FOCUS ON FACULTY
DRS. LARRY & DEBBIE HAZELBAKER
A LIFETIME OF LEADERSHIP With a combined total of 66 years at Southeastern, it is safe to say that DR. LARRY HAZELBAKER ’75 and Dr. Deborah “Debbie” Hazelbaker have been instrumental in the development and expansion of the university. They have each played their own part in cultivating a culture of excellence within academics and the Southeastern community. After passing on the baton to the next set of leaders, Larry and Debbie officially retired at the end of the 2020-21 academic year.
Debbie and Larry’s story began in 1970. They first met at Debbie’s home church, Parkway Assembly of God in Indianapolis, Ind., while Larry was on tour with his family, “The Singing Hazelbakers.” They were a group of evangelists who traveled and sang gospel music in churches across the U.S. A year after meeting, Larry and Debbie were married. Debbie moved to Florida to join Larry in his music ministry, and they are now going on 50 years of marriage.
Debbie had been serving as dean of the College of Natural and Health Sciences, a role she has held for almost 25 years. Larry had been acting as the program planning director for the master’s program in Pastoral Care and Counseling, as well as teaching online in the College of Unrestricted Education. He taught courses including Foundations of Counseling, Crisis Intervention and Self-Care for Pastors.
In 1975, Larry graduated from Southeastern with a bachelor’s in history and Bible. Shortly after, Larry and Debbie both became associate pastors at Faith Temple Assembly of God in Plant City, Fla.
Although their journey at Southeastern began in the late ’80s and early ’90s,
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“I remember being a student here at a time when we didn’t even have air conditioning in some of the buildings,” said Larry. “It’s been amazing to watch this place grow and evolve into what it is now. Debbie and I like to think that we were a part of that.”
In the spring of 1986, Larry returned to Southeastern as an adjunct professor of psychology. He had been working at First Assembly in Lakeland — which eventually became Carpenter’s Home — when the first chair of Southeastern’s psychology department, Dr. L. Grant Daniel, came to visit him. “He was looking for an integrationist — someone who could unite both psychology and theology,” Larry recalled. Since that point, he has worked as a full-time professor of psychology, vice president for advancement, chair of the department of psychology and dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. As for Debbie, her first experience at Southeastern was substituting for a geology professor who had been on leave. The students liked her so much that they petitioned for her to return,
