Southern Adventist University: Kathy Goodridge-Purnell, PhD, joins Southern Adventist University as the new senior advisor to the president on diversity and strategic planning. Originally from England with roots in the Caribbean, Purnell is a gifted communicator and leader, bringing decades of relevant experience to the Collegedale campus.
“I look forward to working closely with our new team member,” said President Ken Shaw, ’80. “She brings a strong background in change management strategy and experience from several higher education institutions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Purnell’s extensive expertise includes providing strategic leadership in shaping and defining an organization’s inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity values by creating initiatives that advance such values for all members of an organization. Most recently she served as chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at Pacific Union College in California. No stranger to Southern Adventist University, she has served as an adjunct instructor in the School of Social Work.
With a doctorate in education and professional studies from Capella University, Purnell also holds master’s degrees in social work and instructional design/online technology. She is married to Franklin Purnell, and the couple has three grown children. In her free time, Purnell enjoys traveling the world, meeting new people, engaging in digital and visual storytelling, and photography. She looks forward to working closely with campus leadership, faculty, staff, students, and all university stakeholders.
“I hope that our collective efforts and goals will ignite innovation and intentional planning around diversity and strategy across the institution, nationally, and globally,” Purnell said. “This begins with important relationship building to assess the climate and needs. I consider it an honor to be part of the Southern family and the global community of faith-based leaders spearheading diversity and strategy efforts.”
Prophetic Link:
“It is so easy to drift into worldly plans, methods, and customs, and have no more thought of the time in which we live, or of the great work to be accomplished, than had the people in Noah’s day. Our institutions are in constant danger of traveling over the same ground as did the Jews, conforming to customs, practises, and traditions which God has not given. With tenacity and firmness, some cling to old habits and a love of various studies which are not essential, as if the salvation of both teachers and students depended upon those studies which for years have found a place in the schools. By doing this, they turn away from the special light God has given in the word, and give to the students a deficient education.” General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 6, 1899, par. 18