Lipscomb University Diversity Report 2021-2022

Report on Racial & Ethnic Diversity

“He has shown us what is good: to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.”

Micah 6:8

The Lipscomb community is enjoying a season of enthusiasm for a bright future. Classrooms are filled with students who are reconnecting spiritually, intellectually and relationally on our campus. They are learning and growing everyday through rigorous academics and transformative experiences with teachers, staff and mentors who deeply care about them.

We also have a new strategic plan for the university, Lipscomb Impact 360, which includes a new mission statement, vision, values and six goals for the future, including goal four, which is devoted to building a culture of diversity, equity and belonging on campus.

The first three of eight values—Love God, Serve Others, Respect All—are a retelling of one of my favorite verses: Micah 6:8.

“He has shown us what is good: to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.”

Embedded in this short phrase are foundational concepts for Christian life in a diverse culture: fair treatment, respect, empathy, compassion, valuing one another and remaining open to what God can teach us through other individuals.

As a Christ-centered community, our greatest contribution is to be sure every student feels valued as an image-bearer of God. As beneficiaries of God’s love and grace, we reflect His truth when we treat each other with fairness, respect and compassion.

It is important to us that each student is fully equipped with all the resources and support that prepares them to pursue lives of purpose, service and leadership. I want every Lipscomb student to graduate with confidence in knowing that their impact is only limited by their ambition.

As I have said many times, I believe that Lipscomb’s future is bright and our best days are ahead. May God continue to bless you and this place we love.

Best,

We strive to ‘walk humbly with our God’ on our continuing diversity journey to serve all students

As we emerge from a period of social distancing and isolation and face the new realities of a post-pandemic world, we are all rejoicing that we are able to gather together in person once again, to move forward into a bright and hopeful future.

If there is one thing the Covid pandemic has brought to light about higher education institutions, it is that a university is a social community, at its best when we are able to connect in ways more deeply and profoundly than digital screens.

So it is fitting that during an academic year when Covid restrictions were still, at times, bringing some uncertain separation to the members of our community, Lipscomb leaders recognized that need for connection and took a meaningful step to frame how we think about both diversity, and connectedness, in our university community.

Throughout the 2021-2022 school year, Lipscomb has been focused on a strategic planning process, called Impact 360, that included a specific goal in regards to building a culture of diversity at Lipscomb.

As the chair of the goal four subcommittee, I led representatives on campus in a process to determine our priorities and goals, the strategies to achieve them and recommended tactics. Our committee looked at various models for how other universities approach diversity on campus, and what we realized is that we didn’t want to have the typical responsiveness. We wanted to respond as Christ would.

In so doing, we began looking for terms that reflected what we saw ourselves as: thriving image-bearers for God in a Christ-centered university. The final language of the Impact 360 goal four that was approved by the Lipscomb Board of Trustees was: “Build a culture of diversity, equity, and belonging where people thrive as image-bearers of God.”

Diversity, equity and belonging are essential elements to our collective success at Lipscomb, not because of any political imperative or philosophical persuasion, but because these are central teachings of Jesus and foundational components of our Christian faith.

At Lipscomb University belonging matters. The creation of a sense of belonging for students, faculty and staff has a major impact on performance and retention. People who say they have a sense of belonging tend to feel connected to their work and to Lipscomb.

When a person can bring their authentic self to the university, they are more engaged and better able to learn and contribute.

Engagement represents the levels of enthusiasm and connection individuals have with their organization. It measures how motivated people are to put in extra effort, and it is also a sign of how committed they are to staying.

A sense of belonging is what unlocks the power and value of a diverse community.

In this report, you can read more about how Lipscomb Impact 360 goal four will be lived out in the coming year and for several years to come (see page 4). You can read about how Lipscomb Bisons throughout the community are working to turn the key of belonging to unlock diversity on-campus and off-campus, in Lipscomb classrooms and in Lipscomb departments.

As we continue our journey as a Christ-centered community of learners and doers, I look forward to our continued growth as a community that welcomes all and creates a place of belonging for all.

Belonging: The key to unlocking the power and value of a diverse community

Dr. William Lofton Turner Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Public Policy and Special Counsel to the President for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion A Member of the Lipscomb University Executive Leadership Team

The Lipscomb Impact 360 strategic plan includes a goal to build a culture of diversity, equity and belonging where people thrive as image-bearers of God. That goal includes specific strategies to develop a welcoming social and spiritual environment for students from underrepresented groups.

Lipscomb's Diverse History

1965 James Fitzgerald (’73), the first African American student, enrolls.

STUDENT GROWTH AT LIPSCOMB FROM 2011 TO 2021

For the purposes of this statistic, the term “underrepresented student” refers to anyone, including U.S. nonresidents, who self-reported in one of the following race/ethnicity categories: Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander or two or more races.

"Diversity, equity and belonging are essential elements to our collective success at Lipscomb, not because of any political imperative or philosophical persuasion, but because these are central teachings of Jesus and foundational components of our Christian faith."

1968 Harry Kellum (’68) is the first African American student to earn his degree and graduates in June (in absentia).

1968 Dianne (Gary) Reid (’68), first female African American student, graduates in August.

1977 Venson "Venny" Matthews (’78) is the first African American elected as Student Body President.

1982 Robert “Bob” Jackson, the first African American instructor, is hired.

1988 Jimmie Hampton is appointed as director of recruitment and the first African American to hold an administrative position, serving from 1988 to 1991.

1990

Percentage of the student body from historically underrepresented racial groups

1993 Jack Evans, then-president of Southwestern Christian College, is appointed as the first African American member of the Board of Trustees, serving until 1997.

1993 Bill Davis is appointed the first African American Dean of Students, serving from 1993-99.

1995

Percentage of the student body from historically underrepresented racial groups

1996 Countess Bond Metcalf is hired as the first African American female instructor, teaching from 1996 to 1999.

1998 Bill Davis becomes the first director of the newly established Office of Multicultural Affairs.

2000

Percentage of the student body from historically underrepresented racial groups

2000

As a response to feedback from minority and international students, then-Lipscomb President Steve Flatt publicly apologizes for the university’s racial policies of the past and resolves to make the campus a welcoming atmosphere.

— Dr. William Lofton Turner

New Impact 360 plan takes strategic approach to building a culture of diversity and unity

Th e 2021-2022 school year was a year of change, but it was a year of strategic change.

With new president Dr. Candice McQueen on campus, the university began a new strategic approach to addressing its future, taking a 360° panoramic view of who Lipscomb is today and where it should be headed in the future.

Building a culture of diversity, equity and belonging where people thrive as image-bearers of God emerged as one of the top priorities of the Lipscomb community. That goal has now been codified into the university’s new strategic vision: Impact 360.

“Diversity, equity and belonging is a really central component to the strategic plan,” said Dr. William Lofton Turner, special counsel to the president for diversity, equity and belonging and a member of the university’s executive leadership team who oversees the university-wide effort to build a diverse respectful campus community.

“We have a specific goal, number four, in the plan that addresses those issues in a very direct way. As Lipscomb moves forward, we want to make sure the institution is attentive to issues of diversity and that we create a space where belonging is a central component in the life of every individual who is part of the university,” he said.

“We feel that while we have made some strides, we have a long way to go. By being more intentional, focused and specific about it, we have a better chance of meeting those goals in meaningful ways and bringing unity around this issue,” he said. “It’s really a central component of what we are hoping to do.”

Lipscomb’s Impact 360 is a new framework that establishes institutional priorities for the future. The finished plan includes a vision statement, mission statement, values, core tenets, goals and tactics.

The listening phase to develop the Impact 360 plan occurred throughout the 2021-2022 academic year and included 1,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni and donors surveyed; 200 one-on-one and small group listening sessions; the seven-city Be A Light Tour; and roundtable discussions with more than 400 faculty and staff and 125 alumni as well as 100 individuals who served on ad hoc and steering committees.

The feedback was collected and analyzed over about a six month period and structured around a S.O.A.R. analysis: an examination of Lipscomb’s strengths, the opportunities inherent in those strengths, what the institution should aspire to accomplish and the results those efforts might yield. This analysis provided a foundation upon which key elements of the plan were built.

In April 2002 Lipscomb’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the Impact 360 vision, mission, values and goals, including goal four: Build a culture of diversity, equity and belonging where people thrive as image-bearers of God.

Throughout the Impact 360 listening process, response to establishing and working toward goal four has been overwhelmingly positive, said Turner. In addition, the responses and trends discovered in the race and ethnic Campus Climate Survey administered in spring 2021 were also included in the feedback and are reflected in the strategies and tactics developed for that goal, he said.

Impact 360 includes four strategies to work toward completing the goal:

• 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.

According to Turner, the first steps the university will take throughout this academic year include:

Creating a task force to examine all of the tactics and strategies and figure out how to put them into real practice. (See list of members on page 7.)

This group of eleven individuals from among the university leadership and faculty will look at current policies and procedures with respect to faculty/staff hiring, promotion, tenure and student policies impacted by diversity.

This task force will look at actions that can be taken right away, said Turner. For example, developing a “grow our own” strategy, drawing from Lipscomb students to incubate future Lipscomb faculty and administration from underrepresented racial groups.

Reinvigorating Respect Leads. In 2022, the council has added some new members, including a student representative. (See list of members on page 7.)

The Respect Leads council will intentionally re-structure and re-form to ultimately have more responsibility and specific undertakings over the next year, including being attentive to the community and serving as the research arm for the task force and university leaders.

Exploring how diversity is represented in the Bible and lived out in Lipscomb’s history. A group of history scholars and theologians will be assembled to carry out this task.

“One of the things that is exciting about this process is that we are not looking at these issues from a political point of view, or even a typical DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) perspective. Politics can change. Policies can change. But we believe as a Christian institution that Jesus speaks very specifically about being inclusive, being diverse and providing a space that is hospitable and creates a culture and a sense of belonging,” said Turner. “This really is driven by our Christ-centered mission.”

Lipscomb's Diverse History

2000 “Sadly, instead of leading the way, otherwise devout white Christians were blinded by culture and Satan’s lie that white and black students should not be educated in the same setting. Although I was not there, I look back and I hate that. I deeply regret that, and as president, I now apologize for that.”

— Steve Flatt, president of Lipscomb from 1997-2005, in a public chapel speech in 2000

2002

Countess Bond Metcalf, a former Lipscomb faculty member, is the first African American female appointed to the Board of Trustees, serving until 2006.

2003 Robert “Jaz” Boon is the first African American elected Bachelor of Ugliness.

2003 William Thomas, then-executive director of Bridgestone Americas, becomes the third African American appointed to the Board of Trustees, serving until 2015.

2005 Percentage of the student body from historically underrepresented racial groups

2007 Bennie Harris is hired as vice president of development and alumni relations and becomes the first African American member of the senior leadership team, serving from 2007 to 2014.

2008 Dr. J.W. Pitts (’76), an internal medicine specialist and minister, becomes the fourth African American appointed to the Board of Trustees, serving until 2019.

2008 Cicely Simpson (’96), president and CEO of Summit Public Affairs, becomes the fifth African American appointed to the Board of Trustees, presently serving on the board.

2009 First Hispanic Forum, Abriendo Puertas, is held on campus with speeches by Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, Nashville Chief of Police Ronal W. Serpas and Conexión Américas President Gregg Ramos and Executive Director Renata Soto.

2009 Norma Burgess is hired as dean of the thenCollege of Arts & Sciences and is the first African American to serve on the academic leadership team.

2010 Lipscomb establishes the Latino Scholars Program.

Impact 360:

2010 Naomi Tutu, daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize winner the Most Reverend Desmond Tutu and a respected human rights activist and educator, visits campus and speaks to students as part of the university’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance.

Vision, Mission, Values, Core Tenets, Goals and Tactics

The 100-member campus-wide steering committee, pictured here, worked throughout 2021-2022 to develop the Impact 360 strategic plan, which includes a goal with four strategies and multiple tactics for building a culture of diversity.

A diversity of leading voices

Diversity Leadership

In 2021-2022, these three leaders provided thoughtful leadership on diversity, equity and inclusion holistically throughout all operations of Lipscomb University: administrative, academic and the student experience.

Dr. William Lofton Turner

Special Counsel to the President for Diversity, Equity and Belonging Turner guides Lipscomb’s efforts to build a culture of diversity, equity and belonging where people thrive as image-bearers of God.

Dr. Norma Bond Burgess Associate Provost for Diversity, Inclusion and Special Initiatives

After serving as dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Lipscomb's largest college, Burgess was appointed as a member of the provost's team to increase diversity among faculty and students and to develop academic initiatives for cultural awareness on campus.

Dr. Prentice Ashford Dean of Community Life

In his role in the Office of Student Life, Ashford oversees student productions, social clubs, the Student Activities Board and the Student Government Association as well as the Office of Intercultural Development.

Racial and Gender Composition of Leadership in Fall 2021

of those from

*Represents Executive, Senior and Academic Leadership Teams for 2021-2022.

of

Trustees from underrepresented racial groups or women have served on the board since 1993

2022-2023

Respect Leads Diversity Council

Dr. William Lofton Turner (Chair) Distinguished Professor and Special Counsel to the President for Diversity, Equity and Belonging

Dr. Prentice Ashford (Co-Chair) Dean of Community Life

Beki Baker Chair of the Theatre Department

Bethy Butler Adjunct Faculty in English

Rebecca Clark Chair of the Social Work Program

Dr. Kirsten Dodson Assistant Professor of Engineering

Dr. David Fleer Professor of Bible and Director of the Christian Scholars’ Conference

Dr. Chris Gonzalez Director of Marriage and Family Therapy

Julie Harston Director of Library Services

Dr. David Holmes Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Dr. Richard Hughes Scholar-in-Residence in the Center for Christianity & Scholarship

Dr. Cori Mathis Director of the LIGHT Program and the Writing Studio

Liz McKell President of Student Government Association

Dr. Florah Mhlanga Senior Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Dr. Kam Nola Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Pharmacy

Dr. Lauren Pinkston Assistant Professor of Business as Mission

Dr. Douglas Ribeiro Chair of Psychology, Counseling and Family Science

Julie Simone Instructor of Education

Dr. Michelle Steele Associate Dean of Academics of the College of Leadership & Public Service

Candace Williams Director of the Office of Intercultural Development

Dr. DeAndrea Witherspoon Nash Assistant Professor of Psychology

Dr. Rebecca Zanolini Director of Global Learning

Impact 360 Goal 4 Task Force

Dr. Candice McQueen (Chair) President

Dr. William Lofton Turner (Chair) Distinguished Professor and Special Counsel to the President for Diversity, Equity and Belonging

Dr. Leonard Allen Dean of the College of Bible and Ministry

Dr. Prentice Ashford Dean of Community Life

Dr. Craig Bledsoe Distinguished Professor and Provost Emeritus

Dr. David Holmes Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Dr. Richard Hughes Scholar-in-Residence in the Center for Christianity & Scholarship

Dr. Florah Mhlanga Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Dr. Scott Sager Vice President for Spiritual Life & Church Services

Dr. Jennifer Shewmaker Provost

David Wilson (ex officio) General Counsel

Lipscomb’s Faces of Diversity

In the 2021-22 school year, three new board members joined the Lipscomb Board of Trustees, including one African American member. The current makeup of the board maintains the number of women members at six and brings the total number of members from underrepresented groups up to three.

Shane Hooper

Hooper (’93), from Fulton, Mississippi, has served as the Director of Economic Development for the Shelbyville/Bedford Partnership since December 2020. He earned a bachelor’s of management and political science from Lipscomb before completing his master’s degree in economic development from the University of Southern Mississippi. He served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and had a career in the insurance and financial industry for 18 years. He was a past director of development services for Tupelo, Mississippi, and president of Professional Training Corporation Inc. when he was tapped for his current role in Bedford County. In the past, he has served on the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and is a past president of the Tupelo Rotary Club, the Gardner-Simmons Home For Girls and the United Way of Northeast Mississippi.

" A sense of belonging is what unlocks the power and value of a diverse community."

— Dr. William Lofton Turner

Lipscomb nurtures its many faces of diversity to become unifi ed into one body.

Ed.D. program boasts strong completion rate and diversity research

In graduate schools nationwide, only 56.6% of students complete their doctoral degree 10 years after they begin, according to a research initiative launched by the Council of Graduate Schools.

Lipscomb’s Doctor of Education degree, however, for the past decade, boasts a 91.4% rate of students who have graduated or who are now on track to graduate. Of the 158 students from underrepresented racial categories in the program over the years, 85.4% have graduated or are on-track to graduate, also well above other programs nationally.

“Our collaborative program model and client-based dissertation research approach has proven highly effective in keeping students on track to graduate,” said Trace Hebert, founding director of Lipscomb’s Ed.D. program. “Because it’s a team, because they are pulling each other along and pulling each other through the lows, that leads to a more than 90% completion rate.”

In 2021 and 2022, education doctoral students were working on four research projects that explored diversity themes:

Dr. Contessa Sanders, Rachel Phillips, Susan Breitling Kolmer and Meghan Perdue are conducting research for the Lipscomb College of Education with a focus on teacher candidates’ mindsets and attitudes related to diversity. Researchers are also exploring how the college equips candidates, from undergraduate to Ed.S., to teach and interact effectively with diverse learners.

Dr. Annette Little, Keldrinesha Davis, Quanisha Ford and Lily Joy are studying the perspectives of current students in Lipscomb’s Pionero Scholars Program, a public school teacher pipeline. The researchers are working to determine how the program impacts participants' career goals. They are also researching how Pionero program graduates view their own impact as educators in diverse school settings and the perspectives of school leaders where Pionero scholars work.

Dr. Alice Nie, Tyler Parker and Nia DeAnn Perry are researching the impact of the newcomer program, specially designed for English language learners, at LEAD Cameron, a college preparatory middle school that is part of Nashville’s largest homegrown charter network. The team is looking at how well the students are doing after completing the program. They are also working to understand general education teachers’ perspectives related to the transition of newcomer students into general education classes.

Dr. Jeanne Fain, Henry Bradford, Azschrielle Calhoun and April Collins are studying the perspectives of key stakeholders in Aventura Community School, a public bilingual charter school in Southeast Nashville, in relationship to the school’s mission of building a multicultural global community. The researchers are working to identify key components that stakeholders believe drive toward that goal as well as to measure changes in global competence in teachers and students.

First 10 LaVelle Scholars selected for scholarship

Ten students, all first generation college students, are one step closer to becoming doctors and potentially changing their family’s future thanks to two donors who have funded scholarships for them to take a crucial study course for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

Dr. David LaVelle and his sister, Soozie Lowry (’79), funded the LaVelle Scholars program, which allows the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences to give selected students the funds needed for the cost of the Princeton Review MCAT study course, normally a ticket price of $750 for Lipscomb students.

Also this past school year, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences established the Bison Docs program, which teams up medical professionals with Lipscomb pre-med students to serve as mentors, to address another major obstacle to first generation students entering the medical field: lack of a role model in the field.

LaVelle, who has been a guest speaker in Lipscomb’s class designated for pre-med students and in the biology program, is also a volunteer mentor in the Bison Docs program.

DIV ERSITY- FOCUSED STUDENT ORGANIZATION S

National Clubs and Organizations

• Society of Women Engineers*

• Student National Pharmacist Association*

• Women in Technology Tennessee

• Women Get IT

• Collegiate 100*

• W.E.B. Dubois International Honor Society*

Lipscomb Clubs and Organizations

• Black Student Union*

• African Student Association*

• Asian Connection*

• Raices*

• Club Italiano*

• Women in Stem*

• Women in Animation*

* These university-sponsored organizations do not limit membership by sex, race or ethnicity and are open to all students regardless of sex, race or ethnicity.

Dr. David LaVelle with LaVelle Scholar Lily Dao, a Nashville native who hopes to become an OB/GYN.

OID Women’s Empowerment Night

The Office of Intercultural Development held a special Women in the Workplace panel discussion for students in March. The panel featured Lipscomb’s President Dr. Candice McQueen as well as Leanne Smith, associate professor in the College of Business; Tasha Coleman, director of community standards; Kimberly McCall, academic director of the Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society; Britany Gonzalez, junior and OID intern; and Angie Medina, junior and Student Government Association secretary.

The panel members discussed the challenges they have faced and their accomplishments as women in the workplace, their inspirations, work/ life balance, their favorite books and what they would like to see changed for the future.

— Student who benefitted from the OID fund for extracurricular opportunities

Enhanced OID Funding

In the 2021-2022 academic year, Lipscomb students were enabled to take advantage of a summer acting program in New York City for a theatre major, a mission trip, a short-term study abroad opportunity and a discount on the cost of textbooks due to the Office of Intercultural Development’s (OID) Fund to enhance extracurricular experiences.

Thanks to generous donations of several thousand dollars since the fund was established in 2020, students in good standing who have shown commitment and/or contributions to the OID were better able to take advantage of academic or social extracurricular experiences.

Other common opportunities the account can fund include travel to academic conferences, long-term study abroad, social club dues and needed electronics or lab equipment.

“College is more than going to class, it is about extracurricular experiences as well,” said Candace Williams, director of community life. “If you think back to your time in college, your memories aren’t about sitting in class. We don’t want the cost of joining a club or traveling abroad to be a barrier, particularly for our underrepresented students, to learning and a successful career.”

— Leanne Smith, author and associate professor in the College of Business

"This office has made my experience here at Lipscomb as a minority a lot smoother and fulfilling. I learn from the many different students within the office, and I see how a lot of us struggle at a predominantly white institution, but [the OID] truly makes us feel heard and seen."

"Women are reluctant to claim our achievements, and we need to get better about it because it makes a difference in how we’re viewed as leaders."

Inaugural gospel choir established

The past year brought the establishment of Lipscomb’s first gospel choir, directed by Dr. Aaron Howard, assistant professor of ethics and reconciliation who holds a joint appointment in the College of Bible & Ministry and the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts.

The choir began with 30 students in its first semester but gained steam and expanded its membership rolls after on-campus performances began in student chapel and special events throughout the year, including the inauguration of the new Lipscomb president.

The gospel choir offers Lipscomb students a new avenue to engage God in worship through a quintessentially American musical art form, said Howard.

The gospel choir debuted in fall 2021 with performances at various Lipscomb worship services and events.

"My goal is that students feel that the choir represents the best of what Christian community should be. We are multiethnic, with students from different socioeconomic and regional backgrounds, and yet we are one body united by the blood of Christ."

— Dr. Aaron Howard, assistant professor of ethics and reconciliation

Lipscomb's Diverse History

2010 John Seigenthaler Sr. and Howard Gentry speak to students as part of the university’s Black History Month series.

2010 Percentage of the student body from historically underrepresented racial groups

2011 Lipscomb joins Belmont and Tennessee State universities in a joint service day on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The event would become an annual service opportunity for students.

2012

Lipscomb establishes a formal relationship with prominent civil rights era attorney and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Fred D. Gray, resulting in the Fred D. Gray Institute and annual community events. The university awards Gray an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters during the 32nd annual Thomas H. Olbricht Christian Scholars’ Conference.

“Lipscomb is an institution with which I had a relationship that began in segregation. Their conferring a degree on me,... was an act of reconciliation for both me and for the university. It was a powerful event that spoke to not only my life and work, but the changes that have occurred at Lipscomb University, in the church and in society.”

— Fred D. Gray, civil rights movement lawyer, graduate of Nashville Christian Institute, namesake of Lipscomb’s Institute for Law, Justice and Society, commenting on the 2012 awarding of an honorary degree from Lipscomb, in “Bus Ride to Justice,” Epilogue to Revised Edition

2012 A bus tour of various historic sites of the civil rights movement is incorporated into the College of Bible & Ministry’s Doctor of Ministry program.

2014 Office of Multicultural Affairs establishes annual Welcome to Our Worlds event.

2015 Percentage of the student body from historically underrepresented racial groups

2015 Harry Kellum, the first African American to graduate from Lipscomb, officially receives his diploma during spring commencement, as he was not able to participate in his own commencement exercises in 1968.

2016 Institute for Law, Justice & Society renamed in honor of Dr. Fred D. Gray.

continued on page 21

Lipscomb’s many faces, unified in one body

Every part of the body plays a crucial role in meaningful success for the whole body. Lipscomb strives each day to eliminate obstacles and clear a path to success for every student, no matter their individual traits, background or challenges. Nothing evidences the outcome of this goal better than individual Lipscomb students succeeding and thriving in today’s world.

Sena Seged (’19, ’22) Informatics pharmacist with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Seged secured her avowed dream job even before receiving her Doctor of Pharmacy and Master of Science in healthcare informatics in May's commencement ceremonies. Her hiring at the CDC was no surprise. She had already brought her number crunching skills and pharmacy credentials to the CDC through a month-long rotation in November 2021. During her rotation, she organized and analyzed 60 million rows of data on over-the-counter overdoses from 2014 until 2021 to discover the most commonly abused OTC medications reported on during that period. That information helped CDC officials create guidelines for medical professionals to help treat and prevent such overdoses nationwide.

Osama Alsalman

Senior in Lipscomb Online program

Information and Evidence Officer at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland

Alsalman’s work at the UN includes creating technology systems that manage international criminal investigations. Alsalman is originally from Baghdad, Iraq, where he worked as a military interpreter and cultural adviser for several years. After moving to the United States through a special immigration visa, he at one point worked with the U.S. Army to advise soldiers before deployment, teaching them about Iraq’s culture. He got into the technology sector through a job in Nashville with Page One Legal, which led to his current work at the UN. That job allowed him the time to enroll as a non-traditional student in Lipscomb Online and work to improve himself. In addition, his wife, Aseel Alkazzaz (’16, ’18), is a twotime Lipscomb graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Master of Management degree.

“In Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others,”

Romans

Tiffani Alexander (MFA ’21)

Nashville-based documentary filmmaker

What began as a thesis film project for Alexander, originally from Atlanta, in Lipscomb’s film and creative media program was applauded at two film festivals this summer and will soon be released to the public as episode one of a series. Her documentary about Nashville and its music history, The Tale of 2 Music Cities, focuses on the role of Black music and Black musicians. It explores the rise of country music in Nashville as well as hip-hop artists who contributed to the city’s music scene but were often pushed aside. The film was selected for the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas in June and was screened at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame during the Macon Film Festival in August.

Kaylee Wu

Senior, biology major

Wu was one of seven undergraduate students chosen as Ward Research Fellows to conduct research with faculty at Vanderbilt University, Meharry Medical College and internationally. Her parents are from China and Indonesia. Fellow Wu traveled this summer to India on a trip focused on neonatology and led by Dr. Scott Guthrie (BA ‘95). She served as a clinical research assistant for three American neonatologists to prepare doctors participating in a clinical trial of a new intubation technique to treat respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants. In addition, Wu is a student-athlete on the Lipscomb women’s golf team and was named a Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar.

Jazzmin Mitchell (’22)

Founder of Free Fyre and a Master in Social Work student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville-Nashville Campus

The first in her family to graduate from high school, Mitchell was awarded one of eight Transfer Trustee Scholarships to Lipscomb after past challenges had bested her at a large university and caused her to press pause on her college dreams. She came to Lipscomb after having graduated summa cum laude from Motlow State Community College. She was involved on campus with the Office of Intercultural Development and the Joshua Project mentoring program. She was the 2022 recipient of the Stephen Lee Marsh Christian Example Award and the Council on Social Work Education Minority Fellowship, an award for those going into the field of substance misuse and behavioral health. In 2020, Mitchell and her husband established Free Fyre, an arts organization that serves communities through Spoken Word poetry, keynote speaking and creative workshops.

DEGREE-

RACIAL

GROUPS

Lipscomb’s Faces of Diversity

Alexis Cole (’22) Elected Miss Lipscomb

A longstanding tradition at Lipscomb University is for two seniors to be nominated by faculty, staff and administrators and voted on by the student body for most embodying the ideals of Lipscomb University. This spring, Cole was the first African American woman elected Miss Lipscomb 2022 and Grant Hitchcock was elected Bachelor of Ugliness.

Cole, a theology and ministry major from Bristol, Virginia, was involved in numerous activities and organizations at Lipscomb: Quest Team leader, spiritual committee chair, chaplain for the Black Student Union, African Student Association and intern for Lipscomb’s Office of Vocation and Spiritual Formation.

“It is an amazing honor to be named Miss Lipscomb. More than that, I am honored to be the first black woman to be named Miss Lipscomb,” says Cole. “It makes me think about how far I've come. I remember standing in front of Elam as my parents pulled off to go back to Bristol. I was so scared, but God has carried me through, and I have realized all that can be accomplished as I simply trust in Him and use all that He has put within me.”

Cole received her bachelor’s degree in May and is now pursuing her Master of Divinity from the Hazelip School of Theology.

As scholars and thought leaders, Lipscomb’s faculty support a collective spirit to honor the common good and to act on long held principles of fairness and integrity

Associate dean serves on national DEIA advisory panel

Dr. Kam Nola, associate dean of academic affairs for the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, was selected for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-racism (DEIA) Advisory Panel in 2021.

According to Nola, the AACP advisory panel is exploring ways to help pharmacy colleges integrate DEIA into the curriculum, especially as accrediting bodies in the field are incorporating DEIA into their required standards.

Nola serves as the inaugural chair of the Lipscomb College of

Pharmacy Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee established in 2020. Her participation on the national advisory panel allows Lipscomb to share best practices with other colleges and schools of pharmacy as well as to learn best practices from others.

The AACP advisory panel is working to compile DEIA resources, identify the needs and goals of members and seek to address those needs, foster dialogue among member institutions, disseminate information and collect relevant information and data on AACPmember activities.

Business professor nurtures case research in The PhD Project College of Business Professor and Associate Dean Dr. Andy Borchers has spearheaded training and development sessions on writing case studies for underserved doctoral graduates, as part of the nationwide effort of The PhD Project to develop a more racially diverse generation of business school faculty.

As an active leader of the Society for Case Research (SCR), Borchers was tapped by the national nonprofit to assist in its efforts to enable research opportunities for recent Ph.D. graduates and bring more people of color into doctoral business programs and faculty positions where they can then serve as role models for students of color.

The PhD project turned to SCR to prepare more people of color to write case studies, one of the principal ways of engaging business students nationwide, said Borchers, who also serves as editor of SCR’s Journal of Critical Incidents

The Lipscomb trainings, including an online version in summer 2021 that trained more than 100 people and an in-person version this summer in Rhode Island, prepare them to successfully submit case studies to be published in academic journals.

Faculty Research, Scholarship and Academic Endeavors in Diversity

Dr. Kristin Baese (’07, M.Ed. ’13, Ed.D. ’17), Laura Delgado and Dr. Ally Hauptman published “A Pathway to Teaching for Paraprofessionals of Color” in Kappan, a publication of Phi Delta Kappa, a professional magazine for those involved in K-12 education, in 2021.

Dr. Quincy Byrdsong is finishing up a three-year term of leading the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA), the first Black male to serve in this capacity in the society’s history. Byrdsong has also been appointed to the Board of the Association for the Accreditation for Human Research Protections (AAHRPP), the accrediting body for institutional review boards and human research protections programs, making him the first Black person to serve on the AAHRPP Board and the first person of any race or gender to serve on both the SOCRA and AAHRPP boards. In 2021 and 2022, Byrdsong delivered various presentations on health equity issues and research ethics in regards to racial equity to numerous organizations including: the Nashville Health Care Council Fellows Class; the Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) Advancing Ethics in Research Virtual Conference, the International Association of Clinical Research Nurses, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network IRB Directors’ Forum; the AAHRPP Virtual Annual Conference and the National Council of University Research Administrators' Financial Research Administration Virtual Annual Conference.

Dr. Jeanne Gilliam Fain, professor and lead faculty for multilingual learners, coordinated Global Voices, the College of Education’s annual professional development conference for K-12 educators, designed to equip and empower educators to become informed advocates for all

learners including multilingual learners. The conference provided instructional strategies and intentional support in topics such as resilience, behavior strategies and writing and math for multilingual learners.

Dr. Emily Mofield, Dr. Jill Green (’19), Dr. Autumn Hills (’19), and Dr. Maggie Lund (’19) explored restorative justice practices in “Mindsets matter for equitable discipline: Aligning beliefs to practice among middle grade educators,” published in Middle School Journal in 2021. Mofield served as a co-guest editor for “Providing culturally-responsive instruction,” a special edition of Teaching for High Potential, in November 2020.

Mofield and her co-author addressed the needs of gifted/high-potential students from culturally, linguistically and economically diverse backgrounds in “Collaboration, Co-Teaching and Coaching in Gifted Education: Sharing Strategies to Support Gifted Learners,” printed by Prufrock Press and winner of the NAGC Book of the Year–Practitioner Category in 2021.

In 2021 and 2022, Mofield and Dr. Megan Parker Peters made various presentations on strategies to help students from underrepresented populations to access rigor and cultivate resilience to the National Association for Gifted Children, the TwiceExceptional Conference at the College of William and Mary and the World Council for Gifted and Talented Conference.

Dr. Robin Parker authored a chapter in the textbook, Pharmacy Student Survival Guide, 4th Edition , that highlighted underserved and vulnerable populations with a discussion of racial and ethnic minorities, transgender/genderdiverse patients and patients with limited English proficiency.

Dr. William Lofton Turner, was selected as guest editor for a special issue of Family Process, one of the nation’s leading journals in family psychiatry, family psychology and family therapy. The special issue will focus on health and mental health disparities in diverse and underserved populations. In addition, Turner was appointed as co-chair of the Family Process Journal’s 60th Anniversary Celebration and Symposium held in September 2021 with the theme “The Heart of the Matter: Systemic Imperatives to Address Health Disparities and Racism in the Time of Covid.” Turner also presented the Ackerman Distinguished Lecture at New York City’s Ackerman Institute for the Family, one of the nation’s leading family training centers.

Dr. Cayce Watson (’21) and Hannah Pipher, (’21) MSW from the University of Kentucky, presented on health equity and the social determinants of health, including the impact of racism and food insecurity, at the Children's Justice Conference in fall 2021. The CJC is an annual conference for professionals working in children and family services organizations. They provided data and information related to food insecurity and helped participants identify ways they could move their organizations strategically to address issues of health equity in underserved populations.

Dr. Rebecca Zanolini presented the findings of the empirical study: “An Observation of Barriers for

Undergraduate Minority Students to Participate in Global Learning Programs at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee” at the annual TAIE Institute conference and the annual American Association of Colleges and Universities conference in 2021 and 2022.

Dr. Jeremy Townsend

Associate Professor of Kinesiology

Since coming to Lipscomb in 2016, Townsend, research coordinator for the Master of Exercise and Nutrition program, has authored more than 40 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and secured over $350,000 in research funding. Studies and presentations have focused on sport nutrition, exercise performance and exercise

Dr. DeAndrea Witherspoon Nash

immunology. He has earned grants from the company Renaissance Periodization for the past two years to conduct research on gastrointestinal function during resistance exercise. He involves Lipscomb graduate students and student-athletes in testing specific dietary products, such as Liquid I.V., on their health, performance and recovery.

Assistant Professor in Clinical Mental Health Counseling | Lead Faculty, Addiction Specialization

Witherspoon Nash not only leads the addiction specialization within the clinical mental health counseling program, but also coordinates Lipscomb’s Collegiate Recovery Initiative. During National Recovery Month in 2021, she coordinated the first on-campus Collegiate Recovery Academy, offering recovery ally training, opioid

Dr. Julio Rivas

overdose reversal training and access to community resources. She and alumnus Jaime Harper (’21) launched the Bisons in Recovery support group, a 12-step support group and trained more than 100 recovery allies on campus. In addition, Witherspoon Nash facilitates the monthly first-time drug offender parent education class in Nashville’s public schools.

Associate Professor of Finance, Chair of the MBA Program

Rivas, born in Torreon, Mexico, was appointed chair of the MBA program in 2021 and worked throughout the past school year to debut a new hybrid version of the Professional MBA. Rivas earned his BBA and MBA at Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Guadalajara Campus and earned his Ph.D. in finance at the University

Dr. Alice Nie

Assistant Professor

Nie, research coordinator for the education doctoral program, joined the Ed.D. program as its research coordinator during the 2021-22 school year and has helped the program continue its excellent completion rate (91.4% over the past decade) by matching Lipscomb students with educational organizations who have research needs. Nie draws from a database of

Dr. Kenyatta Lovett

of Texas at Arlington. He has led four international trips with MBA students to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is also involved on the boards of two academic organizations: Society for Case Research and Institute for Global Business Research, and on the boards of two community organizations: Faith Family Medical Center and Kindred Exchange.

more than 90 organizations across the nation to coordinate about 12 research studies per cohort. Nie has taught both domestically and internationally in Saudi Arabia, China, India, Turkey and Hungary. Her research interests include language acquisition, adolescent identity development, multimodal literacy, discourse analysis, and imagination.

Scholar-in-Residence in the College of Leadership & Public Service

Lovett, managing director of higher education at Educate Texas, was named a scholar-in-residence in the College of Leadership & Public Service in fall 2021. Lovett focuses on scholarly research and expanding scholarly publishing, especially in areas that lift up local and state leadership and shed a light on the needs and experiences of the next

generation of local leaders. This past summer he coordinated the college’s first symposium for scholars around the nation interested in state leadership. Lovett previously served as the Tennessee Board of Regents assistant vice chancellor for community college initiatives and later as the assistant commissioner for workforce services.

Dr. Natasha Johnson

Assistant Professor

Johnson earned her DBA from Jacksonville University in 2021. In 2019 she was honored as a Rising Star by the Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce for her leadership initiatives, service to the community and ongoing commitment to excellence in the academic and business arenas. In 2020 she was named a Woman

Dr. Steven Ortiz

Professor of Archaeology and Biblical Studies

Ortiz, director of Lipscomb’s Lanier Center for Archaeology, has more than 30 years of archaeological experience in Israel. He was the principal investigator and co-director of the Tel Gezer Excavation Project in Israel, is one of the directors of the Ilibalyk Project in Kazakhstan, and is the co-director at Tel Burna Excavation project in

Dr. Steve Opoku-Duah

Paul B. Langford Endowed Professor in Chemistry

For more than 23 years, Opoku-Duah has taught courses in chemistry and hydrology in four nations, been published widely in scientific journals, earned several research grants and fellowships, and served as a Christian missionary in Africa, Europe and North America. His experience earned him his appointment as the first

Dr. Aaron Howard

Assistant Professor

Howard made a splash on campus in the 2021-2022 school year by coordinating Lipscomb’s first gospel choir (see page 11). He holds a Ph.D. in ethics and society from Vanderbilt University and masters degrees in theology and biblical studies, and education and counseling. He is founder and CEO of As One

Dr. Max David Collao ('09)

Assistant Professor

Collao is originally from Lima, Peru, where he was introduced to Lipscomb by translating for mission teams from 2002 to 2004. He earned his mechanical engineering degree from Lipscomb and went on to earn his master’s and in computational engineering. He worked for several years in the start-up sector of the business world as a 3D

of Influence by the Nashville Business Journal in the Trailblazer category which “honors women who have led the way for others to follow in their footsteps.” She has been the coordinator of the Skills Development Day for boys who reside at the Tennessee Children’s Home for several years.

Israel. Ortiz’ scholarly work has not only been published widely throughout the field, it also contributed to the ESV Archaeology Study Bible and was the focus of the cover story of Biblical Archaeology Review’s summer 2022 edition. The article describes finds at the Tel Gezer excavation site, where Lanier teams dug for 10 years.

Langford endowed professor this year. In addition, his first book, titled Transcended: Story of an African Science Professor Changing Lives in America, was released this summer, and he was recognized for his service on the international Research Expertise from the Academic Diaspora Albanian Fellowship Program.

Christian Diversity, a consulting agency that helps Christian organizations pursue biblical unity and belonging. Previously, Howard served as director of diversity, community and inclusion for the lower, middle and upper schools at Franklin Road Academy in Nashville.

developmental engineer, an aerodynamics engineer and software and algorithms engineer. His experience working at young start-up companies provides him experiences in flexibility and independent work on projects wholly his own, which he now shares with entrepreneurial-minded engineering students at Lipscomb.

Lipscomb’s Faces of Diversity

Dr. Richard Hughes Scholar-in-Residence, College of Bible & Ministry

The second edition, Myths America Lives By: White Supremacy and the Stories That Give Us Meaning, was published in 2018. He researched the book in part thanks to an institutional research grant from Lipscomb.

He followed up that work in 2018 by coordinating a conversation series based on his book for Lipscomb faculty with four of Nashville’s other Christian universities: Belmont University and Trevecca Nazarene University, historically white universities; and Fisk University and American Baptist College, historically black universities, to discuss racial issues, white privilege and how to address those issues on college campuses.

Hughes is recognized as one of the nation’s foremost scholars on the Churches of Christ, and this past year he released his latest book, which explores his personal scholarly journey, especially in regards to the evolution of his insights on the intersection of race and Christianity in the U.S.

The Grace of Troublesome Questions: Vocation, Restoration and Race, published by Abilene Christian University Press, traces Hughes’ sense of vocation and how that calling led to a lifetime of research resulting in 17 published books.

In 2021 and 2022 Hughes also wrote various articles and op-eds including: “Escaping the Web of White Supremacy: A Crucial Task for Christians,” in Teleios; “Yes, They Are Children of Nazis, but We Are Christians, and We Will Stand with Those who Suffer,” “Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God” and “How the Oldest American Lie Sustains our Racial Malaise,” in Baptist News Global; and “Just Tell the Truth about America’s Less-than-glorious History,” in the Los Angeles Times.

Hughes is best known in Church of Christ circles for his scholarship on the history of the Churches of Christ but is nationally known for his work on religion and race, religion and higher education, and vocation. He has directed numerous conferences, programs and initiatives related to these topics.

In 2003, Hughes published Myths America Lives By, a critical study of the formation of several foundational ideologies Christian Americans often espouse. Years later, a conversation with James Noel, a professor of African American Christianity and American religion at San Francisco Theological Seminary, made Hughes realize that he needed to rewrite that book and include the myth of white supremacy.

Hughes’ model was used later by Lipscomb to host similar discussions among students at the five universities.

Hughes and Turner host 2022 Lilly Fellows national conference

Lipscomb was selected from among universities across the nation to host the Lilly Fellows Program’s 2022 National Conference in October with a focus on bias within the academy. Hughes and Dr. William Lofton Turner, distinguished professor of leadership and public policy and special counsel to the president for diversity, equity and belonging, were the conference coordinators.

The conference was a major national event among faithbased colleges and universities, and the chosen topic signals an awareness in Christian higher education that there needs to be emphasis and focus on diversity, inclusion and equity, said Turner.

Keynote speakers for the 2022 conference included: Eddie Glaude Jr., the James S. McDonnell distinguished university professor of African American studies at Princeton University; Forrest E Harris Sr., president of American Baptist College and professor and director of the Kelly Miller Smith Institute on Black Church Studies at Vanderbilt University; and Tabatha Jones Jolivet, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Applied Sciences at Azusa Pacific University.

The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, based at Valparaiso University in Indiana, seeks to strengthen the quality and shape the character of church-related institutions of higher learning in the twenty-first century.

Racial and Gender Composition of Faculty in

Percentages of those from underrepresented racial groups

Lipscomb's Diverse History

2016 The Christian Scholars' Conference establishes the Fred D. Gray Plenary Lecture in Human and Civil Rights, which has featured Gray himself, James H. Cone, Molefi Kete Asante, David Gushee and Ibram Kendi.

2016 The College of Education launches the Pionero Scholars Program for first generation college students who attended a Metro Nashville Public School and want to go into the teaching profession and teach in Nashville's schools.

2017 Lipscomb establishes Respect Leads initiative to promote a culture of respectfulness in all quadrants of the university.

2017

Full-time Teaching Faculty Full-time Staff

Percentages of women

Full-time Teaching Faculty Full-time Staff

*For full-time faculty, 2.36% did not specify a race or ethnicity. For full-time staff, 13.73% did not specify a race or ethnicity.

Faculty from

Groups

private universities nationwide**

Independent Colleges and Universities Association Member Institutions*

University

Black Colleges and Universities (HCBUs)

Source:

Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)

Lipscomb establishes LIGHT, its intercultural competence initiative for undergraduate academic programs, which has featured guest speakers including Margot Lee Shetterly and Thi Bui.

2017 The Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society hosts its first annual Fred D. Gray Dinner. Guest speakers would later include civil rights activist and congressman Rep. John Lewis.

2017

“What does it mean to be part of the Lipscomb community?... A community that models for the world the difference God makes when we are bound together by love. A community that doesn’t allow our differences to divide us with the seeds of discord, but rather a community that loves in ways that only God’s people can love.”

—David Scobey, chair of the Lipscomb Board of Trustees 2011 to 2017, at the 2017 Convocation ceremony in Allen Arena

2017

“Fundamental to our mission... is respect for all persons and the diversity they bring to our community. The term ‘Respect Leads’ was selected to reflect our set of core values… and it suggests that, in every situation, particularly where conflicts might arise, we begin with the tenet of respectfulness and seek to develop a campus-wide culture reflecting that virtue.”

—L. Randolph Lowry, president of Lipscomb from 2005 to 2021, describing the Respect Leads initiative begun on campus in 2017

2017 First annual ENGAGE Youth Theology Initiative is held. The summer program for high school students from diverse backgrounds explores the call to racial justice and healing; the histories of both the church and U.S. civil rights movement; and what it means to live a life of Christian leadership and service.

continued on page 27

Lipscomb strives to ensure our students, faculty, staff and alumni experience a genuine sense of belonging on campus.

LJS Institute preserves record of Gray’s civil rights advocacy

Lipscomb’s Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society is founded on the principle that legal change is one of the surest means to effect social change.

Named for the famed civil rights attorney Fred D. Gray, it is fitting that in the same year that Gray was awarded with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the institute’s five-year process of archiving all of Gray’s legal work into a digital library was completed this fall.

Under the leadership of new director Kimberly McCall, the institute has established a new council, made up of faculty and friends of the College for Leadership & Public Service who are committed to community engagement and events honoring the work and life of Gray.

In addition, the institute has established its first dual enrollment partnership with Nashville’s Goodpasture High School, offering an LJS introductory course to high school students for college credit, and has heightened its focus on law school preparation, by joining the American Moot Court Association in fall 2021 to offer students the opportunity to compete against universities across the country in appellate advocacy competitions.

Nursing school named one of the most diverse

In April, Lipscomb University School of Nursing was named one of the 30 most diverse nursing schools in America by RNtoMSN.org.

Using student completion data from nursing schools nationwide to uncover those with diverse student populations, the organization compared the schools’ population metrics to the averages from their states. Nursing schools that outperformed others in their state by the widest margins earned a most diverse nursing school award. These metrics parallel the organization’s definition of a diverse nursing workforce as one that reflects its own multicultural society.

In the RNtoMSN.org description of the School of Nursing at Lipscomb, the school’s Christ-centered approach to education was noted as well as its “excellent” first-time NCLEX pass rates and job placement numbers. Also highlighted were its strong clinical practicums, a senior preceptorship and externship opportunities.

This past spring, Lipscomb and Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) launched “LIFT Off to Lipscomb” — a pipeline program to prepare MNPS students who aspire to enter the teaching profession to return to the district to teach. President Candice McQueen, MNPS Director of Schools Adrienne Battle and Nashville Mayor John Cooper were on hand to announce the new program in April.

The Leading and Innovating for Future Teachers (LIFT) program will provide full tuition and fees for a cohort of 10 MNPS students each year, up to 40 students at any given time, to enter its teacher preparation program beginning in fall 2023.

The mission of LIFT Off to Lipscomb is to recruit and retain teachers in the areas most needed by MNPS. Through this partnership, aspiring teachers would be recruited from local high schools and prepared to be ready the first day they enter their own classrooms as teachers in MNPS. The program also includes early teaching contracts, personalized degree programs, experience with high-quality faculty, content and field experiences.

“We are excited about the opportunity to help MNPS ‘grow’ future educators from within their local communities who will return to serve these areas and ensure that they will have an impact for years to come,” said McQueen, former Tennessee Commissioner of Education.

Grow Your Own (GYO) partnerships, such as the LIFT Off to Lipscomb initiative, are strategies emerging across the country to help fill the teacher shortage gaps. GYO partnerships focus on increasing access and removing barriers to the teaching profession, filling shortages in critical subject areas, increasing the diversity of the teacher workforce, and developing and retaining teachers from the local community.

“There are specific needs that we have in training, recruiting and retaining high-quality educators in our system,” said Battle. “We serve a diverse population and have students who speak over 125 different languages. It is important that we remove barriers and develop teachers who reflect the city’s diverse population, and we look forward to partnering with Lipscomb in this mission.”

In addition to the LIFT Off to Lipscomb initiative, future MNPS partnerships with Lipscomb that are planned include leadership development, high school connections and digital preparedness.

See page 28 for more details on Lipscomb’s other partnerships with MNPS and Middle Tennessee schools.

S-STEM grant opened engineering opportunities for 28 transfer students

Six years ago, the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering was awarded one of the university’s first federal grants, from the National Science Foundation, to help bring an engineering bachelor’s degree to students in Nashville’s community colleges.

The grant-funded initiative, reaching out to Nashville, Columbia, Motlow, Roane and Volunteer state community college students, brought more locals and a broader range of life experiences and racial categories to the Lipscomb engineering student body. The last of the NSF’s S-STEM grant recipients graduated in May, and 28 students joined the ranks of professional engineers thanks to the program.

Compared to Lipscomb’s traditional student population, the S-STEM students include larger percentages of students who are married, have children of their own and are commuter students. The S-STEM grant population has included various students who have already been in the working world, one who immigrated to the United States from Iran and several first generation college students.

More than 80% of the S-STEM scholars who participated in surveys and focus groups said they are: 1) a first generation student, 2) a commuter student, 3) have outside family responsibilities, and 4) have limited campus interactions outside of the engineering program.

Twenty-eight percent of the College of Engineering’s student body was made up of students from underrepresented groups in the 2021-2022 school year, the college’s highest portion ever, in part due to the S-STEM grant.

ON-CAMPUS

Lipscomb funds 10 MNPS students per year to remove barriers to teaching, fi ll shortages and support educators

City officials, Lipscomb President Candice McQueen and student guests at the announcement of LIFT Off to Lipscomb.

Creating a diverse campus community

Since 2016, students have indicated in a survey of graduating seniors that Lipscomb was doing well in meeting the students’ expectations of providing opportunities to gain an understanding for and to engage in diverse communities locally, interculturally and/or globally.

GRADUATING STUDENTS WHO AGREED OR STRONGLY AGREED THAT LIPSCOMB PROVIDED OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS TO ENGAGE AND PARTICIPATE WITH DIVERSE COMMUNITIES LOCALLY, INTERCULTURALLY AND/OR GLOBALLY.*

STUDENTS

*Average over the last four years of surveys.

OF COLOR

GRADUATING STUDENTS WHO AGREED OR STRONGLY AGREED THAT LIPSCOMB PROVIDED OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS TO GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION FOR DIVERSE COMMUNITIES LOCALLY, INTERCULTURALLY AND/OR GLOBALLY.*

STUDENTS

STUDENTS OF COLOR

AND DEPENDENTS ENROLLED IN FALL 2021

ALUMNI FROM UNDERREPRESENTED RACIAL GROUPS*

living

NON-RESIDENTS ENROLLED IN 2021-2022

STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES WHO HAVE COMPLETED THE IDEAL PROGRAM

U.S. NON-RESIDENTS ARE FROM UNDERREPRESENTED RACIAL GROUPS

Lipscomb’s Faces of Diversity

Trey Phillips (’22)

ENGAGE participant, 2017 and 2018

As a graduate in civil engineering, Phillips of Whites Creek, Tennessee, is a shining example of how one small program can impact a life and a spirit.

He was first introduced to Lipscomb University in 2017 through the ENGAGE Youth Theology Initiative, a summer program designed for high school students who want to dive deeper into an exploration of Scripture, theology, Christian leadership and public service.

Established and funded for several years by a matching grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., ENGAGE brings together high school students from racially diverse backgrounds and churches of Christ to wrestle with the call to racial justice and conflict transformation; the histories of both the church and the U.S. civil rights movement; and how to discern one’s Christian vocation relative to God’s redemptive mission in the world.

Phillips attended ENGAGE for two years and later enrolled at Lipscomb in 2018 with a Presidential Scholarship. He credits the program with helping him balance his interest in entering the ministry with his chosen profession in civil engineering.

“The program opened my eyes to the fact that you don’t have to be a preacher to be involved with ministry.,” he said. “You’re actively participating in ministry just by being a child of God and telling other people about that.”

While at Lipscomb, Phillips served as the president of the Collegiate 100 chapter, an auxiliary program of the 100 Black Men of America which hosts a variety of activities such as tutoring programs, tie drives, toy drives and more.

“I became a part of the organization for the service and the mentorship but really, what really made me stay a part of it was the brotherhood and the camaraderie with the guys that I had,” said Phillips.

Phillips is now working for Collier Engineering in Nashville.

Lipscomb, Nashville State announce partnership to provide pathway to bachelor’s degree

Students at Nashville State Community College have a new pathway to earning a bachelor’s degree thanks to a new partnership with Lipscomb University’ online program.

The articulation and transfer agreement announced in September allows students who complete an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree at Nashville State to seamlessly transfer to Lipscomb to earn a bachelor’s degree through its online program.

Students who successfully complete the associate degree offered by Nashville State are eligible to receive a 20% tuition discount when they enroll in Lipscomb Online. Undergraduate programs are offered in business leadership, customer experience, data analytics, entertainment management, hospitality management, integrated studies, organizational communication, psychology, public administration, strategic leadership, supply chain and operations management, technology management and nursing.

HumanDocs Film Series: Prompting conversation on diversity for 13 years

The HumanDocs Film Series continued to bring discussion of society’s important issues to campus in the 2021-2022 school year with the screening of And Then They Came For Us, exploring the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The film screening complemented the LIGHT program’s 2021-22 common read of the graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, which describes his personal experience as a boy in the Japanese American internment camps during World War II.

Since the HumanDocs Film Series was established by Professors Ted Parks and Matt Hearn in November 2009, 58 films have been shown on the Lipscomb campus, each exploring aspects of humanity through the lens of societal inequalities.

Lipscomb’s LIGHT program focuses on nurturing academic and extracurricular cultural engagement and strives to bring attention to portions of America’s history that are often overlooked or ignored.

Lipscomb contributes to create a surrounding community that reflects its own diversity.

Business As Mission program benefits local underestimated entrepreneurs

The College of Business’ Center for Business as Mission (BAM), has been inspiring students to develop entrepreneurial ideas to make a difference in communities around the globe since 2015.

But during the pandemic, BAM made a pivot to focus on equipping local underestimated entrepreneurs through a business accelerator course that involved undergraduate students as trainers and a new partnership with Corner to Corner Nashville.

In the fall and spring semesters, BAM built upon its previous effort with the Hispanic Family Foundation to launch a free business course for potential entrepreneurs from the community, targeting individuals who had faced a variety of challenges such as incarceration, limited opportunity, limited access to education or limited finances. BAM faculty and students taught entrepreneurship skills over 16 weeks and then hosted a pitch competition with startup capital prizes. All of the participants, such as

minority-owned Busta’s Bar-b-Q and Big Daddy’s Chicken Shack, have now established their own business.

Corner to Corner Nashville coordinates a 10-week program to equip community members with the skills needed to plan, start and grow a small business, especially minority-owned businesses. BAM partnered with Corner to Corner to host a pitch competition for the participants as part of the center’s annual conference.

New AERO program succeeded in helping students fly high

Thanks to the continuing partnership between Nissan and the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering, 27 engineering majors at colleges across the nation were ahead of the game in the 2021-22 school year.

The students completed the summer 2021 AERO Program (Accelerated Engineering Readiness Opportunity), a new math bridge program for recent high school graduates interested in engineering who need to boost their math skills to enter the academic major. The one-week program was such a success that Nissan agreed to fund it again this past summer with double the number of participants for two instead of one week.

Any high school student could apply to attend, but coordinators targeted accepting those who were interested in engineering but needed academic support as evidenced

by their ACT scores. Many students who are part of historically underrepresented racial groups, first generation college students and military veterans are typically overrepresented within that population.

Twenty-five high schools, predominantly from Nashville, were represented in the student group, with 26% of students identifying as African American and 18% identifying as Hispanic. Of the AERO participants who needed math remediation, 87% were able to advance one course in math at the university where they enrolled, providing an estimated savings of one year's tuition for each.

In addition, eight Nashville public school science and math teachers also participated in the program for professional development and left feeling more confident in incorporating hands-on engineering into their classrooms.

Counseling program establishes alumni group dedicated to fostering diversity

This past year the Department of Psychology, Counseling and Family Science established MOSAIC, an alumni group dedicated to fostering a community of inclusion in the department, exploring ways the department can further embrace racial and ethnic diversity and addressing challenges to boosting diversity.

According to the mission document of MOSAIC: “This new organization aims to provide opportunities for students, faculty and staff to gain awareness of the unique contribution people of all backgrounds offer to the department, university and community at large.”

“Partnering with alumni who have diverse professional and personal experiences and who desire to give back, will help us identify areas of growth for racial diversity,” said Dr. DeAndrea Witherspoon Nash, assistant professor and faculty advisor of the new MOSAIC group. “The overarching goal is to foster connections between current students and alumni and to continue building a diverse community that recognizes and embraces our differences while celebrating commonalities.”

During the fall semester, MOSAIC held a town hall meeting, co-coordinated by Chi Sigma Iota, the international honor society for counseling students. In addition, it worked to develop ideas for social mixers, approaches to mentoring current students and service opportunities.

Lipscomb's Diverse History

2018 Prentice Ashford, Norma Burgess and William Lofton Turner are appointed in strategic positions to provide diversity insight and guidance within the entire scope of university operations, student life, academics and administration.

2018 Dr. Major Boglin, executive director of the Genesis Center for Counseling at the North Atlanta Church of Christ, becomes the sixth African American appointed to the Board of Trustees, serving until 2019.

2020 William Lofton Turner is appointed as the first African American member of the executive leadership team.

2020

Percentage of the student body from historically underrepresented racial groups

2021 Dr. Bennie Harris, chancellor of the University of South Carolina Upstate, becomes the seventh African American appointed to the Board of Trustees, presently serving on the board.

2021 Percentage of the student body from historically underrepresented racial groups

2021 A campus climate survey is administered campuswide by the Racial Justice and Unity Center.

2022 The LIFT Off to Lipscomb program is established to prepare annually 10 Metro Nashville Public School students who aspire to enter the teaching profession and to return to Nashville schools to teach.

2022 Alexis Cole becomes the first African American elected as Miss Lipscomb.

2022 Shane Hooper, director of economic development at Shelbyville/ Bedford Partnership, becomes the eighth African American appointed to the Board of Trustees, presently serving on the board.

2022

"An increasing number of students are entering college with a desire to obtain a degree in engineering without the math background necessary, increasing their degree plan by a year or more. The burden of an additional year puts them at a high risk of leaving the program or never completing a college degree."

Dr. Candice McQueen, president of Lipscomb University, from 2021 to the present, launches Lipscomb Impact 360, a strategic plan that designates diversity, equity and belonging as one of the university’s primary goals to focus on through 2030.

2022 Lipscomb University hosts and develops the Lilly Fellows Program’s national conference focused on the theme bias in the academy.

— Stephanie Weeden Wright, coordinator of the AERO program

Grow Your Own partnership with state prepares hundreds of teachers

Since 2019, the College of Education has received $1.2 million in grant funds through the Tennessee Department of Education’s Grow Your Own (GYO) competitive grant program to increase access and remove barriers to the teaching profession as well as to fill shortages in critical subject areas.

The first grant in 2019 established Lipscomb’s partnership with the Clarksville Montgomery County School District (CMCSD), to provide a no-cost education leading to licensure for 22 teaching assistants in the district. Another GYO grant in 2020 allowed Lipscomb to add 24 CMCSD teacher assistants to the pipeline to earn their K-5 teaching license with an endorsement in special education and a master's degree.

In 2021, $1 million in GYO grants awarded to Lipscomb allowed ten cohorts of teacher assistants, totaling 210 individuals from CMCSD, Metro Nashville Public Schools, and the Hamilton County and Williamson County school districts, to enroll to earn their teaching licenses with an endorsement in the areas of special education and English Language Learning and their master’s degree.

In the 2021-2022 school year, 90 students were enrolled in the teacher preparation program through the GYO partnership and 70 were expected to start courses in the summer and fall of 2022.

The GYO partnership with the state is an effective and popular way for school districts to work toward diversifying their teaching ranks, said Dr. Vanessa Garcia, assistant professor and coordinator of the GYO partnership at Lipscomb.

“School districts large and small are calling wanting to establish these kinds of partnerships with us. It is exciting to see the continued trust factor and relationships that we're building across the state growing because that means we are able to help make a difference in the lives of more students,” she said.

Lipscomb’s Faces of Diversity

Verna Solimon (’21) Pionero Scholar and MNPS Teacher

When Verna Soliman was a junior at Nashville’s Antioch High School, she made a promise that she intended to keep. She told Andrew Price, AP language teacher at Antioch High School, that she would return to her alma mater one day and teach English just like him.

In January, Soliman made good on her promise as she became the newest English teacher at Antioch High School.

Soliman came to Lipscomb as part of the Pionero Scholars Program, a pipeline program which encourages students in Nashville to become teachers and to return to teach in their home communities.

When she was an infant, Soliman’s parents moved her and her siblings from Egypt to the United States to expand their future opportunities. Her parents received their college degrees from universities in Egypt and wanted their children to have the opportunity for a good college education as well.

Soliman, who is part of the third cohort of Pionero scholars to graduate from Lipscomb, wants to be a part of closing the culture gap in Nashville schools.

“My high school alma mater has students from over 100 countries on the globe, but they don’t have teachers with similar immigrant experiences or the same skin color,” said Soliman. “I want to offer those students a helping hand as they navigate a different culture while broadening their worldview.”

As of fall 2022, the College of Education has supported...

Lipscomb Pipelines to Diversity 94 teachers into Middle Tennessee classrooms through Grow Your Own

Successful state-funded Diversity in Teaching program recognized in professional publication

Over the past five years, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission has awarded more than $260,000 in Diversity in Teaching Grants to Lipscomb to create a pipeline for currently working educational assistants (EA) in Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) to become lead teachers in MNPS classrooms.

Today 18 fellows have all begun teaching in Nashville schools. In fact, Lipscomb’s EA Fellows Program, developed and coordinated by Dr. Ally Hauptman, associate professor; Dr. Kristin Baese, assistant professor; and Laura Delgado, program director; served as a model for a 2021 article published in Kappan, a professional magazine published by Phi Delta Kappa for those involved in K-12 education.

As factors of its success, the creators of the pipeline highlighted the strengths of the paraprofessional pool; the program’s cohort model and assigned mentors; and the longevity of the graduates in MNPS schools. The EA Fellows model provides fellows model provides EAs with a scholarship to Lipscomb, tutoring for the licensure exams, professional development and an assigned Lipscomb faculty mentor once teaching.

“It’s a relatively untapped pool, at least in Tennessee,” said Delgado. “People are starting to recognize that if you are looking for ways to offer more diverse pipelines to the profession, going after current paraprofessionals of color is, in theory, a high return and a quick turnaround.”

Global Voices Conference provides multicultural resources for teachers

More than 250 K-12 educators gathered on April 9 with the goal of “Finding Joy in Language, Learning and Literacy” at the College of Education’s annual Global Voices conference.

The mission of the free conference is to equip and empower educators as they strive to become informed advocates for all learners including multilingual learners, says Dr. Jeanne Gilliam Fain, professor and lead faculty for multilingual learners in the College of Education.

Session topics included resilience in the classroom, serving global K-12 students, exploring linguistic support and mathematical strategies for multilingual learners, behavior strategies for students who are struggling, trauma-informed instruction through an ABA lens and teaching acceptance of disabilities through literature and social-emotional learning among others.

The Book Browsing Room provided educators the chance to browse several newly released and award-winning books, including current global titles for children and young adults. Participants received a professional development certificate, research-based strategies and best practices, books and other resources.

teachers into Nashville classrooms through Pionero Scholars

9 teachers into Nashville classrooms through Educational Assistant Fellows

future teachers still in the pipeline.

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