For Drs. Haley Burton and Connor Bryant, their return to their alma mater, Lubbock Christian University, is an exciting, full-circle moment opportunity to pour into their own students, just as their professors did for them during their own times on campus.
Dr. Burton graduated from LCU in 2015 with degrees in Finance and Accounting. “About two months prior to graduating from LCU, I secured my first full-time job at a local accounting firm, Garrett and Swann LLP,” she explained. “My intention out of college was to obtain my CPA license, work in the public accounting field, and eventually build my own tax client base in Lubbock.” However, after three years of working in public accounting, Burton found herself shifting course, deciding instead to go back to school and pursue a master’s in finance and economics.
“About a year after I graduated from LCU, I was contacted by Tracy Mack, the Dean of the College of Business, and my Finance professor in college,” she recalled. “He approached me about the possibility of pursuing a Ph.D. and eventually teaching at LCU. I had never even considered the possibility of teaching, especially in higher education,” she admitted, “but the confidence and encouragement from him caused me to rethink my career path. Finance was my true passion while in college, so after much prayer and research, I began the long process of pursuing a Ph.D. to teach at the college level.”
Dr. Bryant, who graduated in 2016 with a degree in Middle School Math Education, immediately went to work first as a middle school math teacher in Frenship ISD, and then as an instructional designer at Texas Tech University—but over those eight years, he knew where he wanted to end up.
“My goal has always been to return to LCU as faculty member,” he shared. “I have always been passionate about education, and I wanted to be able to mentor and touch the lives of future educators as my professors did for me.” After receiving his Master of Curriculum and Instruction from LCU’s Graduate College of Education and his Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas Tech University, that opportunity presented itself.
“I didn’t expect to return as soon as I did,” he admitted. “A position in the secondary education faculty opened, and I met with Dr. David Boyer to discuss the job and what it entailed. After speaking with him, it reminded me of the godly and servant leadership in which Dr. Boyer leads the College of Education— I was immediately drawn back to the university that shaped me as an educator and as a man of God.”
In the fall of 2023, Dr. Bryant returned to the LCU College of Education as an Assistant Professor of Secondary Education and serves as Program Coordinator for the Curriculum and Instruction Graduate Program and the Master of Arts in Teaching Graduate Program. He has also created a new Alternative Certification Program for Teachers, LCU LEAP, which is enrolling its first cohort this May.
Dr. Burton’s path back to LCU was similar in many ways.
“I continued to work full-time in public accounting for two years while pursuing my master’s degree online,” she explained. “My boss and coworkers at Garrett and Swann were gracious and supportive of my plan to pursue a career in higher education, even while knowing I would eventually leave the firm. I would not have been able to pursue my goals without their support. The knowledge and experience I gained in my five years there inform my teaching every day.”
“Once I completed my master’s degree in December of 2019, I began teaching at LCU in January of 2020,” she continued. “I started my Ph.D. program at National University the same week we were ordered to stay home due to Covid. I was attending grad school full-time online while learning how to teach online (and simply learning how to teach). I continued to teach full-time and work on my Ph.D., and after a little more than three years, I graduated with my doctorate in July of 2023.”
For Dr. Bryant, returning home to teach at LCU has had a profound impact.
“I am ecstatic to be back on campus and working with so many of the wonderful people that shaped me during some of my most formative adult years,” he explained. “I have been honored to now call so many lifelong mentors colleagues, and I hope to have the same spiritual and academic influence on others that the faculty and staff had on me as a student.”
Dr. Burton agreed. “It was surreal to come back to LCU as a faculty member and see the ‘other side’ of higher education,” she recalled. “The primary reason I wanted to return to LCU was to give students the same (and even better) experience I had in college. When I think about what I strive to be for my students, I can’t help but think of the story of Hagar in Genesis 16. After fleeing from Sarai, she encounters God in her distress and loneliness. When God recognized her affliction, she called the name of the Lord El Roi – ‘You are a God who sees me.’ Our students come from all backgrounds, with their own potential, fear, loneliness, excitement, struggle, resilience, lack of confidence, and grit. I feel it is our responsibility to see each student and help them realize their potential. We may never see the finished product,” she emphasized, “but we get to be involved in the work at such a critical time in their lives.”
In his first year back at LCU, Dr. Bryant threw himself into campus life, volunteering alongside his College of Education colleagues to help facilitate the story time area at LCU’s annual Big Blue Christmas community event, helping with the annual homecoming Master Follies Kids’ Show, and university- sponsored service projects like LCU for LBK.
Dr. Bryant has also dedicated himself to advances in scholarship beyond his teaching duties. “I am currently in the process of working with my former dissertation chair to publish my research,” he shared. Dr. Bryant has published several articles and papers, including “Beyond Binary: K-12 Student Use of Gender-Inclusive Language in a Scientific Context,” in School Science and Mathematics; the presentation, “Growth and Fixed Mindset Association Words Found in Student Perception of Scientists,” at the Southeastern Association for Science Teacher Education Annual Conference; and “Media Literacy in the Age of COVID and Climate Change,” published in The Science Teacher.
“Dr. Connor Bryant first expressed his academic dream while enrolled as an undergraduate student on the LCU campus more than a decade ago,” shared Dr. David Boyer, Dean of the College of Education. “His professional experiences as a Middle School teacher in Frenship ISD and staff member at Texas Tech University continued to fuel his fire for professional perfection throughout the pursuit of his doctorate. Dr. Bryant returned to LCU as partial fulfillment of his lifelong dream to mentor and train Christian educators. His roots on the LCU campus were planted many years before he was born, and now, he daily contributes to his family legacy. The LCU College of Education is blessed to have him on our team.”
Dr. Burton has also been deep into research in her field alongside several of her colleagues. “I have been working on several research projects over the last year, including two projects with Dr. Josh Sauerwein,” she explained. “In 2023, we wrote a paper titled ‘The Fiduciary Flaw: Nudging Students Toward a Stewardship Mindset.’ We presented our manuscript at the Christian Business Faculty Association’s (CBFA) annual conference in November 2023. The paper was well received and published in the conference proceedings. It has since been accepted to the Christian Business Academy Review to be published this spring.”
“We are also currently working on our second project in this area,” she continued, “investigating fiduciary duty, stewardship, and the impact of these concepts on ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing from the perspective of financial advisors. We presented our findings at the CBFA conference again last November and received an award for Best Paper. This Spring, we are working on extending the study and hope to produce another publication in the next year.”
“In a very short time, Dr. Haley Burton has evolved into an excellent teacher, colleague, and highly valued member of the LCU College of Business faculty,” shared Tracy Mack, Dean of the College of Business. “Her performance as a professor simply mirrors her performance as a finance student during her undergraduate years at LCU. Dr. Burton worked hard in her graduate studies, always aiming to become a member of the faculty at LCU. I am so grateful to Dr. Burton for her dedication to LCU, to the mission of LCU, and to the College of Business,” he added. “I am hopeful that she remains a member of the LCU family for many years to come and fully expect her to lead the university in both informal and formal roles.”