Ouachita Stories

Service is a top priority for Ouachita Baptist University professor Dr. Bill Viser, and the Arkansas Board of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors recently honored Viser for his 14 years of service on its board. Under former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s administration, Viser helped found the board and served as secretary, treasurer and ethics chair during his time on the board.

“The alcohol drug and abuse counselors needed some regulation, so we provided that,” explained Viser, associate professor of Christian ministries. “We developed criteria that every counselor had to meet to be certified with our board.”

During his tenure, he participated in monthly meetings to discuss legislative issues affecting the field of alcohol and drug abuse counselors and how to expand the field throughout the state. As ethics chair, Viser dealt with ethical violations against alcohol and drug abuse counselors and presented facts to the board to help them make decisions concerning the practice of their code.

“I looked at the board as an opportunity for me to give back to a state that has meant so much to me,” said Viser. “Arkansas has always been good to me and become my home for the last 26 years. I love Arkansas and what Arkansas is about, and I felt like it was a chance for me to help make the state better.

“I especially love the idea of thinking that what I do has an impact on people that I will never see through the counselors that minister to them,” Viser added.

In addition to his service on the board, Viser recently presented papers at two conferences. Earlier this year, he presented on the topic “Treatment Issues with the Pornographic Addicted Female Client” at an international conference on counseling and education in Instanbul, Turkey. Viser was one of three Americans invited to the conference.

Being in Turkey also gave Viser the opportunity to do some work related to the fight against human trafficking, an issue he plans to focus on during his sabbatical next fall. Viser, a former missionary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, also had the opportunity to encourage missionaries currently serving in Eastern Europe.

“I was invited to address the entire body of missionaries and missionary kids there and tell them about Ouachita,” Viser said. “So it was a fantastic opportunity to love on the missionaries while also promoting a school that I dearly love and cherish.”

The second conference Viser presented at this year was Baylor University’s Symposium on Faith and Culture. His presentation addressed “21^st Century Cultural Interest in Vampires: Taking a Bite Out of Christianity.” The topic was a follow-up to a book he published in 1994 titled The Darkness Among Us: A Look at the Sinister Growth of the Occult and How Dangerously Close It Is to You, which he wrote as a “Christian response to the growing interest in the supernatural and the occult.”

Viser, a 1970 Ouachita graduate, holds a Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has taught at Ouachita for the past 26 years in the Pruet School of Christian Studies.

For more information, contact Dr. Bill Viser at [email protected] or (870) 245-5524.

 

By McKenzie Cranford