Brian Alters, PhD, FAAAS
When it comes to teaching science classes, many educators find it challenging to hold students’ attention. That hasn’t been the case for Brian Alters.
Known for his ability to spark curiosity and keep students engaged, Chapman University’s Professor of Education, Attallah College of Educational Studies, and Schmid College of Science and Technology is a popular teacher. His success comes from a creative approach to teaching—making his classes not only informative but also fun and memorable.
“In my 30+ years of university teaching, Brian is by far the best university teacher with whom I have worked,” says Dawn Hunter, PhD, Professor Emerita of Education Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. “Many students enter science classes with negative experiences, and Brian helps them see that science can be interesting, relevant and important to their lives. His presentation style is informative, engaging, fast paced, and highly entertaining,” says Hunter, noting he has won numerous teaching awards at every university where he has taught.
“At Chapman, he received the highest teaching award and an honor for pedagogical innovation for his Darwin and Disney course—probably the most popular class at the university,” she says, referring to the course, “The Pursuit of Happiness and Knowledge: Charles Darwin & Walt Disney.”
Darwin and Disney
“When I was hired at Chapman in 2010, I asked then Chancellor Danielle Struppa what I could do for him. He responded by asking me to teach a class for undergraduates,” says Alters, who holds simultaneous appointments at Chapman and Harvard. “After some thought, I decided to create a class around two of my favorite people academically—Charles Darwin and Walt Disney.”
Up until then, much of Alters career had been spent teaching science education with a focus in biological evolution. This included serving as an Expert Witness in what became the most significant U.S. federal trial on science education in the past two decades.
The historic case “Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District” in 2005 challenged a policy requiring biology teachers to present intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. Alters testified for the plaintiffs, arguing that intelligent design is poor pedagogy. The court ultimately ruled it a religious, not scientific, concept and declared its inclusion in public schools unconstitutional. The case brought Alters international recognition, leading to appearances on television and radio and frequent quotes in the press.
Alters, who grew up in Santa Ana and began visiting Disneyland as a child, always admired Walt Disney. He knew there was enough academic rigor surrounding Darwin to create his Darwin-Disney class, but he wasn’t sure about Disney, so he started reading about the creator of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. “I soon found out what an amazing American he was,” says Alters. “I believe he has been understudied and not as appreciated as he should be by academics.”
When he submitted the class to the registrar at Chapman, he was told new classes historically don’t get enough students, but they ended up needing to cap the class at 95 and had a waiting list. To date, he has taught the course to more than 3,000 students.
Jackson Njust, who graduated from Chapman in Spring 2025 with a degree in Business Administration, became a teaching assistant after taking Alters’ Darwin-Disney class.
“Dr. Alters is an excellent educator,” says Njust. “He made every class both informative and entertaining—and extremely funny. He practiced what I’d call ‘edu-tainment.’ His course was the best I took at Chapman, and I always left inspired to learn more about evolution and Disney. What stood out most was how he brought emotion into science. In his class, students laughed, sang, cried and cheered. I loved working as his TA because I could help share that experience with others.”
Science Education
Until his freshman year in high school, Alters planned on working as a Disney Imagineer, but then he saw a television show featuring Jacque Cousteau and decided to get a degree in marine biology. This led to him receiving a Bachelor of Science in Biology and PhD in Science Education from the University of Southern California (USC).
Upon graduating, his first academic position was teaching science education at Harvard, where he became increasingly involved in evolution education. “I got very lucky, because at that time there were many giants in the field of evolution and science education at Harvard, including well-known evolutionist Steven Jay Gould, who wrote the forward to one of my books, and Dr. Phil Sadler, who has taught and conducted science education research at Harvard for decades” he says.
“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Brian since his first days at Harvard, where we teamed up teaching a new crop of science teachers and dove into research together,” says Phil Sadler, Director, Science Education Department, Center for Astrophysics / Harvard & Smithsonian.
“From the start, Brian stood out—not just for his encyclopedic knowledge, but for the infectious energy he brought to everything he did,” says Sadler. “Our classes were often ‘over-the-top,’ with us role-playing scenarios to get students emotionally and intellectually engaged. His creativity never runs dry, and he’s always inventing clever ways to spark curiosity, whether through a hands-on demo or an outside-the-box project.
“Over the years, we’ve co-mentored PhD students and co-authored papers, but a highlight was the ‘Creationism in Schools’ Forum at Harvard—a standing-room-only event pitting science against pseudo-science. Brian took the stage with his trademark blend of sharp arguments and genuine respect, making evolution relatable and keeping the debate civil, lively and memorable.”
While at Harvard, Alters decided he wanted the experience of teaching out of the country, so he took a position at McGill University in Montreal, spending 13 years there.
“It was a lovely experience with great opportunities,” says Alters, who held an $8 million Endowed Chair and Project in Science Education in the Faculty of Science at McGill.
After living through more than a decade in Canada’s cold winters, however, Alters became homesick. Given the fact that he was also flying back and forth throughout the year to go to Disneyland, he decided to return to Southern California to live near the “Happiest Place on Earth.” He moved to Newport Beach, where he lives with his wife Kimberly BeDell, and joined the Chapman faculty.
Current Focus on Disney
While Alters intends to continue to teach about Darwin and evolution, he has decided to spend the rest of his career focused on defending Walt Disney and his work.
“Charles Darwin’s work answers where we came from, which informs why we are here, which helps inform where we want to go in life; but Walt Disney’s work is equally important,” he says. “In my view, who else has created more entities to facilitate happiness globally than Disney? I call him ‘The Great Facilitator of Happiness.’”
As for Disney himself, “Many people don’t know he was a high school dropout, but at the young age of 37 he was awarded honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale and USC,” says Alters. “He possibly would have received more degrees than anyone, but graduation ceremonies and the related matters take a lot of time, and he needed to get back to work.”
To preserve and academically examine Disney’s legacy, Alters recently launched the Walt Disney Studies Think Tank—with the dream of creating the first Walt Disney Studies Center. His goal is to make Chapman a central hub for Disney scholarship, with research facilities, publications and educational programs that will inspire future generations.
“The university’s proximity to Anaheim’s Disneyland, Walt Disney Studios and Archives in Burbank, Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, and a large number of Disney Imagineers living in Orange County, makes Orange an ideal location. And we also have the fourth ranked film school in the nation,” says Alters. “This is the perfect location and time to honor Disney and his work.”
