Known to be on Dixon Center’s stage as a drama setter, that’s what teaching psychology entails in his class and does not occur without his customized coffee mug in hands.

Students can also catch him around the Dining Hall, again, sipping coffee.

As a professor of psychology, he also holds the office of assistant vice president for university relations, an office that deals with fundraising and school produced publications. He is non other than Dr. Jerome Hammond.

Married to Vanessa Hammond who is the Director of Grants’ Office at Lee University. He is originally from Savannah, Georgia and has three kids.

He is 42 years old and he graduated from Lee University in 1991, from where he proceeded to get Master of Divinity, thinking he was going to be a pastor since his father was one.

He got his PhD in Child and Family Development from University of Tennessee and has been teaching in Lee University for six years before he became the assistant vice president for university relations, a position he still holds alongside his professorship position.

Clarion: Give an account of your teaching experience including the challenges you have faced since you became a professor?

Hammond: Challenges for me in teaching were first of all, the first couple of years you [start] teaching, you are just trying to get your classroom materials written and that’s a challenge because so much of your energy is taken up, since you are trying to have a good class.

In adjusting to the students, it takes a couple of years, several years, perhaps. Another challenge is trying to keep it fresh after five or six years. In a course, it’s the same material, so how do you keep it interesting? That was also sort of my challenge.

Fresh out my doctorate program, I was passing a lot of materials fast, plus I just had a family. Those challenges made me not to be a good professor in my earlier years but then one learns to do it better.

C: What teaching method do you employ that makes you tick?

H: I guess I try to think through, each time I teach it. Why is this interesting? Who cares? I also try to think through how much fun is it to learn.

I don’t want it to die with me in the sense that here is an interesting subject, I want people to learn it. It’s not always easy to do that but I have to make people to always want to learn more about it.

C: Seeing that you are an assistant vice president and also a professor, how have you been able to balance work life and family life?

H: I always think this; if you are not talented enough to get your work done in an amount of time that lets you spend time with your family, you should think about another job because it means you are not talented enough. How I have been able to balance is by always rethinking the fact that “am I doing it right?”

No one on their last days on earth says I wish I had stayed in my office more, a lot of people say “I wish I has gone home, I wish I had hugged my children more”, a lot of people say that, well, let’s learn our lessons now.

C: When raising funds from people, do you apply psychological concepts?

H: Yeah, I think any good fundraiser does that. Anybody in any kind of relationship does that by the way.

In relating to donors, it’s important to understand who they are, what is important to them and what stage of life they are in, not any sort of trickery but in understanding human behaviors, the donor’s behaviors, I apply psychological concepts.

C: A little bird told me you emphasize that men should not wear hat in your class, our readership will want to know why?

H: It is a different world for men and women and it needs to be and will always be. We can pretend that men and women are the same but they are not and we need male leadership in this country. Why not women?

Because I feel I can talk more reasonably to men because I am man. I want guys to start having a different frame of mind, respect is important and for me, [wearing hat in my class] is a sign of disrespect to me as a professor, it is a little too casual. Men need to relearn how terrific respect is.

C: Psychologists face some sort of stereotypical discrimination as soon as people find out their profession, do you face such?

H: I do think people are reluctant to talk sometimes. Sometimes they think you are thinking what they are thinking. I am not really sure about this but I think it makes people nervous a little bit [that I am a psychologist].

C: People always wonder why you always have a coffee mug in your hand, why?

H: I think I am addicted to coffee. I think it is as simple as that. I didn’t drink coffee all through college but when I got to graduate school, I started needing coffee and now, if you take all the coffee out of me, I’ll probably collapse. [I like it with] no sugar, just blank coffee, black, raw, [the] hardest [way] you can get it.

C: What’s your ultimate goal in life, sir?

H: My ultimate goal in life would be the talents, abilities and opportunities God has given me, that I will use them fully.

C: Your advice to students in general is?

H: I think I would say [as a] general advice that, in your hearts, commit your life to God, then work as hard as you can and it will work out