Dr. Justin McBrayer will be asking the ‘big questions’ as Faculty-in-Residence at Animas Hall

Justin McBrayer
Dr. Justin McBrayer

Ask Dr. Justin McBrayer what brought him to Fort Lewis College and you’re certain to receive a very inspired answer. After all, the new Fort Lewis philosophy professor completed his own undergraduate education at a school that shares many of the same attributes. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. McBrayer attended Berry College, a small liberal arts school in Rome, Georgia that boasts the world’s largest contiguous college campus with more than 26,000 acres in a beautiful, mountainous setting. But it wasn’t just a love of the outdoors that attracted Dr. McBrayer to Berry—it was the small class sizes, the interdisciplinary curriculum and the idea of coming away with a well-rounded, multi-perspective education. “I loved Berry and it didn’t take long for the humanities to win me over,” says Dr. McBrayer, who majored in interdisciplinary studies—a program that allows students to develop an individualized course of study that falls outside existing Berry majors—and minored in religion.

After graduation, Dr. McBrayer started his career as a commercial lender at SunTrust Banks—a field far outside his educational skill set—where he managed multimillion-dollar loan portfolios of corporate clients. Despite his lack of business education, Dr. McBrayer managed to rise to the top of his training class—even amongst peers graduating from strong accounting and finance programs at the Universities of Florida and Georgia. “I’m a self-starter and the work came naturally to me,” he says. “It felt good to know I could be successful there, but banking ultimately wasn’t for me.” Dr. McBrayer had his sights set on graduate school, and he dreamed of heading west. “At Berry, what appealed to me most was the philosophy behind the areas I studied—English, history, political science. I knew I wanted to study philosophy after that experience.” He was accepted into the University of Montana’s masters of philosophy program and when his wife graduated from Berry, the couple headed for Missoula.

At Montana, Dr. McBrayer realized what subfields he wanted to study, but Montana did not have a Ph.D. program. After researching schools across the country, Dr. McBrayer landed at the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he focused on ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of religion. Though he considered other paths, teaching was a natural fit. “Teaching was definitely the place I saw myself,” says Dr. McBrayer. “I get to think and write and talk about things that are important, and help students gain the tools necessary to succeed in many fields.”

When the time came to embark on a nationwide job search, Dr. McBrayer was clear on what he wanted: to teach at a small liberal arts school in the Rocky Mountains. “I applied for at least 70 jobs,” he recalls, “and only two fit that description.” Yet somehow, Dr. McBrayer got lucky. He received a call from Fort Lewis, a school greatly reminiscent of his own positive college experience. The choice was easy—Dr. McBrayer started in Fall 2008.

With a wide variety of interests in the philosophy department, Dr. McBrayer says Fort Lewis students can receive as broad of a philosophy education as they desire. “Among the four of us in the department, we cover metaphysics and feminist philosophy and ethics, but then we have quirky stuff you wouldn’t find at other schools like philosophy of the southwest and indigenous world views,” he says. “Learning philosophy doesn’t require an enormous department or a lot of expensive equipment—it requires careful attention by a dedicated faculty, and we definitely have that here.”

In just a short time at Fort Lewis, Dr. McBrayer has become right at home doing what he loves: working with students. In fact, students will soon be seeing a lot more of Dr. McBrayer, who has been named the very first Faculty in Residence. In the summer of 2009, Dr. McBrayer, his wife and their two children will move into an apartment in Animas Hall, which will house approximately 140 students beginning in the fall. The Faculty-in-Residence program was developed as a way to foster student and faculty interaction outside the formal classroom setting. “I see this as one more chance to have a positive impact on the lives of students, and I’m excited to have the kind of quality interaction you can only have in this type of close environment,” he says, adding that he and his wife are friends with a couple (the husband is a Berry staff member) participating in the same residential program at their alma mater. Dr. McBrayer plans to employ an open-door policy with student residents, hosting casual get-togethers on a weekly basis as well as more formal activities. He may also hold some of his classes in the Animas Hall classroom.

In addition to his new role as a Faculty in Residence next fall, Dr. McBrayer will also lead a new “learning community” course offering for freshman students, whereby students take a cluster of courses that are designed to integrate them both academically and socially. Dr. McBrayer’s bundle will be titled, “The Big Questions,” and will include his Introduction to Philosophy course, an honors course on utopias and an Introduction to Psychology course taught by Dr. Mike Uhes.

Whether he’s inside the classroom or having students over for coffee, Dr. McBrayer is committed to making a difference. “At the end of the day, as a teacher, I do what I do because I want students to be better teachers or doctors or professionals,” he says. “Every day, I get to help students think for themselves and find their own values. I try to teach them to question things and become more independent people. There’s really no better way to do that than at a school like Fort Lewis.”