Building belonging in uncertain times

Written by: Hayden Kobza

Kathy Purnell, Southern Adventist University’s special advisor to the president on diversity and strategic planning, has been developing and implementing ways to serve the institution’s diverse population, she said in a recent interview with the Accent.

  Purnell, who has held the position since the summer of 2022, continues her work despite initial online backlash from some conservative Seventh-day Adventists when she was first hired.

In addition to internal church polarization over diversity issues, Purnell—along with other diversity-related professionals—also faces a growing anti-diversity climate spreading across the country, exacerbated by President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders dismantling DEI programs and policies within the federal government.

One project Purnell has been spearheading along with Adam Bellis, a graduate research assistant, is a “Perceptions of Belonging” survey designed to assess what Southern is doing well when it comes to belonging and what needs to be improved, whether in the classroom, dorms or worship centers.

Along with the survey, Purnell said she has launched a website called the Online Belonging Community to create a Christ-centered space where individuals feel valued, empowered and connected through respectful dialogue, shared experiences and a commitment to inclusivity.

“We seek to build a stronger, more inclusive campus community that reflects the love, compassion and unity taught by Christ,” the website states. “Together, we are committed to cultivating a space where diversity is embraced, and every member can grow in faith, knowledge and purpose.”

Another initiative mentioned by Purnell and Bellis is DiversiTEA Conversations, which aims to bring diverse voices together around tea. The effort, led by Bellis, will extend to staff as well.

“We realized there are not a lot of places to talk like that [on campus],” Bellis said in an interview with the Accent. He wants people from all parts of Southern to unite and bridge the diversity divide, and Purnell, being from the United Kingdom, wants them to drink tea while conversing.

  “There’s power when you bring people together around tea and food,” Purnell said. “ … We really want to see what happens.”

Racial Tensions

 Purnell was hired at Southern in the summer of 2022, after the university’s attempt over the span of a few years to address its racist history, according to a previous Accent article. There had been a few incidents from 2016 and 2018 when racist slurs and comments posted on social media platforms, including Yik Yak and Snapchat, during Black Christian Union (BCU) Night prompted the university to seek solutions for racial reconciliation. 

In 2018, a week after a racist Snapchat story was taken at a 2018 BCU Night, the university released a video statement titled, “Recognizing Our Past, Shaping Our Future.” 

Former university President David Smith and other administrators—including Bob Young, senior vice president for Academic Administration, and Denis Negrón, vice president for Student Development—were featured in the video alongside other university representatives and  Student Association (SA) members.

The video, currently available on the university’s YouTube channel, promised students that the university would begin creating a full-time diversity position.

“I pledge that we will improve the representation of our diverse student body at the administrative level starting immediately with a Vice President of Diversity position,” President Smith said in the video. “And I would like to ask for prayers and support [from] all of our students and employees in pursuing these goals.”

Those statements from the university were made seven years ago. While the vice president position never materialized, the university created a Senior Advisor of Diversity position under the direction of President Smith. The responsibilities were split between two individuals by the fall of 2019, according to an Accent article.

 Social Work professor Stephanie Guster became Senior Advisor to the President on Diversity, and Theology professor Alan Parker became Advisor to the President on Sexual Integrity, which included LGBTQ issues. Both individuals stepped down from their positions at the end of the 2022 winter semester, and the university renamed the position of Senior Advisor to the Senior Advisor to the President of Diversity and Strategic Planning, according to a previous Accent article.

When Purnell stepped into the position, Fulcrum 7, a conservative Seventh-day Adventist news outlet published an article bashing Purnell and Southern for hiring her.

“I don’t believe that the ‘diversity’ agenda will do anything to improve Southern Adventist University or help the supposedly ‘marginalized’ student groups,” an anonymous writer named News Hound wrote at the time. 

Purnell disagrees. She  believes diversity initiatives have benefited the university, and she continues to prioritize inclusion.

Building Bridges

These days, Purnell said she is passionate about her job because of the experiences her family went through while living in the United Kingdom.

“I grew up in the UK in the late 1960s, a time when there was a lot of racial tension … [and] my parents were immigrants from the Caribbean,” she explained.

She said many immigrants of the Windrush era, a period involving the movement of people from Commonwealth countries to the UK between 1948 and 1973, faced a significant amount of discrimination. 

“I heard a lot of stories, and it inspired me,” she said. 

Some of it she experienced personally:  “As a child, a teacher used a derogatory racial slur, and I said, ‘When I grow up, I will never be like you,’” she recalled.

Recently, Southern and Oakwood University students, administrators and employees spent a weekend together in Atlanta, Georgia, during a joint Diversity Educational Exchange Program (DEEP) Retreat. 

Bellis said DEEP started in 1996 when then-Oakwood President Delbert Baker and Southern’s President Gordon Bietz wanted to bridge the racial divide.

Students from Oakwood and Southern would switch schools for a semester. However, according to Bellis, it eventually lost steam and has evolved into a once-a-year weekend retreat where the schools meet, talk and do community service.

“The overarching goal is inspiring and galvanizing participants into forging faith-based, genuine intercultural bonds and devising strategies that nurture cultural humility and a pervasive sense of belonging,” Purnell stated in a previous Accent article. 

This year, DEEP was hosted in Atlanta, Georgia, where participants from the two schools shared the theme, “Together in Mission.” The retreat featured presidential recognition and leadership insights, spirit-led worship, a community service project, a discussion on mission and action, a creative reflection night, prayer circles, a call to action and planning for the future.

According to Purnell, while the group met, the first executive orders had come from the Trump administration, ending DEI programs at the federal level, and it made the group feel uneasy.

“That really put a cloud over people’s heads,” Purnell said.  For her, it wasn’t by chance that the group was brought together during that time.

“As the weekend ended, there was a collective sense of fulfillment,” Purnell stated in an email to the Accent. “The DEEP 2025 retreat provided an opportunity for learning and reflection and led to tangible action, with attendees committing to serve their communities in new ways.”

Other initiatives by Purnell and Bellis, along with Kevin Brown, chair of the Mathematics Department, and Professor Robert Ordóñez, associate professor in the School of Computing, include a launching a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Planning Project to study Hispanic STEM student populations, identify challenges and train faculty to implement evidence-based strategies for improving retention.

“The bit I’m excited about is to design micro-learning content to help educators and students,” Purnell said.

Bellis said there would be a lab using virtual reality goggles for the content, and Purnell added that they had just purchased 20 goggles.

Purnell emphasized the importance of resilience and faith in the work of diversity.

 “It’s a lot of quiet working in silence but under Godly direction,” she said, reinforcing her belief that challenges don’t define a person—but perseverance does.

“It reminds me [that] no matter what’s thrown at [you], it doesn’t define you,” Purnell said. “You’ve got to brush it off … walk while you cry, but know who you are.”