Dear Walden Community,
Last year at this time, we were starting to celebrate Walden’s 50th anniversary of delivering Education for Good. Then began all the challenges that will forever define 2020. Like many of you, I am happy to see last year in the rearview mirror. But before we get too far down the road of 2021, I want to acknowledge our community’s resilience. It was exceptional.
We faced each challenge with persistence, innovation, and unwavering dedication to our mission of helping career professionals transform themselves into scholar-practitioners so they can effect positive social change. Our change-agent graduates are needed now more than ever—all 153,000 of them. Especially those who continue to be on the front lines of the pandemic: our nurses, teachers, public health professionals, social workers, counselors, business leaders, and so many others.
This issue of Walden magazine is dedicated to your stories of resilience, last year and throughout your lives. Here, you’ll meet people like Dr. Joe Horton. He earned his PhD from Walden at age 92. And Frances Bailey, a domestic violence survivor who used her entrepreneurial spirit to help others during COVID-19. You’ll also learn more about Anna Slayton, a nurse featured in our TV campaign, who channeled the pain of losing her young son into action by going to New York City during the first wave of the pandemic. We can’t tell everyone’s story, but it is a comfort to know you are out there overcoming obstacles to make a difference.
Finally, I want to end with a special thank you to retiring Board of Directors member Dr. Barbara Solomon. I speak from the heart when I say that her impact on my leadership, on our School of Social Work that bears her name, on our university, and on her profession are immeasurable and deeply appreciated. The results of her resilience during her 50-plus-year career will ripple throughout the profession and the people it helps for generations to come.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ward Ulmer
President
Walden University