Spiritual Life
About the Chaplain
Dr. Ron Swain is passionately committed to fulfilling the great commandment “to love God with all your heart, mind, body; and to love your neighbor as yourself” by living out his calling to “do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)
Contact Chaplain Swain: swainr@southwestern.edu or 512.863.1959.
A retired clergyman of the Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, Swain began his professional higher education career in the Student Affairs Division at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA in 1970. Since that time, Chaplain Swain has had an extensive career in higher education administration, including over twenty years as the University Minister at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Over the years, Dr. Swain served several colleges and universities in strategic planning, assessment and fundraising. In 1997, he was selected to serve as the 15th president of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. From 2000 to 2013, he served Southwestern University as senior advisor to the president.
From 2014 to 2023, Swain served as director of Transformative Missions Ministries at the First United Methodist Church in Georgetown, Texas.
Education
Swain holds undergraduate and masters’ degrees from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA; from the Shaw Divinity School in Raleigh, NC; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and a Doctor of Education degree from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In addition, he has completed postdoctoral study at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Institute on Educational Management.
He is married to Chrystle Allison Bullock Swain, since June 9, 1973. They are the parents of Ronald, Jr.