Lipscomb Impact 360

IMPACT 360 is Lipscomb’s strategic plan to lead as a top-tier, nationally recognized institution.

We value each and every member of the Lipscomb University community. To ensure our students, faculty, staff, and alumni experience a genuine sense of belonging in our community we will:

• Strategy 1: Center policy development and actions on a theology of diversity, reconciliation and justice based on the life and ministry of Jesus and Scripture.
• Strategy 2: Increase hiring and retention of faculty, staff, and administration of historically underrepresented groups; increase the diversity of the University’s leadership in all areas.
• Strategy 3: Provide ongoing support to students, faculty, staff and administration of underrepresented groups.
• Strategy 4: Enhance the University’s engagement with alumni, churches and communities of historically underrepresented groups.

Key indicators of success:

• Increasing sense of belonging amongst students, faculty, and staff in satisfaction surveys
• Robust diversity throughout our community
• Active and substantive engagement with historically underrepresented communities 

Anchoring Scriptures

Galatians 3:26-29

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Ephesians 4:4-6

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Acts 17:26-28

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Revelation 7:9

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

2 Corinthians 5:20

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Respect Leads Diversity Council

The Council is charged to further the promotion of a culture of respectfulness in all quadrants of the university, to provide counsel to university administrators and to lead actions and activities regarding initiatives focused on diversity, inclusion, equity, and community engagement. Specifically, members of the Respect Leads Advisory Council, will provide counsel on initiatives that Lipscomb University plans to undertake intended to enhance and further develop a more respectful university climate. Dr. William Turner, special counsel to the president for Diversity, Equity, and Belonging, has been appointed to serve as the Respect Leads chair.  The council includes members from across the Lipscomb University.

• Dr. William Lofton Turner (Chair), Distinguished Professor and Special Counsel to the President
• Lynette Austin, Dean, College of Health Sciences
• Beki Baker, Chair of the Theatre Department
• Abby Bell, Provost's Office
• Bethy Butler, Adjunct Faculty in English
• Rebecca Clark, Chair of the Social Work Program
• Dr. Kirsten Dodson, Assistant Professor of Engineering
• Dr. Chris Gonzalez, Director of Marriage and Family Therapy
• Dr. David Holmes, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts
• Dr. Richard Hughes, Scholar in Residence in the Center for Christianity & Scholarship
• Dr. Florah Mhlanga, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs 
• Dr. Douglas Ribeiro, Chair of Psychology, Counseling and Family Science
• Pamela Scretchen, Instructor, College of Education
• Erica Vasquez, Assistant Professor of Social Work and Sociology
• Candace Williams, Director of the Office of Intercultural Development
• Dr. DeAndrea Witherspoon Nash, Assistant Professor of Psychology