Communication Professor Jennifer Phillips (top two photos) and Religion Professor Stanley Talbert (bottom two photos) during their time as students and now faculty members at Pepperdine. Photos by Betsy Burrow and courtesy of Jennifer Phillips and Stanley Talbert
Every Pepperdine faculty member has a unique story to tell. They each have their own journey of how they ended up where they are and how working at Pepperdine has shaped them along the way.
However, for some, their Pepperdine journeys began long before becoming faculty members. Their journeys began as Pepperdine students who have since returned to help inspire and mentor students the same way they were once guided.
“I feel so lucky that I get to teach and learn as a part of my job and interact with students from all over the world with all different worldviews and backgrounds,” Communication Professor Jennifer Phillips said.
The Start of the Journey
Some professors once sat in the very same classrooms at Pepperdine where their students now learn.
“My experience teaching here has been surreal and a blessing,” Religion Professor Stanley Talbert said. “It’s surreal because you’re teaching in the same classrooms that you were a student in, you’re colleagues with the same professors you had and it’s very full-circle.”
Talbert graduated from Pepperdine in December 2011 with his Bachelor of Arts in Religion, but he came back to walk with his class in Spring 2012. While at Pepperdine, he was a club convocation intern, a Spiritual Life Advisor, part of the Black Student Association and a member of the Genesis Gospel Choir.
Some faculty members received multiple degrees from Pepperdine, such as Kindy De Long, associate dean of Seaver College and Religion professor. De Long received her Bachelor of Arts in English in 1987 and her Master of Divinity in 1994.
“My experience at Pepperdine was excellent, and the faculty were wonderful,” De Long said. “I grew so much as a scholar and researcher. I also went to Kenya right after I graduated with a group of Pepperdine students to do an internship with a church in Nairobi, and that’s where I first felt a call to ministry.”
Kindy De Long, associate dean of Seaver College and Religion professor, poses for a photo. Photo by Betsy Burrow
During her time as a Pepperdine student, De Long worked on the yearbook, was chaplain of the Pi Gamma Phi sorority, which is now Pi Beta Phi, and directed Songfest her senior year with her sorority and a fraternity.
“Those helped me gain leadership experience,” De Long said. “I always encourage students to jump into leadership wherever you can find it on campus because it keeps growing your ability to be a leader when you graduate.”
The In-Between
Upon graduation, each of these faculty members decided to leave Pepperdine in order to forge their own paths before life eventually led them back to where their journeys began.
Charlie Engelmann, senior director of Operations for International Programs, was a class of 2001 graduate.
“Upon graduating, I was not planning, expecting or wanting to stay at Pepperdine,” Engelmann said. “I just felt that you leave college and do other things.”
Engelmann moved to China to teach English as his first job after graduation. From there, he worked in media for a few years and then held a corporate job at Exxon Mobile.
Charlie Engelmann, senior director of Operations for International Programs, poses for a photo. Photo by Betsy Burrow
Similarly, Phillips said she also did not plan to stay at Pepperdine upon graduating in 2006.
“I very intentionally did not want to come back to Pepperdine right away,” Phillips said. “I had such a positive experience that I knew if I were to stay that I would be too comfortable. I was offered opportunities to apply for positions, and I turned them down because I wanted to be uncomfortable and see what my degree was worth.”
Post-grad, Phillips taught English abroad in Spain and pursued a double master’s degree in Music and College Student Affairs at Azusa Pacific University (APU). She also worked in student affairs at Cal Poly Pomona, Occidental College and APU.
De Long said when she returned from her post-grad trip to Kenya, she did not know what she wanted to do.
“I answered an ad in a newspaper and got a job as a recruiter of accountants and was promoted to account manager,” De Long said. “I really enjoyed it, and I grew more, but I still felt a call to ministry, and in fact, I was thinking about going back to Kenya to work with a church there.”
During that period of her life, De Long said she was being mentored by the missions minister at her church, who encouraged her to further her religious education. She decided to return to Pepperdine to work on her Master of Divinity.
The Return Home
Ultimately, each of these four faculty members returned to their Pepperdine roots. Though each took a different path to come back home, they all made the intentional choice to return and inspire the next generation of Waves.
While Talbert was writing his dissertation at Union Theological Seminary, he applied to the Seaver Faculty Fellowship.
“The fellowship is designed for members of the Churches of Christ and is an opportunity to research, receive mentorship and teach,” Talbert said. “I did that during the academic year of 2019-2020.”
Some faculty members, like Engelmann, have taken unconventional paths back to Pepperdine. When he returned to the Pepperdine community, it wasn’t to the Malibu campus but rather to serve as the director of the Shanghai program.
“When Shanghai was first established in 2008, I was there while they were setting it up, and I had met with the dean at the time and given him some thoughts and advice,” Engelmann said. “I saw the beginning stages of the program, but I did not think that I would ever do it.”
Following his time in Shanghai, Engelmann worked a corporate job at Exxon Mobile, where he said he felt comfort and stability but not fulfillment. It was the most secure he had ever felt in his life.
“I was at church, and the pastor made an off-hand comment that most Americans, if they’re given a choice between comfort and meaning, they will choose comfort, and I felt that I had become too comfortable,” Engelmann said. “I was very much thinking that I needed to change careers, and then I got a Facebook message about being the director of the Shanghai program, which immediately resonated with me.”
However, Engelmann’s journey back to Pepperdine did not end there, as the Shanghai program permanently closed in 2021.
“When the decision was made to permanently close Shanghai, one of the questions was, ‘What do we do with Charlie?’” Engelmann said. “The offer was made to offer me a Malibu-based role, and they kept me on as a part of Pepperdine.”
Phillips returned to Pepperdine to teach while finishing her PhD in Higher Education at APU. She said there are three things that she looks for in a job: the ability to empower students, the ability to do something creative and the ability to work with autonomy.
“Here at Pepperdine, I just feel like I get those three things that I wanted fulfilled in a job,” Phillips said. “I feel like I get autonomy, that I can be creative and that I can build relationships with students and empower them, which gives me such purpose in my everyday job.”
Returning to Pepperdine has been nothing short of wonderful, De Long said. After receiving her Master of Divinity and then her PhD from the University of Notre Dame, she returned as a professor.
“It’s been amazing, life-giving and I’m so thrilled to be able to work somewhere where I believe in our mission and the work that we are doing with students in melding together a faith perspective,” De Long said. “It’s gratifying to be able to help students have the same kind of transformative experience that I had, almost like paying it forward.”
___________________
Follow Currents Magazine on X: @PeppCurrents and Instagram: @currentsmagazine
Contact Alicia Dofelmier by email: alicia.dofelmier@pepperdine.edu
