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Heidelberg

Program Staff

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Melissa Swann

Director

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Martina Drefs

Program Assistant

martina.drefs@pepperdine.edu

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Christina Wuttke

Academic Coordinator

christina.wuttke@pepperdine.edu

Faculty-in-Residence 2023-2024

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Ty Pownall

Assistant Professor of Art
Studio Art Program Coordinator

CAC 116 (Office), CAC 118B (Studio)

Ty Pownall is a professor of Studio Art at Seaver College and teaches classes in sculpture, collage, and installation art. He has been teaching at Pepperdine for 14 years. He is a practicing artist and curator and is part of the art collective Durden and Ray in Los Angeles. Ty and his wife, Amanda, and two little girls, June and Alice, have served in the Florence IP all year program and have also served in the summer program there. Ty visited Heidelberg once when he was 15 and mostly remembers that it was a cuter town than he thought existed in real life and that the walk up the hill to the Moore Haus was a bit of a workout but worth it! His favorite part, by far, of being IP faculty is just hanging out with the students as they experience a life changing time abroad!

Faculty-in-Residence 2024-2025

Dr. Nick Cumming

Dr. Nick Cumming

Assistant Professor of Humanities
Humanities and Teacher Education Division, Seaver College

Nick Cumming is Assistant Professor of Humanities at Seaver College, with a specialty in late-medieval and early modern Church history. He has been teaching at Seaver since Fall 2017, first in the Religion GE sequence, then in the Humanities program. Before coming to Pepperdine, Nick earned his PhD in London and he was able to teach at Pepperdine's London program and to serve as Resident Director for the London program of Lipscomb University. Nick has also been able to visit Pepperdine's Buenos Aires program on the New Faculty Retreat. Nick and his wife Kristen have experienced the life-changing impact of living internationally, and they strongly support IP's mission to empower students through experiential learning and faith formation. Nick and Kristen have three children, Della, Rowan, and Camden and they all love to travel, especially throughout Europe. Nick is excited to live and teach in Heidelberg, a major center of the Protestant Reformation, and to instill his love for European religious history into his students!

 

Updated: 8.29.2023