Dr. David Winyard

Engineering Program Director

Education:
Ph.D., Virginia Tech
M.S., University of Rochester
B.S., University of Maryland

Dr. David Winyard began his role as director of Northwestern College’s engineering program in June 2026. Before entering higher education as a second career in 2014, he spent 37 years as an engineer for the U.S. Navy and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

From 2014–18, Winyard led the launch of the engineering program at Ohio’s Mount Vernon Nazarene University by teaching classes, advising students, hiring faculty, and developing shops, labs and curricula toward its eventual accreditation by ABET. He later taught at Grace College and Indiana Wesleyan University. His technical expertise is in thermal-fluid sciences and systems engineering. His heart is to develop young men and women who see themselves as Christians first and engineers second, using their technical skills to actively participate in God’s creation mandate.

As a civilian engineer, Winyard contributed to the design of systems for Seawolf- and Virginia-class submarines. At DLA, he led value engineering projects to reduce weapon system costs and then managed development of a deployable distribution center that supports military, humanitarian and disaster relief missions worldwide. Among the honors he received during his engineering career are the DLA Distinguished Career Service Award in 2012 and the Department of Defense Value Engineering Professional of the Year Award in 2001. He holds five patents, plus a confidential “Notice of Allowability.”

Winyard earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland and the University of Rochester, respectively. After retiring from DLA, he earned his doctorate in science and technology studies from Virginia Tech.

A former visiting scholar for Reasons to Believe (RTB), Winyard encourages Christians to understand and shape our technology-saturated world from a biblical perspective. He has worked toward that goal through RTB blog posts and publications for Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, the academic journal of the American Scientific Affiliation.