School of the Arts

Bill McCoy, PhD, comes to APU with 20 years of prior experience working in Christian higher education, primarily at Eastern Nazarene College, where he served four years as chief academic officer. Prior to that role, he was a faculty member teaching a range of courses in African and European history. He holds a PhD in African history, with additional specialties in modern British history and anthropology, from Boston University. His dissertation, Healing the Leper? Mission Christianity, Medicine, and Social Dependence in 20th Century Swaziland, led to multiple publications in industry journals.

McCoy is passionate about the transformative power of higher education integrated with deep Christian faith. His primary goal for the College of Arts, Humanities, Sciences, and Theology is to cultivate a community of scholars who embody that transformative integration and celebrate its fruit in each other’s lives and in the world around us.

School of the Arts Faculty

Matt Elofson, PhD, began working at APU as a full-time lecturer in the School of Theology in 1998. He later was an adjunct faculty member, returning in 2008 as an assistant professor in the Department of Practical Theology before earning the rank of professor in 2015. He has also been chair of the Department of Practical Theology and interim dean of the School of Theology. Among his other roles at APU are faculty senator (2008-15); a member of the Faculty Evaluation Council (2019-22), including chair for two years; and a member of the Athletic Advisory Committee (2014-21). Since 2022, Elofson has been a senior participant or principal investigator on three Lilly Endowment grants totaling $3 million. Elofson earned a PhD in Theology at Fuller Seminary, where he previously earned an MA in Theology (Youth Ministry) and a second MA in Theology (Biblical Studies and Theology).

School of the Arts Faculty