Sullivan Showcase: 100 Years of Service

One Hundred Years of Service

On April 11, 2025, Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College (specifically the Wyatt Center’s grand rotunda) buzzed with excitement. The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation was marking 100 years since its first student awards at Peabody in 1925​. Nearly a century later, more than one hundred alumni, educators and friends gathered to “celebrate the impact we make together,” connecting generations of service-minded leaders​. At the heart of the evening was a special honor: Julie Gehrki, a Rhodes College alum and now president of the Walmart Foundation, would receive the 2025 Sullivan Luminary Award.

The evening felt like a homecoming. Guests arrived to warm greetings as old friends and new colleagues found each other. The setting – Vanderbilt’s Peabody College, where the first Sullivan Awards ceremony at an educational institution was held – underscored the legacy of the Foundation​. The Foundation’s President Steve McDavid later noted that the evening “brings us back to our roots at Peabody College,” reminding attendees that the values celebrated have inspired young people for generations​. Through speeches and conversations, the program highlighted how a small idea to recognize students in 1925 had grown into a network of more than 70 partner colleges and universities honoring students, faculty, and alumni who exemplify “compassion, integrity and a commitment to service”​.

Julie Gehrki was introduced as the night’s guest of honor. As detailed in the Foundation’s announcements, Gehrki’s story perfectly embodies the Sullivan spirit – from her humble Arkansas roots to global philanthropy​. It was clear this was a celebration of both her achievements and the ideals she represents.

Julie Gehrki: A Journey of Service

As the ceremony underscored, Julie Gehrki’s life is a testament to “service above self.” Raised in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, she grew up with giving as a focus in her family – her father was a physician and her mother, a teacher-turned-entrepreneur​. Reflecting on those years later, Gehrki said, “The concept of ‘service to others’ has always been in my family’s DNA.” This family ethos drew her to Rhodes College in Memphis, where Gehrki majored in religious studies but found her true calling through community engagement​. In the Lawrence F. Kinney community service program and church outreach near downtown Memphis, she helped run after-school tutoring and worked in a student-operated soup kitchen​. Those early experiences – from interning at Memphis’s Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association to simply showing up for local families in need – “deepened her understanding of community issues.”

By the time she graduated, Gehrki’s dedication had earned her Rhodes’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award – an honor given to seniors who have “selflessly served others”​. At the time, she recalled feeling both honored and surprised, since she had always viewed her volunteer work as just part of daily life.

After Rhodes, Gehrki’s path led deeper into philanthropy. A fellowship at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy broadened her perspective; she called it a “ten-month deep dive” into voluntary action and nonprofit strategy​. Eventually, she joined Walmart’s programs: first managing local community grants, then building state-wide initiatives. Today, Gehrki has become one of corporate philanthropy’s most influential leaders. She “has overseen Walmart’s global philanthropic efforts, guiding support for hunger relief, small business growth and disaster response”​. In practical terms, this means she leads a multi-billion-dollar strategy touching millions of lives: funding food banks, empowering rural entrepreneurs, and sending aid after hurricanes.

When Gehrki took the stage at Vanderbilt, she spoke about her mentors at Rhodes and the Kingston neighborhood in Memphis where she first learned that “even the smallest effort can change someone’s day.” Many in the audience, including students who had written about their own grassroots projects for Sullivan scholarships, nodded in agreement. The room was quiet when Sullivan President Steve McDavid formally presented the Luminary Award. McDavid remarked that Julie’s career “demonstrates the lasting impact of values introduced to students as they strive to make the world better”​. In her acceptance, Gehrki paid tribute to the Foundation itself, saying the Sullivan Award’s emphasis on service had help shape her journey.

Sullivan Engaged Faculty Award Recipient

Each year, The Foundation honors a faculty member who is a champion for good on their campus. More specifically, someone who has engaged their students and campus in the Sullivan mission and programming. This year, we were honored to recognize Dr. Bernard Tuner, Director of The Center for Social Entreprenuership, at Belmont University.

Dr. Turner joined Belmont in 2008 to launch the nation’s first undergraduate program in social entreprenuership, which has since graudated nearly 200 students. Known as a “connector,” Dr. Turner actively links students, faculty and community members with opportunities for employment, training, grants and service. His early partnership with the Sullivan Foundation helped expand Belmont’s involvement-bringing students to the Ignite Retreat, presenting Sullivan Awards and joining the Sullivan Fellows Program.

Dr. Turner also assisted in establishing the Fisk-Belmont Social Justice Collaborative, with the Ignite Retreat now serving as one of the core activities and contributing to the launch of a pilot HBCU initative. Outside Belmont, he brings over 30 years of non-profit leadership including roles with the Center for Nonprofit Management, Projecdt Return, and Soles4Souls. He has held leadership positions with the Grant Professionals Associations and holds a GPC Certificate. His academic background includes an Ed.D., MA. MBA and BS across four institutions. The Sullivan Foundation is proud to call Dr. Turner a friend, mentor and champion of connection and service.

Regional Service Award Honorees

The Showcase also recognized four Regional Service Award recipients—educators nominated by the 2025 host schools whose daily work keeps the Sullivan spirit thriving:

• Dr. Heather Finch (Belmont University) – An assistant professor of English, Finch centers Black and early American voices in her courses and leads students in community-engaged research on social justice themes. In 2024 she was selected for the inaugural FORSEE Fellowship (USAID/U.S. Forest Service), taking her scholarship on environmental storytelling to four continents before bringing it back to Belmont classrooms and service-learning projects.
• Lena Winfree (Fisk University) – Fisk’s inaugural Data & Technology Fellow at the John Lewis Center for Social Justice, Winfree uses analytics to close digital-equity gaps. She co-founded Nashville’s chapter of Blacks in Technology and launched a free healthcare-analytics training program that has up-skilled staff at dozens of safety-net clinics statewide.
• Dr. Sharon Shields (Peabody College, Vanderbilt University) – A pioneer of service-learning, Shields spent four decades linking scholarship to community health and equity, from co-founding Vanderbilt’s Dayani Human Performance Center to reviving the Sullivan Award tradition at Peabody after rediscovering a long-lost plaque of past recipients.
• Christopher McDonough (Sewanee–University of the South) – The Alderson-Tillinghast Chair in the Humanities, McDonough pairs classics with documentary film to illuminate Appalachian histories. His film Mine 21—about a 1981 coal-mine explosion—won the 2019 Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media and has spurred student-led public-history projects in rural Tennessee.

Sustaining the Legacy

By evening’s end, the 2025 Sullivan Showcase had blended its centennial ceremony with an eye on the future. Onstage and off, the stories were linked by a common theme: mentorship and action. The crowd included Sullivan alumni from across the Southeast, many wearing medallions or pins while they shared memories.

Alumni Engagement Specialist Courtney Carlton, watching the proceedings, summed up the mood: “We had every generation in one room — from students just receiving their first Sullivan Awards to those like Julie who received theirs years ago,” she said. “It felt like a family reunion. Everyone here believes that reaching beyond yourself is what makes life meaningful.”

McDavid closed the night with a nod to “the spirit of Algernon Sydney Sullivan and Mary Mildred Sullivan,” the award’s namesakes. He noted how this centennial was not just a look backward, but a call to action. Quoting the Foundation’s mission, he reminded everyone that the Sullivan Awards are about “uplifting communities through service” – a purpose as urgent today as it was a hundred years ago​. McDavid praised the honorees and also thanked our regional host schools, Peabody College, Belmont University, Fisk University, Rhodes College and Sewanee-University fo the South.