences relevant to the university’s scientists, Skinner stood her ground on the importance of her and her colleagues’ fields, advising them to “take humanities and social sciences on their own terms and have the technologists jump rope with us.”

Her strategy worked. One such effort, which Skinner is particularly proud of, is her leadership in the creation of an undergraduate minor in international conflict and cybersecurity. At first, she says, students majoring in political science and social science selected the minor, but it is now also a destination for engineering and computer science students. The latter discovered that in addition to skill in coding and solving problem sets, knowledge of the coding practices in international organizations, the cyber norms of different governments, and the ways in which autocratic regimes are different from more representative systems gave their expertise context and meaning. “It was a joy to watch,” says Skinner.

She finds that as a rule, many academicians claim to take a multidisciplinary approach to education, but in practice, most do not follow through. “That is a way in which the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine stands out,” she says. “Its liberal arts approach means perforce that you look at problems from a range of disciplinary perspectives.” She’s eager to put this commitment to a breadth of viewpoints to work in her classes at SPP and will be teaching a course presently called How to Run the World.

Skinner plans to introduce students to thought leaders in different sectors, such as the media, politics, government service, business, and the academy, and engage them in conversations about the passion and purpose that drives their lives and careers. Supplemented by an analysis of pertinent writings, she will explore with students the common threads among their insights and actions. For example, What are the tech firm CEO and the classics professor doing that is having a positive impact?

As SPP graduates will, in fact, be among those running the world in the years to come, Skinner’s multidisciplinary approach is meant to ensure that students see specific situations from a variety of viewpoints. For example, in presenting an international conflict, journalists who have been on the ground in the midst of a battle and advisors who have served in the White House situation room during the same event might be asked to share their perspectives. “Those making policy need to be considering both the granular experience of the people involved and how to move governments and leaders,” she says. “I think that running the world is really about being a multidimensional person who knows that one’s job requires a multidisciplinary understanding of what is happening around them.”

Running the world is really about being a MULTIDIMENSIONAL PERSON who knows that one’s job requires a multidisciplinary understanding of WHAT IS HAPPENING AROUND THEM.

Reaching Out to Those Within

Inspired by his police officer father, Mike Norfleet (’15, MA ’17, PsyD ’21) always had a passion for working in the criminal justice system. A triple Pepperdine alumnus, Norfleet’s work at a men’s federal prison while earning his doctoral degree from the Graduate School of Education and Psychology solidified his interest in preventative and correctional psychology. Observing that most of his colleagues planned to go into private practice, Norfleet chose a career in the prison system, where he saw a great need. As a staff psychologist for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Norfleet provides counseling to inmates at a women’s prison in the Bay Area. He shares some observations about life for female inmates and the critical issue of their mental health care.

INMATES’ ISSUES

Women convicted of federal offenses experience many of the same mental health challenges that are found in the general population. Depression, anxiety, and personality disorders are not uncommon, and a history of trauma is found in nearly all the women Norfleet treats, which is often exacerbated by being in prison. The biggest (and clearly the most obvious) difference between those in prison and those not, is the availability and choice of resources. While inmates are provided with many mental health programs, they don’t have the freedom to select and engage in the routines of self-care that others have, which presents a serious challenge to their wellness.

REDUCING RECIDIVISM

Helping heal inmates’ psychological concerns is an important aspect of preparing them to cope with the outside world. Norfleet says that those who receive therapy and take advantage of other rehabilitation programs offered by the federal system are less likely to be repeat offenders. In addition to counseling, furthering one’s education by getting a GED or an associate’s degree, or getting job training while serving one’s sentence, is very beneficial to inmates’ post-incarceration success. Under the First Step Act, a federal law passed in 2018, Norfleet and his colleagues measure how therapy and other programs affect recidivism and thus far have found that the various rehabilitation offerings are having a positive impact on ensuring that former inmates do not return.

EXTENDING ENCOURAGEMENT

Really connecting with his clients and letting them know that he is on their team is important to Norfleet. “I tell them, ‘We may have on different uniforms, but we’re all human,’” he says. He stresses that needing help and asking for help are permissible and will afford them a chance to learn new skills and new behaviors—and to make different decisions. Norfleet faces their transgressions with them and acknowledges that they need to serve their sentence, while also encouraging them to take advantage of what the system has to offer to improve their circumstances.

HOW TO HELP

Norfleet strongly encourages those who have a loved one in prison to be in touch with them. “Inmates love to hear from their family and friends,” he says. Asking how you can support them is especially meaningful for women in prison. Norfleet advises friends and relatives to express empathy and realize that although their incarcerated loved one might have behaved in a way that is not acceptable, she is still a human being with the potential to change. Allowing the inmate the time she may need to apologize for her conduct and encouraging her to practice new ways of communicating and acting are always beneficial.

REALITY VS. TV

What we see in the movies and on television about life in prison is inaccurate. “Shows like Orange Is the New Black tend to glamorize prison life and make it look like fun at times,” says Norfleet. On the other hand, daily interactions are not as unpleasant and negative as often depicted. Lazy and unkind corrections officers and bad inmates are not his experience. Many rules are in place in the federal system to guide conduct and conditions. Norfleet also notes, “The food is not that bad. I eat the food every day.”