Bringing the joy of Christ to military-connected students

One of Lipscomb’s first Yellow Ribbon veteran students pays it forward to today’s students and families in Lipscomb’s Veterans Services office.

When Jimmie Handley (BBA ’13) was ready to start a new chapter in his life, God’s hand “was all over it,” he said.

He retired from his 21-year experience in the U.S. Army in 2008, just in time to take advantage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill®, offering financial aid for eligible military veterans that was first available for fall 2009.

He happened to drive by the Lipscomb campus as he was taking his son to school and decided to stop in and talk to some of the folks on campus. That led him to eventually become one of nine members of Lipscomb’s first student cohort to receive financial benefits from the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program.

“This was really Spirit-led,” said Handley, who had been out of school for 21 years when he enrolled at Lipscomb. “I had always pushed for my children to go to school, and one day, my youngest son just said, ‘Dad, you don’t have a degree.’ I didn't want to be a hypocrite so, I said, ‘Okay, Lord, if I'm going to do this, I need you Lord.’”

Handley went in whole hog, enrolling as a traditional student in order to experience the full campus culture, and 17 years later he is still on Lipscomb’s campus, serving as the outreach coordinator and assistant director for the Veteran Services office while pursuing a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry.

His student experience at Lipscomb has served him well in his work at Veteran Services, as he knows the challenges that all students, especially military veterans, face in college life. He went into his studies viewing the traditional-age students as his “peers,” all working toward the same goal: a degree.

“I feel as if I'm a people person, and so I was able to integrate myself,” he said. “I showed respect for them. They showed respect for me, and we had a great time.”
Handley, originally from Flint, Michigan, retired as a noncommissioned officer in charge of senior operations sergeant, and moved to Nashville, the home state of his wife, with his family.
 

His studies at Lipscomb were funded through Lipscomb’s participation in the federal Yellow Ribbon program, which allows veterans (or their dependents) who qualify for 100 percent of the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to earn a tuition-free undergraduate degree.

As he was completing his bachelor’s degree in business administration and management at Lipscomb, Handley had an interview for a program director job that got upgraded to an offer to become the executive director at Franktown Open Hearts, a nonprofit that provides mentoring, educational and vocational classes, recreation and meals for the impoverished youth of Williamson County. 

Handley said he learned a great deal during the more than two years he worked there. “To be able to serve God and his people, especially inner-city children, those who some have given up on, to be able to show them that they can, and here's why, because of God, was just priceless,” Handley said.

At that point, Handley was considering earning a Master of Divinity, so he touched base with his former professor, now-retired Tom Seals, who served as a de facto chaplain for many of Lipscomb’s veteran students, as he was a military veteran himself. Seals told him about a job on campus that would allow him to take on graduate studies without going into debt.

Handley landed the new program coordinator job in Lipscomb’s Veteran Services office in 2018 and shifted to become outreach coordinator in 2019. He has become an ever-optimistic and proactively spiritual figure on campus ever since.

“My goal in ministry is to diligently and faithfully help everyone I encounter reach their full potential given by God,” he said, and no one could argue he does not succeed at his goals.

“I’ve never known anyone as consistently positive and friendly as Jimmie,” said Veteran Services Director Sam Lynn. 

“I love to greet our students when they come to chapel with a fist bump (and occasionally with pompoms),” said Handley. “So now I have students, when I’m walking around campus, who give me a fist bump. If we don’t greet people with the joy of Christ in our hearts, what will encourage them to want to come to chapel?” 

“As program coordinator, Handley worked to connect enrolled students to career opportunities, internships and professional development.  As outreach coordinator, Handley goes out into the community to feeder colleges, local veterans’ organizations, local bases and community gatherings to spread the word about the opportunities and benefits provided at Lipscomb,” said Lynn. 

He is one of a four-person staff in the Veteran Services office, which not only works with students to smooth the enrollment and financial aid process, but also provides assistance with job searches and networking, counseling and student advocacy.

The office has served more than 2,000 military-connected students since fall 2009, increasing from 29 to 538 in the 2025-26 academic year. Over the years, the office has been top-ranked by organizations such as U.S. News & World Report, Military Times magazine and U.S. Veterans Magazine.

“Our military-connected students truly appreciate his genuine interest and support, his kind but firm words, and his seemingly never-ending positivity. He takes the time to take each prospective student on a full campus tour, introducing them to department heads, advisors and faculty members from within their area of interest. That kind of attention means a lot to people,” Lynn said.

Veteran students are looking for the same relational community they had in the military, said Handley. So services such as the Office of Accessibility and Learning Supports, faculty mentoring and the veteran office’s own certifying officials and project coordinator are important to potential military-connected students, he said.

His work as a platoon sergeant in the military prepared him well to “deal with different personalities,” said Handley. “Combined with what God expects of us in our service—to love and care​ for one another, I believe the Army did an excellent job preparing me for building relationships because God is relational.” 

Many of those relationships last far beyond when a particular student graduates, said Handley. “The biggest service we offer at Veterans Services is that we care,” he said.
Handley doesn’t view his job as “work.”  He’s just thankful for the opportunity to be at Lipscomb, he said.

“My goodness, just to be on campus, I mean, how could you not be full of joy,” said Handley. “It's just a joy to be able to come into work every day and see those young people progressing and to be able to help my fellow veterans obtain something that they may think they can’t, to help them get through those sticking points. And to be here for parents who can't be here with their children, to let them know that their child is going to be okay.”

When Handley speaks to veteran students and veteran parents, he is speaking from experience. He knew when he started his degree at Lipscomb that it was not a question of “if,” but “when,” he would need help from his Lipscomb community, and they delivered, he said.

“[Lipscomb] was the best choice I made,” said Handley. “Friends and faculty setting up study groups, and things of that nature, was such a blessing… I just know that God’s hand was all over it because I could not have picked a better school or a better opportunity to have resources and help.”

And now he passes that confidence on to potential students, enrolled students and their parents and families. 

“When I present Lipscomb to others, I'm not just telling it, but I'm telling it from what I also experienced,” he said. “I can say, ‘Hey, when I tell you we have professors who will be there, I know, because I experienced it.’ So, yeah, that's a joy.”