Lipscomb brings a wealth of underrepresented voices to campus
Activists, authors, scientists and leaders provided insight throughout the school year.
By Shelby Bratcher |
To provide students with the skills, mindset, and moral compass to build an inclusive and welcoming community, Lipscomb must look inward, but must also look outward and always be willing to learn and grow from what is discovered.
In the wake of national turmoil in the summer of 2020, the 2020-21 school year brought more opportunities than ever before for students to hear the voices of underrepresented groups on leadership, faith, personal development and social change.
These conversations of significance have shaped our young leaders in ways like never before. When they grow, we all grow. Then we can all reap the benefits of a stronger, more inclusive future.
Yuyi Morales
Yuyi Morales
Author and Illustrator of Dreamers
In late March, the College of Education’s annual Lipscomb Literacy: Building Equity and Engagement initiative partnered with Nashville Reads, the city’s common read program, to share the book Dreamers by Yuyi Morales with public school children throughout Davidson County. As an immigrant and renowned children’s author and illustrator, she served as the perfect voice for discussion of literacy in a post-2020 Nashville.
Morales’s early experiences as an immigrant from Xalapa, Mexico, living in the San Francisco Bay area were the inspiration for her vibrant picture book Dreamers. As a young mother struggling to learn a new language and culture, the nearby public library became her gateway to successfully navigating a new life in the United States.
"When you see a book, or story or anything you like, you can be sure that that thing you like has a lot of you in it… we all have stories inside ourselves, and we can all tell those stories."
— Yuyi Morales, speaking to public school children throughout Nashville
James Hildreth
James Hildreth
President and CEO of Meharry Medical College
The 10th Annual Student Scholar Symposium was highlighted by one of the most prominent leaders in the fight against Covid-19 in Nashville: Dr. James E.K. Hildreth.
Hildreth, a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, began research on HIV and AIDS in 1986 and has continued his research, with funding through National Institute of Health grants, for almost two decades.
Hildreth was also appointed to the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Products Advisory Committee that will review COVID-19 vaccine trial data and make recommendations for approval to the FDA commissioner.
Hildreth’s keynote address of the symposium focused on the similarities between the Covid-19 and the AIDS pandemics, their subsequent effects on society and the importance of health care equity.
“Getting to health equity is not about equality. It is not about giving all of us the same things. To achieve health equity we need to meet people where they are, and it won’t be the same process for all communities.” — James Hildreth, speaking at the 10th annual Student Scholar Symposium
Cyntoia Brown Long
Cyntoia Brown
Author of Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System
Cyntoia Long-Brown, after being forced into prostitution at the age of 16, was found guilty in 2004 for murder and robbery. She was tried as an adult and received a harsh life sentence with the possibility of parole at 67. Following the release of a documentary on her story, a local effort gained momentum to grant her clemency in 2019.
Long-Brown was the fourth speaker brought to campus through the LIGHT program, the university’s academic intercultural competence initiative that provides students opportunities to explore and discuss issues of racial inequity and social class. This past fall, the program’s common read was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, a book that highlights the corruption in America’s prison and justice system.
Brown-Long is a graduate of Lipscomb University, made possible through the university’s LIFE (Lipscomb Initiative for Education) program.
“We wanted to show our students that while there are many problems in our justice system that need to be addressed, the problem is not insurmountable. They as individuals can help. Cyntoia’s story is an example of how individuals can help,” said Cori Mathis, LIGHT program director.
“As you are all starting your journey as freshmen... You have an opportunity to learn how your life can impact the lives of others and to fully step into what the Lord is calling you to do. I happen to believe that we are all called to justice, and it is all a matter of determining what practicing justice will look like in your own lives.” — Cyntoia Brown-Long, speaking to Lipscomb students as the 2020 LIGHT featured speaker
Steven Moore
Steven Moore
Poet, author and professor of English and chair-elect of the Department of Language and Literature at Abilene Christian University
Since 1985, the annual Landiss Lecture has brought nationally acclaimed writers, critics, and scholars to challenge the minds of Lipscomb’s academic community. In February, Steven Moore was featured in a lecture entitled “The Sun and Clouds Died Today: Reflections on Covid-19 and Race.”
During the lecture, Moore recited many of his works of poetry and discussed their inspiration, especially those related to 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic and community uprisings protesting racial inequality. Moore incorporated many of Henry David Thoreau’s writings in his webinar on racism in our modern world.
Moore is the recipient of several teaching and scholarly awards. He is currently a professor of English and chair-elect of the Department of Language and Literature at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. His publications include his book, The Cry of Black Rage in African American Literature: From Frederick Douglass to Richard Wright, and his children’s books Theodore Thumbs and Theodore Thumbs and the Yellow Balloon. His new poetry book Black and Not Breathing is also in the works.
“When you think about the chaos going on in our world, when you think about the racism that exists in our world, you be that one in a million. Don’t turn away, don’t ignore, but you be that one to wake up. You be that one to do something. You be that one—because God’s spirit is inside of you—to roll your sleeves up and to undo racism.” — Steven Moore, Landiss Lecture featured speaker
Alex Jahangir
Leading Through Covid
The Don R. Elliott Lecture
In late October, the College of Leadership & Public Service broadcast its annual Don R. Elliott Lecture on WKRN.com, featuring four of Tennessee’s top leaders in combating the consequences of COVID-19. The discussion was centered around leadership, citing sincerity, communication, humbleness and decisiveness as some of the characteristics needed by the state’s leaders to help Nashville and Tennessee weather the crisis.
Speakers on the panel included Dr. Alex Jahangir, a surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and chair of the Metropolitan Board of Health of Nashville and Davidson County; Dr. James Hildreth, president and CEO of Meharry Medical College; Mike Krause, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission; and Mark Ezell, commissioner of Tennessee Department of Tourist Development Economic who was appointed by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to lead the state’s Economic Recovery Group to safely reboot Tennessee’s economy.
The panel of experts noted that the pandemic is exactly the kind of challenge that most people drawn to public service want to tackle.
“What I have found to be most effective, is that discussion is important, but having decisiveness at the end is critical. You have to cut off the conversation and say, ‘This is what we are going to do.’ And if you have built trust through sincerity and transparency, the people who are part of this team will recognize this is a good plan.”
— Dr. Alex Jahangir, commenting at the Don R. Elliott Lecture
Klarissa Hardy Jackson
Keeping Our Community Healthy
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Forum
Lipscomb University’s 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Forum featured a variety of speakers from the health care field exploring health disparities in today’s community.
The speakers, who discussed the health care equity gaps as a result of the pandemic, included: Jacky Akbari, founder and national board chair of the nonprofit National Organization for Workforce Diversity; Chris Gonzalez, director of Lipscomb’s marriage and family therapy master’s program and the Lipscomb Family Therapy Center; Venetra Jones, a Mt. Juliet-based practicing dentist who graduated from the School of Dentistry at Nashville’s Meharry Medical College; and Klarissa Jackson, assistant professor at Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, who researches drug metabolism and toxicology to better understand the mechanisms and risk factors of adverse drug reactions and improve drug safety.
“We have seen under-representation of African Americans in clinical trials for Covid-19 vaccines as well as Covid-19 treatments... These issues must be addressed, if we want to move forward into the future. Until we really get to the underlying cause of social inequities, we will just be treating the symptoms.”
— Klarissa Hardy Jackson, commenting during Lipscomb’s forum on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2021
David Bailey
David Bailey
Founder and CEO of Arrabon
This year the LipscombLEADS campaign launched the Virtual Conversations series, comprised of six sessions with national thought leaders expressing their insights on our changing world and the future ahead.
David M. Bailey, CEO of an organization that equips leaders to deal with racial issues with cultural intelligence, explored the topic “The Future of Racial Reconciliation.” In his talk, Bailey encouraged communities of faith to take the lead and do the hard work of bringing reconciliation to a divided world.
“One of the five steps to becoming a reconciling community is ...engaging in reconciling culture-making. It’s acknowledging that the world is broken. We have to create what we want to see tomorrow, today... We are always making culture.” — David Bailey, speaking in the LipscombLEADS Virtual Conversations series
Andre Johnson
Andre Johnson
Associate Professor at the University of Memphis
This past November, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences presented a special virtual lecture and Q&A session featuring Dr. Andre E. Johnson discussing “Rhetoric, Race and Spirituality of Black Lives Matter.”
Johnson discussed the academic research and revelations presented in his 2018 book The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter. The book dives into ideas of cultural influences like family history, fear, religion, post-racialism and workplace pressure, as the authors trace the meanings of both the movements from the perspectives of ordinary participants.
Johnson is a scholar-in-residence at the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change.
“Yes, we see now, as a part of being 60 years removed from the movement, that, ‘Hey, these people (civil rights movement activists) were people of faith. They were acting prophetically.’ But guess what? At that time, people thought they weren’t acting prophetically; they were criminals; they were breaking the law. They were not being good Christians. Their faith was even challenged, and these were people coming out of the church.” — Andre E. Johnson, guest lecturer in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences