Alan Hutchison joined the Cumberland University faculty in 2018 as an Instructor of Speech.  He holds an undergraduate degree in Communications from Lipscomb University as well as post-graduate degrees in Theology (also Lipscomb) and Corporate Communications (Austin Peay State University).  With over 25 years of public speaking experience in both corporate and non-profit settings he brings an academic and applied perspective to the classroom.  Mr. Hutchison has a passion for education having volunteered in primary education classrooms in Wilson County tutoring students.  As a corporate communicator, he is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and Sales and Marketing Executives International.

Dr. Fred Heifner began at Cumberland University in the fall of 1996 and teaches courses in the Oakley School of Humanities, Education, and the Arts. He primarily teaches courses in anthropology, philosophy, and religion. Prior to arriving at Cumberland, Dr. Heifner was a senior manager of children’s curriculum materials at the Baptist Sunday School Board, Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Heifner is a prolific writer, has led national conferences on childhood education, and has served as a curriculum consultant for the Spanish Publishing House, El Paso, Texas, the Armed Services Curriculum Selection Committee, and the National Council of Churches. He taught in the Seminary External Education Program of the Southern Baptist Convention for twenty-five years.

Dr. Heifner holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in both psychology and philosophy, a Master of Divinity degree in religion, and a Doctorate of Theology degree in systematic theology. He has done additional post-graduate studies in anthropology at Middle Tennessee State University. He was named the Virginia and Guy Thackston Professor of Liberal Arts in 2020.

Stuart Harris joined the Cumberland University faculty in 1997. Before that, he taught English at Hunters Lane Comprehensive High School in Nashville for 11 years.  In addition to both a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Belmont University, Dr. Harris holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from the University of North Carolina and a Doctor of Arts degree from Middle Tennessee State University.

His teaching responsibilities at the university include Composition, World Literature, Sophomore Literature, and Studies in Drama.  In the past, he has taught a seminar course on the short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe and a course on the fiction of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor as well as courses on Southern Literature, Writing Fiction, and the American Novel Since World War II. His greatest pleasure as a teacher is helping students discover their own writing voices and being present as they examine their beliefs through the discussion of literature.

Dr. Harris has published poetry in a number of small literary magazines, a story in South Dakota Literary Review, and a story in an anthology of Tennessee writers. He has also published a review of Clyde Edgerton’s novel Where Trouble Sleeps and an article on teaching World Literature in an interdisciplinary context in Tennessee English Journal.  He is currently working on a number of short stories and poems, as well as two critical articles—one on “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and another on Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor.

Dr. Harris has served at Cumberland in a number of capacities, including Faculty Senate President for 2000-2001 and chair of the Professional Development Committee from April 2008 until March 2010. He also served as the chair of the University Committee on Courses, Curricula, and Academic Policy from March 2010 until May 2012.

Dr. Sara Hays began teaching at Cumberland University in the fall of 2011 as an adjunct instructor in English, and she became a full-time member of the faculty in the fall of 2018. She teaches courses mostly in children’s and adolescent literature, British literature, and composition. In addition to teaching at Cumberland, Dr. Hays was previously an adjunct professor at the International Academy of Design and Technology and at Volunteer State Community College. Then, as a doctoral student at Middle Tennessee State University, she worked in the College of Graduate Studies as the Thesis and Dissertation Coordinator helping graduate students fine-tune the formatting of their theses and dissertations.

Dr. Hays holds a Bachelor of Arts in mass media communications from Emmanuel College, a Master of Arts in English from Belmont University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in English from Middle Tennessee State University. Her graduate research focused on children’s and adolescent literature, culminating with her dissertation on young adult literature author John Green. She has presented several papers at national literature conferences and has had articles published in peer reviewed journals. Beyond her scholarly work, Dr. Hays’s interests also include all aspects of pop culture consumption, including going to the movies, binging shows on Netflix, playing video games, listening to podcasts, watching videos on YouTube, and reading books of all genres and subjects.

Kent Hallman is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cumberland University, with cross-disciplinary background in Sociology, Cultural Anthropology and Theology/Religious Studies. He has lived in several countries, contributes to academic works in several languages, lectured at a number of universities in Europe and in the United States, and held positions in higher education, healthcare and ministry. Dr. Hallman is passionate about teaching, and his research interests include the sociology of ethnicity/race, culture, religion, folklore, sociolinguistics and diaspora, as well as Jewish Studies and Romani Studies.

His direct ancestors were subjects of ethnological research by a founding social scientist in 19th century Europe, inspiring Dr. Hallman to engage in his own sociological and ethnographic research on religious practices, culture and identity construction among diasporic minorities connected to the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Furthermore, Dr. Hallman is an ordained minister with international expertise in chaplaincy, ecclesial leadership and pastoral counseling. He lives in Nashville with his wife Phoebe, and is a multilingual world-traveler, song-writer, published poet and local volunteer; he enjoys history, traveling, the cinematic arts, good books, and an old-fashioned story or song in the company of family, cousins and friends.

Richard Garvin is a temporary Assistant Professor of Psychology at Cumberland University. His primary teaching and research responsibilities are at Tennessee Technological University. He previously taught at Nashville State Community College and at other institutions of higher education in Middle Tennessee. He served as a psychotherapist at The Village of Kairos, providing therapy to individuals, men, women, couples, adolescents as well as those with alcohol or drug additions. Richard’s specialty is working with transracial adoption families. Transracial adoption (or interracial adoption) refers to the adoption of a child that is of a different race than that of the adoptive parents.

Richard earned his Doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in Clinical Counseling: Teaching and Supervision from Trevecca Nazarene University. In addition, he earned a Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology from Fisk University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. When Richard is not working, he enjoys playing basketball, reading and exercising, but more importantly he enjoys spending time with his wife of ten years and his two children.