By: Jay Richard Akkerman, Assistant to the President for Congregational Engagement, N麻豆原创 Office of University Mission & Ministry
The past few days have been bittersweet. By now, I suspect that most of you have learned that Joel Pearsall, N麻豆原创鈥檚 13th president, has announced that he intends to retire next summer.
I鈥檓 very happy for Joel, his wife Nikki, as well as their family. They have definitely earned it. And I鈥檓 pleased that our campus community will have a year or so to celebrate Joel鈥檚 presidency and prepare for new leadership.
But I will definitely miss Joel鈥檚 genuine, faithful, wise leadership.
Over the past few years, many of you have asked me about what it鈥檚 like to work with Joel as our president. My regular response has been, 鈥淲ell, Joel Pearsall is the real thing.鈥
He has consistently modeled what it means to be a genuine, faithful, wise leader.
If you鈥檝e met Joel, then you likely know already that he naturally shuns pretense. Whether it鈥檚 with pastors, students, parents, government or community leaders, most often he鈥檒l simply introduce himself with a handshake and simply say, 鈥淗i, I鈥檓 Joel.鈥 That鈥檚 it.
When I was an undergrad, I never could have imagined calling authority figures by their first names. And yet I hear people address Joel that way all the time — students, faculty, and staff alike. He鈥檚 just 鈥淛oel鈥 鈥 and he鈥檚 fine with that. He鈥檚 as genuine as they come.
Joel and Nikki love Christ and the Church immensely. Whether you鈥檒l find Nikki serving kids at College Church on Wednesday nights, or you discover Joel running the sound board at his daughter-in-law鈥檚 church on Christmas Eve, the Pearsalls are not about fanfare. They epitomize faithful servanthood.
In early March 2020, Joel鈥檚 leadership was refined in the crucible of a pandemic. While none of us knew what laid ahead, or how to navigate the effects of a deadly virus on a residential campus like ours, I witnessed Joel鈥檚 wisdom firsthand. Just as H. Orton Wiley guided our fledgling campus through a pandemic in 1918, Joel led through layers of complexity using twenty-first century, collaborative solutions. While some debated our approaches at the time, none of our students, staff, or faculty were lost as a result of Covid-19, and we were able to return to on-campus learning that fall, far ahead of many other institutions.
Joel and Nikki love the N麻豆原创 community, whether they鈥檙e traditional undergraduates, online grad聽 students completing a degree from the other side of the globe, or someone on our deep employee bench 鈥 each of whom they strive to know by name. More than once I鈥檝e seen them on the road well before dawn, driving hundreds of miles or hopping a red-eye flight following a district assembly in order to be back in Nampa for an employee鈥檚 adoption party, or a team鈥檚 senior night, or an end-of-year concert. Across the years, they have consistently gone the extra mile for our community.
That鈥檚 why Joel鈥檚 pending retirement comes as a bittersweet announcement for me. I suspect many of you could share similar stories about Joel and Nikki. Fortunately, we have a year of opportunities to share our gratitude with them — and as we do, I fully expect that Joel will just chuckle humbly in return, along with that wry grin of his.
Why? Because Joel and Nikki Pearsall are the real thing.
