A Welcome from the ProvostThe heartbeat of Union University is student learning. The mission of this University is to provide a Christ-centered education that promotes excellence and character development in service to Church and society. Student learning is broad and multifaceted; we sometimes say it is both curricular and co-curricular, traditional and non-traditional, graduate and undergraduate. Union University is a comprehensive University with much learning activity. Yet, there is a centrality to it all. Union University recognizes that student learning is best done in relationship, a dynamic relationship between student and teacher. When we say we provide Christ-centered education we mean that we strive toward an understanding of the truth that all knowledge is held together in the person of Jesus Christ. And we also mean that we do this in the context of relationships where members of the Union University student body, faculty, staff and administration seek to live unified in Christian community. READ MORE
The teaching role is primarily a function of the faculty but is well supported by a surrounding team of men and women who are contributing to student learning in a myriad of ways. Under a concept we call Learning Community, student learning is taking place in classrooms, laboratories, community agencies in Jackson and around the world, clinical settings, and mission fields. Learning is taking place as well on athletic and intramural fields, in residence life apartments, in coffee shops, and in the chapel. There is not a place on campus that is NOT considered a classroom.
The Office of the Provost is a hub, a center of activity designed to enhance student learning. Much of that activity is done at the hands of a faculty team working together across disciplines, exploring what it means to articulate and advance a distinctively Christian education as a comprehensive, liberal arts based institution of higher education.
In the pages of this website I present to you the Union University faculty. Leading the way with widely recognized scholarship in theology and worldview development is the University's 15th president, both an outstanding academician and a highly sought after leader in Christian higher education and denominational life, David S. Dockery. You will read about the work of faculty through roles in teaching and service, and particularly about the advancement of knowledge in many traditional disciplines through noteworthy faculty scholarship, published and presented widely. You will read about the University's Centers, highly co-curricular in nature, where faculty and students are promoting ideals and intellectual discipleship, all for the purpose of equipping us all to engage today's most pressing issues. You will see the faculty's work with students through the endeavors of undergraduate research and intercultural study at home and abroad.
The faculty of Union University is privileged to take its place among colleagues from other very fine institutions as together we strive to educate future generations of responsible, intellectual, and moral individuals ready to take up the cause of Christ for future generations. Thank you for taking the time to explore the team of faculty at Union University who is accomplishing much toward that end.
Faculty scholarship is highlighted in the website's regular "Faculty Spotlight" segment; faculty receiving awards/recognitions are noted in the "Faculty Newsmakers" column.
Joy Thomason
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Emily Lean
Instructor of Business
Union University business instructor Emily Lean joined three colleagues to tackle a difficult and sensitive question: how does intimate partner domestic violence impact the workplace?
The answers to that disturbing but increasingly relevant question resulted in an article named best paper of the year at The Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Chicago. The international association has more than 19-thousand members in 108 nations.
The article was titled "Coming into the Light: Intimate Partner Violence and its Effects at Work." It appeared in Academy of Management Perspectives, a journal published by the Academy of Management.
Even for scholars with decades of experience, awards of this magnitude can be elusive. Lean says she was surprised by the honor, which comes as she begins as a Union faculty member. Lean's co-authors are Anne O'Leary Kelly and Carol Reeves of the University of Arkansas, and Jane Randel of Liz Claiborne, Inc.
