FACULTY IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Swartzendruber's Goal: Excellence

By Wileen Wong

Pepperdine's Natural Science Division chair, Douglas Swartzendruber, wanted to do more than peer through a microscope all of his life.

Earning a degree in pathology, he worked in cancer cell biology research before becoming a professor at the University of Colorado. Higher education suited him well, and he came to Pepperdine in 2001. Swartzendruber currently wears three hats-chair of the division, director of laboratories, and on top of his other duties, he still enjoys teaching.

While in Colorado, Swartzendruber was part of a research group that helped change the medical community's thinking about breast cancer treatment. He remembers, "We thought if we came up with a computer simulation of how breast cancer grows, then we could actually make clinical predictions to change the therapies being used." Soon, the group came up with a new mathematical model of cancer cell development that went against the paradigm of how people originally thought cancer cells grow. "It was very difficult to get the first papers published," comments Swartzendruber. But their computer model eventually became widely accepted.

The research group later disbanded and, after twenty years of teaching, Swartzendruber retired. He and his wife, Rhonda, decided they wanted to try living by the ocean. With their children out of the house, the Swartzendrubers headed west.

Today, Swartzendruber sees his role as one of service. "I'm a facilitator," he explains. "My goal is to help the faculty in this division be successful. We want to be one of the top undergraduate science divisions in the country."

The division chair is always looking for ways to enhance the program. A year ago, Swartzendruber acquired a flow cytometer for the division. Though cytometers are widely used in clinical labs, they are rare commodities in undergraduate institutions.

Swartzendruber and Rhonda have three grown children and a new grandson. The couple enjoys the challenges of scaling 14,000-foot mountain peaks, where the vantage point affords them a rich and much larger perspective on life.