Psychology • 2027
Dr. Jessica Sykes has become a beloved faculty member on campus. She is involved in several faith-based activities and is a faculty mentor for the women’s volleyball team – all while serving as the chair of the Department of Psychology and Human Services.
Dr. Sykes earned her undergraduate degrees in athletic training and kinesiology from Lincoln Memorial University. Although she had planned to attend medical school, she returned to LMU as a graduate assistant so she could get a free master’s degree and become an athletic trainer. But LMU had limited options at the time, and Dr. Sykes ended up getting her master’s degree in counseling.
“God completely flipped my careers around,” Dr. Sykes said. She went from wanting to be an orthopedic surgeon to a counselor.
Theatre and Digital Marketing • 2027
Dr. Olivia Andrews grew up in Pennsylvania, earned her undergraduate degree in biology at Lockhaven University, and thought she wanted to become a dentist. Then she took one class about bugs and everything changed.
She knew very early in her academic career that she wanted to get her PhD. Dr. Andrews started her master’s degree at Virginia Tech, but she took on a large project and was able to completely bypass her master’s degree. She earned her PhD in May, an impressive feat at the age of twenty-seven.
Dr. Andrews realized she wanted to teach while working as a teacher’s assistant in the last couple years of her doctoral program. She enjoyed mentoring her students and was given many outreach opportunities. She quickly developed a passion for teaching. Her undergraduate education also gave her a love for smaller schools. It is important to her that her students be more than “just a number.”
Graphic Communication • 2030
Mike Bandy has spent years helping others learn both in and out of the classroom. As a professor at Bluefield University, Bandy uses his experience in accounting and coaching to help students prepare for life after college.
Bandy has always enjoyed teaching others. He runs his own certified public accountant (CPA) practice, which he has operated since 2001, where he helps clients with their businesses. He also coached soccer earlier in his life and believes coaching is another form of teaching.
“I’ve been drawn to passing on information that I know to someone else,” Bandy said.
When the opportunity to teach at BU came along in 2018, Bandy said it was “a blessing from God.” Since then, he has enjoyed helping students grow throughout their college careers and watching them succeed after graduation.
English • 2027
Dr. Paul Bennett isn’t much into sports, but among the few events he watches is the America’s Cup, one of the oldest international sports competitions in the world. It began with a race around the Isle of Wight in 1851.
“A whole fleet of British boats contributed,” Dr. Bennett said. “One boat came from America — that was the yacht ‘America’ — and it sailed across the Atlantic in order to compete. It won by about half a mile.”
Dr. Bennett has loved sailing since he was a boy. He says it “gets into your blood — you can’t forget it.” Hanging on his office wall is a painting of the boat he had when he was 18. Although he now serves as assistant professor of economics at Bluefield University, Dr. Bennett spent most of his career in IT.
As an undergraduate, Dr. Bennett majored in mathematics, which he sees as an “incredibly beautiful” part of God’s creation. He interned with IBM, where he worked on a program to design cuts for a numerically controlled glaze. He loved it so much that he spent the next 40 years in IT.
Communications & Criminal Justice • 2028
Dr. Jason Craig began serving as Bluefield University’s newest provost on July 7, 2026. Dr. Craig brings experience in a myriad of areas including physical therapy, along with years of background in higher education as a student, professor, and senior academic leader. Since beginning at Bluefield University, Dr. Craig has brought new ideas and helped spur progress at our very own “lighthouse on the hill.”
Dr. Craig, who originally is from America, grew up and received his education in Northern Ireland. After earning his bachelor’s in physical therapy, he went straight to earning his research-based PhD through the same university, the University of Ulster. After around four and a half years of research, Dr. Craig earned his PhD and began teaching at his alma mater.
Cybersecurity • 2028
Talking with students is one of Emily Coppola’s favorite things about serving as an academic advisor. Discover what drew this former news reporter to Bluefield University, what her numerous roles entail, and what her hobbies are in this employee profile podcast.
Communications & Criminal Justice • 2028
“History stuff” is what Wendy Beavers, assistant professor of history at Bluefield University, hopes her students walk away with an interest in.
“I love to learn and teach new information,” Beavers said, “to see new students every semester who maybe never liked history, then to see some of them by the end of the semester say, ‘Hey, maybe this history stuff is pretty interesting.'”
