Macon Reporter

“I mark off the third Tuesday of every month with joy because I know we’re going to do something productive.”

Bishop Wayne Dunning has always been committed to service. Ask his congregation at Faith Fellowship Christian Church or his students at Decatur Public Schools. But every third Tuesday of the month for the past 29 years, he has served Richland Community College on the Board of Trustees. When he became Board Chairman in the late 90’s, he instituted a new ritual to start every meeting: the reading of the core values, mission, and value statements.

“I always never want to forget why I’m there. Why I’m serving,” he says. “We’ve got to be reminded of why we do what we do.”

Bishop Dunning takes those statements to heart in the classroom. Years ago, the bishop was teaching a troubled kid and sat him down for a conversation.

“I asked him, ‘What do you want to do? What do you like to do?’ And this guy, this tough guy, said, ‘Mr. Dunning, don’t tell anybody but I like to cook.’ So I took him out to Richland Community College,” he said. “He saw his goals and dreams and they were reachable and obtainable just by coming on campus. We had nothing to do with his education. He was in eighth grade at the time and he just saw the possibilities and we broke the glass ceiling in his mind.”

For the bishop, his goal as a trustee is creating a welcoming environment for Richland students and ensuring they have the proper education to excel in their career. One of the accomplishments he is most proud of is the increasing diversity on campus.

“People feel like they belong. It’s a diverse place. It’s becoming more equitable. And people feel like they’re included in decision making,” he remarked. “When I started in ’93, we didn’t have a lot of that. Now, we do. We have a lot of it. We’re oozing it. And you know what, we can even do better.”

Richland Community College has accomplished a lot in the past 50 years. In the bishop’s almost 30 years on the board, he has worked with three presidents. He saw the Richland Community College Foundation grow from giving $100,000 in scholarships to almost $1 million a year. He was part of the movement for the Board of Trustees scholarship and the start of the Farm Progress Show.

Bishop Dunning says Richland is starting to become people’s first choice, and we will continue to grow in the next ten years as a national leader in agribusiness, technology, the police academy and nursing.

“We’re going to be putting out the finest nurses in the world. And our nurses will be able to go anywhere. When they have a Richland degree with them, people will recognize, ‘Oh my goodness, we have a Richland student. Not only do we have to pay them, but we know they’re good.’”

And Bishop Dunning is excited to continue working with the Board of Trustees to turn Richland into the national leader it’s meant to be.

“We’ve got a phenomenal board. This board has totally exceeded my expectations,” he stated. “That’s the reason why I hang around. When you’re around great people, you want to stay around great people.”

Original source can be found here.