RACHEL HEDDLES | copy editor

Former APU student Dr. Todd Emerson returns as Chief Medical Officer in the Health Center.

With his warm smile and welcoming demeanor Dr. Todd Emerson has easily made his new office in the APU Health Center a comfortable and inviting place where students can receive quality medical care and develop meaningful relationships.

Emerson comes to APU having spent the last eight years in a family practice in Everett, Wash. During this time he’s also been involved in medical mission trips to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Africa. Most recently, Emerson and his family went to India with Truthseekers International.

“Serving is an important part of our faith,” Emerson said, reflecting on his medical trips. “Sometime it’s serving, sometimes it’s teaching, sometimes it’s bringing the gospel.”

But Emerson’s spirit of service doesn’t just apply to his work abroad. Emerson brings this same emphasis to his newest position here at APU.

He says moving down here with his wife and two children, and leaving behind strong ties in Washington, has had its struggles.

Even so, it’s not been as hard a transition as one might expect. Although Emerson is new to the health center, he’s not new to APU.

Emerson first attended APU as an undergraduate student in 1988.

“I came here to go to college because of baseball,” Emerson said, “I lived and breathed baseball most of my life.”

However, Emerson jokes that once he came to southern California he ended up spending a lot of time on the bench.

He decided to give up his dream of being a professional baseball player and pursue medicine instead.

He began the rigorous pre-med program at APU, but still found time to be involved in other ways. He went to Mexicali several times, and also went to Romania twice while at APU.

Emerson was a well-liked student athlete and made several lasting connections, some with people who are still at APU today.

“Familiar faces made it easier to come down here,” Emerson said.

One of these familiar faces is Craig Wallace, current Executive Director of the Office of Alumni Relations.

Wallace was on staff when Emerson was a student and they got to know each other while working together in the Admissions Office.

“[Todd was] one of those guys you knew was going to do well,” Wallace said. “I didn’t have kids yet at the time, but he was the kind of guy I’d want my daughter to end up with.”

Wallace remembers Emerson as a “neat godly man” and an “all- around nice guy.”

Emerson’s current co-workers agree. Gidget Wood works directly with Emerson as Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and Student Health Center Director.

She praises his funny and lighthearted personality, his authentic character and his medical knowledge and skill, but what she most admires is his humility.

“What I really enjoy about him is that he’s so humble and yet so knowledgeable,” Wood said. “His title is Chief Medical Officer and he refuses to be called that, [he says] ‘I’m the Campus Physician.’”

According to Wood, the Health Center is experiencing a time of significant change.

Not only did Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bowden retire, but also Student Health Center Director Billie Caldwell. Both had been working in the Health Center for about 20 years.

“That makes a huge transition for us, but also provides the opportunity for necessary change,” Wood said. “The school has just grown so much that it is necessary for us to function in a different way.”

Under Dr. Emerson’s direction the Health Center is changing the structure of their office so that the doctor works more directly with the nurses, rather than keeping a separate role.

He works full time and therefore he is able to sustain more responsibilities, take some of the weight off the Nurses and Nurse Practitioners and see more students within each day.

He is also introducing several new procedures that were never before offered at the health center.

In the two months he’s been here he’s already biopsied a skin lesion and administered sutures.

“[Dr. Emerson] just has a real passion for college students in general,” Wood said. “He’s here to serve the students with his medical skills.”

Woods’ observations fit perfectly with what Emerson expresses as his goals and passions for his job.

Emerson says he especially enjoys working in a non-profit setting like APU because he gets more of a chance to engage in the relational aspect of medical care.

“Medicine over the last 20 or 30 years has become more of a business,” Emerson said. “[My goal is] getting back to the basics—relationship with the patient.”

At APU, it is easier to focus on the individual because there is not the same pressure to bring in numbers the way there is in the secular setting.

Money isn’t as big of an issue because the school provides the insurance.

“It makes it much easier to really do what’s right and what’s best for the patient,” Emerson said.

Emerson truly is people-focused and ultimately God-focused.

Whether at a family practice in Washington, in the poverty-filled cities of India or in the Health Center at APU, Emerson strives to spread God’s love through a spirit of service and a commitment to quality medical care..