An interview with Daniel K. Church, PhD

In September of 2005, Daniel K. Church, PhD, became the third president of Bastyr University. With a CEO background in both health care and higher education, Dr. Church was the first choice of the selection committee and the Board of Trustees. He jumped into the swirl of opportunities and challenges with full enthusiasm and began making his mark immediately.

In January, 2006, Dr. Church sat down with Bastyr staffers Kathleen Warren and Sharon Petersen to reflect on the whirlwind behind him and look forward to the future.

What brought you to Bastyr University?
I actually considered applying back in 2000 when Dr. Pizzorno retired. At that time I was the CEO of a rehab hospital which had a very holistic approach to healing. So the position advertised in the Chronicle of Higher Education had some sizzle for me. Additionally, my wife always wanted to move back to Seattle. In the end, I didn’t apply in 2000, but when I read about the opening in the Chronicle after President Shepherd left I thought I’m not going to waste this chance again. Bastyr University ties into the two dominant threads in my life; academia and holistic health. And this time it was the right thing at the right time.

What do you think of Bastyr University thus far?
The appeal for me is the extraordinary energy. People here really believe! And it’s infectious. You can feel it when you come on campus. It’s romancing and pulls you in.  You can’t be neutral. And I like the controversy here. In this community of scholars, there should always be a wide airing of all points of view, although it should not be adversarial. We may need a more gentle expression of differences of opinion. One can say what one thinks and still be respectful. 

I like that Bastyr has all the qualities of a "movement" rather than just an "institution" although that can make it a frustrating environment in which to provide leadership. It’s unwieldy at times, but we provide the grounding and guidance here to help students go out and change the world. Bastyr students have curiosity, passion and an impulse to make things better. We can have a direct impact on the quality of life among our students and, through them, the community. We're spawning every day a movement that will contribute to the common good.

What do you think of the Bastyr Mission to improve the health of the human community through education, research and clinical services?
Everything we do has to come from our mission-heart. If it doesn't grow out of our heart, then we will not have the energy to sustain it.

We need to strengthen the credibility of our academic enterprise in support of our mission. We shouldn’t simply assume that we will realize our mission with the three strategies of academics, research and clinical services. We need a clear understanding of how we deploy our resources, what kind of research to engage in and how to provide clinical services. There is some frustration over the lack of clarity about strategy. For instance, the first reason we have a clinic is to educate our students and provide hands-on training. Healing the community is a side benefit. Some people see us as health care providers, per se, but as educators we have a specific motivation. If we were health care providers first, we would have different competitors and different partners than we have as educators.

The research at BU is impressive. But how does that fit with our mission and structure? Right now we do research if we get external funding. We need to ask ourselves what we would do if we didn’t have money and had to pay for it ourselves. If it’s needed research, I hope we would find a way to pay for it. 

We can’t afford ambiguity. We need to understand our mission strategically. We need to examine the instruments we use – education, research, patient care. It's not self-evident that they achieve the mission bottom-line.

The goal is to prepare a cadre of competent professional who can go out and make a difference in the world one person at a time. 

What are the key challenges facing BU?
What has been shocking at BU is the rapid growth. We went from small to big in such a hurry and that was exhilarating and bewildering. We diversified from a small naturopathic medical school to a University because we wanted to be holistic and collaborative in meeting the health needs of our community. It’s good to have a variety of disciplines in the institution (and, frankly, there was also a sense of market opportunity.)

But we still don’t have a full understanding of what it is to be a University where the disciplines work together to support the development of whole human beings as well as competent practitioners of the various professions.

We need to find and exploit opportunities for integration and collaboration. Specifically, we need to identify opportunities for integration that celebrate and affirm our contribution rather than co-opting us. We need to be inter-disciplinary. A big challenge to natural medicine is finding our place in the panoply and finding where we can make the biggest contributions proactively rather than in reactionary fashion.

Beyond that, we must diversify our revenues so we are not so dependent on student tuition. Students here carry a heavy weight, financial and academic. Although I am a huge supporter of rigor, if we are teaching things people don’t need to know, we need to review that, and we need to ask ourselves what else we should be doing. If our bottom line is to improve health, what more must we do?

How do you see BU’s relationship with the city of Kenmore?
We will find a way to live peacefully and productively with our neighbors. We needn’t be adversarial. The community has some uncertainty about us and lots of people know lots of little pieces about Bastyr University and the medicine. We need to bring more to the conversation so the community will have a better picture of all that we do. Our intent is to embrace our neighbors and be clearer about our collaborative and cooperative spirit.

We are remarkably well known for our size and age. But sometimes it seems we are better known in Seattle than in the suburbs where the campus lies. We are especially recognized in the neighborhood around our Fremont teaching clinic.

What about Bastyr University’s relationship with the greater Puget Sound area?
We have many potential partners in the community and lots of interest in collaboration. I am surprised and pleased that so many are interested in talking about partnership, despite the fact that some previous conversations with potential partners have not gone very far.

We have a special opportunity to be cherished by the community because we can have a direct impact on the quality of life. Growing a movement here is slower and more fragile than some other enterprises but well worth it. People care about Bastyr because they care about the generative places where things start and grow and become available to others.  There’s an enlightened self-interest in wanting such places in your own hometown and Bastyr has done an excellent job of staking out the territory of this being the place where a movement started and continues with vigor and promise.

What do you see for the future of BU and natural medicine?
There is not a future for us in isolation. Consumers won’t choose us if the medicine isn’t integrative. Of course, there is a risk in embracing in potential partners, but if just anyone can do it, it’s trivial. If the medicine is legitimate, it won’t be co-opted.

In my heart I believe we need a stronger emphasis on prevention. Prevention ultimately will reduce health care costs but that is a by-product; the human value of preventing sickness is first. Our first attack should be pre-sickness. We can’t compete against the hi-tech specialists and the world is simply not ready to abandon its clamor for hi-tech interventions, so our emphasis should be on changing behavior to enhance health and wholeness rather than "fixing" things.

I envision a day when Bastyr has more focus on elementary kids and how to keep them healthy. These prevention philosophies should be introduced at a young age and we need to look at credentialing teachers to spread our message that the body has an innate ability to heal itself. We have to share and demonstrate what we know. Where we're most effective is teaching those things that keep us healthy. We need to be the sought-out experts on this. If one has something really good, one must give it away. If we keep it to ourselves we will miss the chance to serve others and we won’t be as good as we could be. We must also keep in mind that no one has a lock on the whole truth.

Brief Biography

Daniel K. Church, Ph.D., was named the third president of Bastyr University effective September 1, 2005.

A California native, from 1968-78 Church lived in Seattle where he was a tenured professor at Seattle Pacific University before moving to Ohio to be dean of a small liberal arts college. Subsequently Dr. Church became the President and CEO of Edwin Shaw Hospital in Akron, Ohio, where he served for 17 years. Before coming to Bastyr University, he served four and one half years as the General Secretary (CEO) of the General Council on Ministries of the United Methodist Church.

President Church is married to Lorinda Blews Church, RN, and they have three adult children and two grandsons. They are thrilled to be back in the Pacific Northwest and are learning again to enjoy the rich cultural and educational resources of this beautiful area.

Dr. Church earned bachelors and master’s degrees in the humanities from San Francisco State University and the Ph.D. in rhetorical studies from the University of Washington. He has quickly become known for his deep commitment to the success of Bastyr University students.