The Student Activities Office (SAO) welcomes a new director in 2020. Jack Droppers, a working musician and scholar, takes over a role that Ken Heffner built and held for nearly 27 years. Like Heffner did in 1993, Droppers felt called to this work of engaging popular culture boldly and doing so with Christ-centered conviction.

“Being in a band helps shape my experience as someone who books shows because there’s an understanding that in order to put on a good show as a band, it’s essential to have a good audience,” said Droppers. “So, how do we curate audiences so that they provide an experience for the artist where it’s more of a conversation and less of just pure entertainment?”

Droppers knows that Heffner and SAO’s approach to this work over the years provides a great model for how to do that well, and he’s excited for the opportunity to build on this solid foundation.

Droppers earned a master of divinity from Western Theological Seminary. He is in a PhD program through the University of Aberdeen in Scotland studying how both music and movies portray suffering and what that says about our relationship with God in the midst of pain.