Honors Program Faculty

Honors program faculty are drawn from across Westminster's many departments, programs, and colleges. Honors faculty participate in the program because they enjoy teaching challenging students, they find interdisciplinary approaches to their subjects satisfying, and they value the excitement that team-teaching provides.

The Honors program typically employs only full-time faculty members with a significant amount of teaching experience, especially those known for their teaching excellence. Indeed, the college's most prestigious award for faculty--the Gore Excellence in Teaching Award--has gone to an Honors faculty member three of the past four years: Philosophy professor Nick More in 2007, Physics professor Chris Cline in 2008, and Math professor Bill Bynum in 2010.  In fact, Professor More was named Utah's Professor of the Year for 2008 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 

Honors professors are some of the most interesting, active, and accomplished faculty on campus. They especially enjoy passing on their passion for learning to Honors students. They include professors like, among many others:

Bonnie Baxter (Biology)

A geneticist who studies halophilic organisms in the Great Salt Lake, Bonnie has received the Governor's Medal for Science and Technology for her work.  She was also named by Salt Lake Magazine as one of five "Women Changing Utah" and is the director of the Great Salt Lake Institute.

Nick More (Philosophy)

An expert on the work of Nietzsche, Nick received Westminster College's Excellence in Teaching Award in 2007 and was named Utah Professor of the Year in 2008, for which he was honored in Washington, DC.  The Excellence in Teaching Award is the most prestigious award made at the college's graduation ceremony, given to Westminster's top teacher.

Bridget Newell (Philosophy & Gender Studies)

A faculty member who has worked on a wide variety of diversity issues over the years and who studies the rhetoric of power and gender, particularly in scientific discourse, Bridget received the Peacemaker of the Year award from the Association for Global New Thought in 2007.  She is also Associate Provost for Diversity and Global Learning.

Jeff McCarthy (English & Environmental Studies)

An avid mountaineer and ice climber, Jeff's new book, Contact: Mountain Climbing and Environmental Thinking, explores our changing attitudes towards mountains and the natural world.  He also chairs Westminster's Environmental Studies program.

Karlyn Bond (Music)

Accomplished pianist Karlyn Bond first appeared as a soloist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra at the age of twelve.  A founding board member of the Intermezzo Chamber Music Series in Salt Lake, Karlyn has a compact disc entitled "Piano Classics from the World of Jane Austen."

Richard Badenhausen (Honors)

Richard's 2004 book, T. S. Eliot and the Art of Collaboration (Cambridge UP) was called by one critic "...perhaps the most interesting critical study of Eliot in a decade."  A former board member of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Badenhausen has directed Westminster College's Honors program since 2001.

Jeff Nichols (History)

An expert in Western History, Jeff received the 2007 Charles Redd Center Award for best general interest article in the Utah Historical Quarterly for his article "The Boss of the White Slaves."  He sits on the advisory board of the Utah State History Records and the Museum of Utah art and History. 

David Goldsmith (Geology)

One of Stephen Jay Gould's last Ph.D. students at Harvard University, Dave specializes in Evolutionary Theory and Paleontology.  He is also Assistant Director of the Honors program.

Michael Popich (Philosophy)

Founding director of the Honors program, Michael is an expert on the Holocaust, Genocide in Africa, and Violence in the Middle East.  He sits on many advisory boards devoted to these and other topics in the Humanities.

Lance Newman (English)

Lance received his Ph.D. from Brown University and is the author or editor of three scholarly books on American and British Romanticism.  He is a widely published poet and a long-time river rafting guide.

View the Faculty Directory HERE.