Chuck Downing began teaching at Monte Vista High School in 1973. He was department chair from 1981- 1995 and twice received Golden Apple Awards by student voting. He has been "San Diego County Teacher of the Year" and won the CIBA-GEIGY Award for Excellence in Science Teaching from NSTA. He was a Christa McAuliffe Fellow in 1992, and he won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching in 1993. In 1994 he was named as a participant in Access Excellence for Biology teachers. In 1996 he received his Ph.D.

Gordon Wong comes to PLNU with 20 years of experience as a Lead Pastor in Honolulu, HI.  Gordon and his wife Rachelle planted The Bridge Church of the Nazarene in 1998.  Along with serving as the pastor, Gordon was a part of numerous organizations including The Hawaii Pastor’s Roundtable, Southwest Field Nazarene Youth International and USA/Canada Regional NYI Council. 

For almost 28 years, Judie Heineman served in the United States Navy and recently retired as a U.S. Navy Captain.  An accomplished leader with a focus in information technology, she delivered critical communications capability ashore and afloat both in the United States and overseas. She has been the Chief Information Officer for a Carrier Strike Group in San Diego, California; the Director of Information Technology the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island; and the Commanding Officer at the U.S.

I am so very excited to be reentering the realms of higher education after having been on leave raising my two young sons. I have worked in a variety of departments across several institutions including Admissions, Student Affairs, teaching a First Year Seminar course, and most recently conducting academic advising in the Office of Global Studies at PLNU.

Karen Seehaus is fond of saying that writing and education are the loves of her professional life. Karen enjoys working with talented students and considers engaging with students at PLNU to be a privilege. When she is able to shift a student’s perspective to give them confidence and agency in their own writing, she is personally delighted. 

Dr. Carsten Hennings joined the Fermanian School of Business (FSB) in 2018 as an Associate Professor of Management. He came to PLNU with 17 years of experience working internationally for different professional organizations, as well as teaching for various universities. Specifically, Hennings worked as an Institutional Bond Salesman and Bond Market Researcher for CTI Capital Inc. in Montreal and Toronto.

Margarita Pintado Burgos was born and raised in a small rural town from Puerto Rico. After finishing a bachelor’s degree in communications at the University of Puerto Rico, she started her graduate studies at Emory University, Atlanta, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Spanish. Pintado's work and teaching combines her interests of language, poetry, creative writing, exile, and feminism. After teaching for 6 years at Ouachita Baptist University, a liberal arts college in a small town from Arkansas, Margarita joined the LJWL faculty at Point Loma Nazarene University in 2017.

Robbie Maakestad grew up in Indianapolis, IN, before attending Taylor University for undergrad, Ball State University for an MA in Writing, and George Mason University for an MFA in Writing (Nonfiction). He is working on two books—a history of the City of David Archaeological site in Jerusalem (nonfiction) and a collection of short stories about Bill Murray (fiction). Robbie is Senior Editor at The Rumpus.