RACHEL JOHNSON
News Assistant
The search is on for a new department head for Pepperdine’s Business Division. A committee, comprised of professors Marilyn Misch and Levon Goukasian, as well as two deans, will be looking for a new division head to replace current chair, Keith Whitney.
Whitney, an associate professor of business law and finance, has served as the division chair for seven years. He was the chair for four years and opted to serve another three after finishing his first term. Whitney said he continued serving as chair as because of God’s calling and obligation to the Business Division.
“One of the roles of a professor is to step up to the plate and fulfill obligations,” Whitney said. “A mission of service is big at this university, and I felt like this was God’s calling for me at this time in my life.”
Whitney graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a degree in business finance and got his master’s in business finance from EIU as well. He then earned his law degree from Texas Tech University.
At Pepperdine, Whitney teaches financial management, legal environment of business and legal environment of international business. Outside of the classroom, his academic interests include labor law and trademark protection, as well as alternative dispute resolution and employment law.
In addition to his work at Pepperdine, Whitney also used to be a minister at the Simi Church of Christ. His passion for religion and business combine in his research, reflected in an op-ed he wrote for Religion News Service in January 2006, titled “C.S. Lewis’ ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ Can Teach Needed Business Ethics.”
Whitney is also passionate about a summer program held every three years in Oxford and Cambridge that allows students to study the works of C.S. Lewis at universities where the author used to teach. Whitney wants to continue taking students to the conference, known as “Oxbridge,” in hopes of instilling within them knowledge of Lewis’s works and how their messages can combine with ethics.
“The program is so great because it is such a combination of the spirit of the place, the location, and the spirit of the conference and the teachings as well,” Whitney said. “C.S. Lewis’s works are important because they are illustrations of how Christianity impacts lives on a daily basis.”
After this semester, Whitney will be on sabbatical and will be working to complete a book that more closely examines the conjunction between C.S. Lewis’s works and business ethics. He will continue teaching at Pepperdine when he returns from sabbatical in the fall of 2008.
The committee will be searching for a candidate who can effectively lead the division in implementing new policies and providing guidance to business faculty and students. The search will conclude once a faculty member has been chosen who can fulfill the needs of the business division.
02-08-2007
