Comings and Goings

Burman University welcomes the following faculty:

Kwame Adom is an associate professor at the School of Business. He holds a PhD in management from the University of Sheffield Management School in England. His MBA is from University of Leicester, UK. Dr. Adom is an experienced researcher in entrepreneurship and marketing. He has 15 journal publications, two book chapters, and one edited book to his credit.

Dr. Adom comes to Burman from the University of Ghana Business School where he taught for the past eight years. He and his wife, Cynthia Obenewa, a caterer, have three children.

Dadria R. Lewis is an assistant professor in the psychology department. Dr. Lewis earned her PhD in counseling and counselor education at the University of Florida (UF). While studying there, she was awarded UF’s Outstanding International Student Award.

At the College of Behavioural and Social Sciences at Northern Caribbean University in Jamaica, Dr. Lewis taught as well as coordinated practicums and fieldwork. Her areas of interest include social justice advocacy and family-school-community collaboration.

She and Dr. Delano Lewis, associate professor in the biology department, have three children.

In a May 28 virtual employee recognition ceremony, the following three retiring faculty were honoured:

Bruce Buttler arrived at Canadian Union College (CUC, now Burman University) with Geri, his wife, and their sons Timothy and David on Registration Day 1976. They came from Loma Linda University where Bruce had earned a PhD in biology.

At that time, no private college in Alberta had the authority to confer degrees—except in theology. President Neville Matthews was intent on hiring highly qualified professors. He fully supported Bruce’s efforts to build a strong biology program, and it grew rapidly from one instructor to several.

For 44 years, Bruce worked with the administration to achieve fully-accredited university status while still being focused on mission. He served first as biology instructor, then as department chair, and finally as dean of the Division of Science. He spent his life helping Burman University become the institution that it is today.

His many diverse interests have given Dr. Buttler a reputation as a “Renaissance man.” He writes, “My greatest challenge and greatest accomplishment was to grow as a scholar.” In retirement he plans to continue his research and learn Hindi.

John Byron Connors started an undergraduate program in psychology at Burman University in 1990. He was the department chair for more than 20 years. Under Dr. Connor’s leadership, the university added two additional professors to expand the curriculum during the 1990s. In 1997, a 3-year BSc was approved; and in 2003, a 4-year BSc was added. Dr. Connors’