Dr. Lawton “Ken” Swan

Assistant Director, UF Innovation Academy

Dr. Lawton “Ken” Swan serves as Assistant Director for the Innovation Academy and brings over 15 years of experience in higher education, student development, and experiential learning. Ken earned his Ph.D. in Psychology and M.S. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Florida, along with a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Central Florida. He previously served as Associate Teaching Professor in UF’s Department of Psychology, where he earned 14 teaching awards including the American Psychological Association’s National Teaching Excellence Award and UF’s Undergraduate Teacher of the Year. Ken’s research interests include recreational fear, social bonding, and the psychology of immersive experiences, topics he explored as founder of The Gainesville Fear Garden, a blindfolded haunted attraction that doubled as an IRB-approved research laboratory. He also served as COO of Makerie Workshop, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing STEAM education for at-risk teens in Gainesville. He’s also a published horror fiction author. In his spare time, he enjoys learning Italian, building automated systems with Python, and playing video games with his wife and son.