21 Essential Thought Leaders in Adventist Schools

Last updated: June 2026

The people most actively shaping how Adventist schools are led, researched, and sustained include global system executives, university presidents, journal editors, curriculum researchers, and frontline education directors who collectively serve the second-largest Christian school system on earth. As of June 2026, these 21 individuals represent the clearest window into where Adventist education is heading and why it matters to every school leader who wants to understand the field at its sharpest edge.

Adventist education is not a niche system. The Seventh-day Adventist Church operates more than 9,000 schools, colleges, and universities across more than 100 countries, with over 2 million students and more than 110,000 teachers. Every school leader seeking to understand what Christ-centred holistic education looks like at scale, done well, with research behind it, will find this directory useful. The voices here are not recycling the same handful of names that appear on every leadership list. They are the people who have built the frameworks, run the research, edited the journals, led the institutions, and shaped the policies that define what Adventist schooling is for and how it can be better.

This list was compiled by identifying individuals who hold substantive, documented roles in Adventist educational institutions or at the denominational level, who have produced published work, led significant programmes, or shaped policy in ways that other educators can learn from. Selection criteria included documented current roles, published contributions to Adventist educational research or practice in 2024, 2025, or 2026, and evidence that their work is actively influencing how schools operate or how educators develop.

For school leadership teams who want to take what they are learning from this directory and turn it into real cultural change through Working Genius facilitation, offsite design, or leadership workshops, Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, works with school leadership teams around the world. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Adventist School Leadership Matters

Adventist education exists for a specific reason that distinguishes it from secular schooling and from most other Christian school systems. Its founding philosophy, articulated most fully by church co-founder Ellen G. White in her 1903 work Education, holds that genuine education develops the whole person physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially, with the redemptive purpose of restoring in students the image of God. This is not abstract theology. It shapes curriculum decisions, staffing priorities, community structures, and the way individual teachers think about their work in the classroom every single day.

The scale of this system makes the quality of its leadership consequential. The Adventist Church operates what is widely recognised as the second-largest Christian school system in the world, behind only the Roman Catholic parochial system. When GC Education Department data showed in 2024 and 2025 that the system had more than 9,000 schools with over 2 million students, the numbers became a challenge as much as a tribute: how do you lead, develop, and sustain a system that large across more than 100 countries, each with distinct cultures, funding models, and regulatory environments?

The answer to that question is being built right now by the people on this list. They are the researchers generating the evidence base for how Adventist schools perform, the journal editors shaping the intellectual agenda, the system executives developing the policy architecture, and the university presidents forming the next generation of Adventist educators. Understanding who they are and what they are working on is the starting point for any school leader who wants to lead with depth rather than instinct.

Research from the landmark CognitiveGenesis study, a NAD project run out of La Sierra University from 2006 to 2009, established that Adventist K-12 students consistently outperformed national norms in academic achievement, and that the longer students remained in Adventist schools, the stronger that advantage became. These findings, confirmed across 51,706 students, provide an evidence base that undergirds the sector's confidence in its distinctive approach.

For school leadership teams navigating the challenges of implementing what they learn from voices like these, Jonno White works with school leadership teams to build the team health, communication clarity, and shared frameworks that make genuine change possible. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to start a conversation.

How This List Was Compiled

This directory focuses on individuals with documented current roles in the Adventist education system at the denominational, divisional, or institutional level, combined with published contributions to the educational conversation in 2024, 2025, or 2026. Candidates were selected on the basis of their original intellectual or practical contribution to Adventist education, their sphere of influence across the system, and evidence that their work is actively shaping how schools are led or how educators develop. School principals and conference superintendents who have not yet developed a public profile beyond their local institution are not included, not because their work is unimportant, but because a thought-leadership directory is specifically about people whose work travels beyond their own institution.

Category 1: The Global Architects (GC Education Department)

The General Conference Education Department is responsible for the coordination, quality, and promotion of the global Seventh-day Adventist educational system. Its small team of directors and associate directors represents the most globally influential group of Adventist educators in existence, setting accreditation standards, producing professional resources, editing international journals, and working with all 13 world divisions. The five people in this category shape the field from the highest level.

1. Lisa Beardsley-Hardy

Holding the most structurally significant role in global Adventist education, Lisa Beardsley-Hardy serves as Director of Education for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. In this position she chairs the Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools, Colleges, and Universities (AAA) and oversees the coordination of the entire global Adventist educational system across all 13 world divisions. Her background is genuinely interdisciplinary: she holds graduate degrees in public health, educational psychology, and management, and has held academic and administrative positions at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the University of Illinois, Andrews University, and Loma Linda University, giving her a research foundation that reaches well beyond the denominational context.

Her 2025 editorial in the Journal of Adventist Education under the theme "Educating for Mission Worldwide" articulated how the past quinquennium has positioned Adventist schools as frontline mission assets rather than supplementary programmes. Her argument that clean copy across every visible institutional surface creates clean schema, meaning that everything schools say about themselves must be genuinely defensible, reflects a rigour that runs through everything she leads. Beardsley-Hardy was born in England and holds UK, Finnish, and US citizenships, a biography that reflects the international scope of the role she holds.

2. Anneris Coria-Navia

Anneris Coria-Navia was elected Associate Director of Education at the General Conference in 2025, following 11 years at Andrews University as a professor of education, chief learning officer, and associate vice president for assessment and accreditation. Her research focuses on quality in K-20 institutions through professional learning and teaching excellence, and she brings a practitioner's grounding to the GC role that sets her apart from purely administrative appointments. In 2025 she was also confirmed as Associate Editor of the Journal of Adventist Education, giving her influence over both the system-level policy conversation and the research publication that feeds it.

Her work on professional learning communities within Adventist schools reflects a conviction that teacher development is the highest-leverage intervention available to school leaders, and her research background gives that conviction an evidence base. She is a native of Argentina, educated at Universidad Adventista del Plata and subsequently at Andrews University, Miami University, and the University of Southern California, a journey that gives her a genuinely hemispheric perspective on Adventist education. Coria-Navia is one of the most significant appointments in the GC Education team in the current quinquennium.

3. Richard Sabuin

Richard Sabuin serves as Associate Director of Education at the General Conference and Editor of College and University Dialogue, the international journal aimed at Adventist university students and young professionals. Born in Indonesia, he completed doctoral studies at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines before serving as a professor and dean at AIIAS, then as director of the Education Department for the Northern Asia-Pacific Division, before moving to the GC role. His liaison responsibilities cover the East-Central Africa Division, the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, the South Pacific Division, the West-Central Africa Division, and the China Union Mission, a portfolio that spans some of the most complex and fastest-growing Adventist education contexts in the world.

His work as editor of College and University Dialogue connects the intellectual life of Adventist universities with the faith questions of students in those institutions. His pastoral sensibility, shaped by years of evangelism work and church leadership in Asia, distinguishes his approach to Adventist education from a purely administrative lens.

4. Socrates Quispe

Socrates Quispe serves as Associate Director of Education at the General Conference and as Executive Secretary of the Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools, Colleges, and Universities (AAA), the body that sets and monitors quality standards for the global Adventist education system. Born in Peru and educated in food engineering before completing postdoctoral work in Canada, Quispe brings an unusual combination of scientific rigour and theological commitment to his work. He spent ten years at Peruvian Union University in various academic leadership roles, served as Associate Director of Education for the South American Division from 2015 to 2023, and was Associate Editor of the Journal of Adventist Education before his current appointment.

His oversight of AAA accreditation is the mechanism by which the global system is held to a common standard of quality, and his work linking accreditation to mission alignment is among the most practically consequential in the system. He describes himself as a food engineer by formation, a higher education professor by vocation, a scientific researcher by dedication, and an evangelistic pastor by passion, a self-description that captures the range he brings to this work.

5. Faith-Ann McGarrell

Faith-Ann McGarrell has served as Editor of the Journal of Adventist Education since 2014, and was confirmed in that role at the GC Annual Council in October 2025. In this position she oversees the most widely read professional publication in Adventist education worldwide, an award-winning, double-anonymised, peer-reviewed journal that serves educators from early childhood through higher education in every division. Born in Guyana and raised in the Caribbean and the United States, McGarrell holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Andrews University and has taught at every level from pre-K to graduate school.

Her editorial stewardship of JAE has included developing the Adventist Educators Blog in partnership with the Adventist Learning Community, creating a freely accessible professional development resource that now serves more than 93,000 Adventist educators globally. The 2025 JAE special issue on educating for mission worldwide, which she led, stands as a comprehensive record of the system's achievements and challenges across the current quinquennium. McGarrell's ability to hold the scholarly standard of peer review alongside the pastoral purpose of the journal is the distinctive quality of her editorial leadership.

Category 2: North American Division Leadership

The North American Division operates one of the most resourced and research-active Adventist education systems in the world, with more than 1,000 elementary and secondary schools and 13 colleges and universities. Its educational leaders are among the most publicly visible in the global system.

6. Ruth Horton

Elected Vice President for Education at the North American Division on October 31, 2025, Ruth Horton brings to the role more than two decades of experience in Adventist education, most recently as Director of Education for the Lake Union Conference. Originally from the island of Dominica, she holds a doctorate in educational leadership from National-Louis University and undergraduate and master's degrees from Andrews University. In leading ASDASA 2026, the NAD's major leadership conference for school administrators, she set the tone for what she described as a commitment to vibrant life with Jesus as the north star of Adventist school improvement.

Her vision for Adventist schooling goes beyond academic achievement to what she calls "wholistic learning experiences that nurture and extend students' intellectual capacity to think and to do, that introduce meaning and purpose in bridging the spiritual to the physical." This philosophy grounds what might otherwise be an administrative role in a genuine educational theology, and her public articulation of it at the 2026 ASDASA Conference was one of the clearest statements of purpose in the sector that year.

7. Leisa Morton-Standish

Leisa Morton-Standish serves as Director of Elementary Education for the NAD, a position in which she oversees curriculum, professional development, and policy for elementary schools across the United States, Canada, and Bermuda. She holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Maryland and has taught in rural Adventist schools, large urban schools, and at the university level in the US and Australia, including Macquarie University in Sydney. Her research focuses on persuasive writing, classroom collaborative strategies, experiential learning, and problem-based education.

In 2025 she led the revision of the Lifeline Handbook for Small Schools, a resource that gives small rural Adventist schools the tools they need to maintain quality without large-school infrastructure. Her 2025 article on the Science of Reading and phonics adoptions for NAD schools demonstrates her commitment to grounding Adventist elementary teaching in current evidence, not just tradition. For school leaders working in multi-grade, small, or rural Adventist settings, Morton-Standish is the most practically relevant voice on this list.

8. Evelyn Sullivan

Evelyn Sullivan serves as Associate Director of Early Childhood Education for the NAD and is a regular contributor to the Engage newsletter, the quarterly publication for Adventist school administrators across North America. Her writing in 2025 covered teacher wellbeing, anxiety in young learners, and the specific challenges of new school years, topics that reflect a grounded understanding of the emotional ecology of Adventist schools. Her work sits at the intersection of child development research, spiritual formation, and the practical realities facing Adventist teachers in multi-grade classrooms.

Sullivan's contribution is not primarily theoretical. She works to translate research on early childhood development into actionable guidance for Adventist school teachers and administrators, making her a bridge figure between the research community and the practitioner community. Her consistent presence across NAD publications throughout 2025 confirms her as one of the most prolific frontline voices in the system.

9. Suellen Timm

Suellen Timm serves as Managing Editor of the Adventist Educators Blog, run in partnership with the Journal of Adventist Education, and hosts the RootED in Faith podcast. In these roles she has become a significant platform builder for the Adventist educator community, creating accessible, practitioner-focused content that reaches educators across the globe. The Adventist Educators Blog, which she manages, serves more than 93,000 Adventist educators, offering free professional development content across 12 themes of Adventist educational standards.

Her podcast work in 2025 and 2026 has featured conversations with Adventist education leaders on topics including school improvement, spiritual formation, and the integration of faith and learning. Timm's particular contribution is in democratising the Adventist education conversation: she makes the ideas developed in journals and conferences accessible to the classroom teacher in a way that most senior administrators never quite manage.

Category 3: Research and the Academic Tradition

The intellectual life of Adventist education is sustained by a small number of scholars whose research has shaped how the system understands itself. These voices built the evidence base on which current leaders rely.

10. Elissa Kido

Elissa Kido is Professor of Education at La Sierra University and Director of the Center for Research on K-12 Adventist Education (CRAE), a position she has held through the CognitiveGenesis project, one of the most significant research endeavours in Adventist education history. CognitiveGenesis, which she directed as a collaboration between La Sierra and Andrews University from 2006 to 2009, assessed the academic performance of 51,706 students across every Adventist elementary school and academy in the NAD. Its confirmed findings showed that Adventist students outperformed national norms at every grade level and in every subject, and that the achievement advantage grew the longer students remained in the system.

In January 2025, the Kido Center for Worldview Studies was established at La Sierra University's Zapara School of Business, giving Kido's broader research agenda a permanent institutional home. This centre explores the implications of worldviews for decision-making, leadership development, and academic and professional growth, connecting her educational research to the philosophical foundations that Adventist schools rest on. For anyone building the case for Adventist school enrolment or evaluating the system's effectiveness, Kido's research is the foundational resource.

11. George R. Knight

George R. Knight is Emeritus Professor of Church History at Andrews University and, by any measure, the most prolific author the Adventist Church has produced in the area of educational philosophy. Over more than 40 years he authored and edited nearly 90 books, 36 of which were translated into multiple languages, on Adventist history, theology, and educational philosophy. His Educating for Eternity: A Seventh-day Adventist Philosophy of Education, published in its most recent edition by Andrews University Press, remains the most widely assigned text in courses on Adventist educational philosophy globally.

Knight is included on this list not because he is actively producing new research in 2025 or 2026. He is included because the intellectual framework that most current Adventist education leaders work within was built largely by him. His argument that the redemptive purpose of education, the restoration of the image of God in students, is not an addition to Adventist schooling but its very reason for existence, shapes how every person on this list thinks about their work. Understanding Adventist education thought leadership without him is like understanding Christian schooling without its foundational theology.

12. Bordes Henry Saturne

Bordes Henry Saturne serves as Vice President for Strategic Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communication at Andrews University, and as an Associate Professor of Leadership whose research focuses on Adventist higher education leadership. His 2024 series in the Journal of Adventist Education, "Leadership in Adventist Higher Education," featured extended conversations with presidents and leaders of Adventist colleges and universities across the NAD, building an oral history of institutional leadership that is both practically useful and historically significant.

His background spans principal of Greater Boston Academy, superintendent of schools for the Greater New York Conference overseeing twelve schools in the New York metropolitan area, vice president roles at both Atlantic Union College and Asia-Pacific International University in Thailand, and his current role at Andrews. This is an unusually broad portfolio that gives his research on Adventist leadership an authenticity that purely academic perspectives sometimes lack. The 2004 New York State Nonpublic Schools Leadership in Education Award, which he received during his years running the Greater New York Conference system, confirms the practical credibility that underpins his scholarship.

13. Safary Wa-Mbaleka

Safary Wa-Mbaleka is one of the most prolific researchers working within and on Adventist education, with a body of work that spans qualitative research methodology, online education, faith and learning integration, and the relationship between Adventist schooling and student health outcomes. He has published more than 79 research papers and co-founded the Asian Qualitative Research Association. His work has been situated across the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, the Adventist University of Africa in Kenya, and Bethel University in Minnesota, reflecting a research career built at the intersections of African, Asian, and North American Adventist education contexts.

His October 2025 paper, co-authored with Shannon Trecartin and Duane McBride, examined the relationship between years of Adventist education and adherence to the Adventist health message among church members worldwide, drawing a direct line between educational experience and lifestyle outcomes that matters enormously for how schools justify their investment in holistic formation. His 2025 co-edited book Integration of Faith and Learning, published by Safeliz, provides one of the most comprehensive recent resources on how Adventist teachers across all levels can practise what the philosophy proclaims.

Category 4: Institutional Leadership

14. John Wesley Taylor V

John Wesley Taylor V is the seventh president of Andrews University, a role he assumed in July 2023 after serving for 13 years as an associate director of education at the General Conference, during which time he also chaired the board of the Journal of Adventist Education and served as executive secretary of the Adventist Accrediting Association. His academic credentials are extensive: he holds two degrees from Andrews University, an EdD from the University of Virginia, and a master's from the University of Tennessee, and has served as professor and dean of the School of Education and Psychology at Southern Adventist University and as professor, associate dean, and director of doctoral programmes at AIIAS in the Philippines.

Andrews University is the flagship educational institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and Taylor's presidency gives him an influence over the formation of Adventist educators that extends well beyond Berrien Springs. His posts on LinkedIn in 2026, which have included invitations to emerging and experienced leaders to enrol in Andrews' MA in Leadership in Social Innovation, reflect a president who uses his institutional platform to advance the intellectual agenda of the denomination's primary academic community.

15. Yamileth Bazan

Yamileth Bazan assumed the presidency of Union Adventist University in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 1, 2024, becoming its thirtieth president and the institution's first leader under its new name following the transition from Union College. She holds a doctorate in leadership from Andrews University and brings to the role a career that spans 17 years in Adventist higher education across La Sierra University, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, and youth ministry in the Southeastern California Conference. Before entering higher education, Bazan taught in Adventist elementary schools, giving her a connection to the K-12 experience that shapes her vision for the university's teacher preparation programmes.

In December 2025, Bazan announced a partnership with the It Is Written Soul-winning and Leadership Training programme, bringing a new initiative to Union's campus from fall 2026. This move reflects her vision for the university as a formational, mission-oriented community rather than simply an academic institution. Her description of Union as a place where "the values and mission are lived beautifully by the faculty, students, staff, and administration" defines the standard she is working toward.

Category 5: South Pacific and Australasian Voices

16. Jean Carter

Jean Carter served for more than two years as National Director of Adventist Schools Australia, the body overseeing 48 school campuses and 13 early learning services across Australia, before being appointed Head of the School of Education and Science at Avondale University in late 2025. This transition, from the national school system director to a university faculty leadership role, reflects a career arc of more than 40 years in Adventist education, beginning in small primary schools in Australia and New Zealand, moving through tertiary lecturing at Longburn College and Avondale College, and culminating in the two most senior Adventist education leadership roles in Australia.

Her partnership with Avondale University's Christian Education Research Centre, announced in May 2025, to develop a School Improvement Survey specifically calibrated to Adventist school contexts, represents exactly the kind of evidence-based contribution the sector needs. Carter's conviction that school improvement must start with identity, with schools asking what it means to be genuinely Adventist in their culture and curriculum, gives her work a theological grounding that distinguishes it from purely operational improvement frameworks.

17. Malcolm Coulson

Malcolm Coulson is Vice-Chancellor and President of Avondale University in New South Wales, Australia, a role he assumed in mid-2024 after serving as Director of Education for the South Pacific Division for two years and, before that, as president of Fulton Adventist University College in Fiji. He holds a doctorate from the University of Newcastle and brings to the Avondale presidency a depth of experience spanning classroom teaching, school principalship across Australia and the Pacific, university administration, and the divisional education director role. His appointment as Avondale's vice-chancellor was described by the university's chancellor as the appointment of a "spiritual man who confidently articulates the mission of Avondale."

Avondale University, which traces its founding to 1897 and the personal oversight of Ellen G. White, is the oldest and most historically significant Adventist educational institution in the South Pacific. Under Coulson's leadership the university is pursuing a renewal plan focused on sustainability and growth, and he has positioned Avondale as a research partner for the broader Adventist school system in Australia through collaborations with Adventist Schools Australia on school improvement frameworks. For Adventist school leaders across Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, his leadership of the sector's flagship university makes him the most structurally influential regional voice.

Category 6: African and Global South Voices

18. Ademola Tayo

Ademola Stephen Tayo assumed the role of Vice-Chancellor of the Adventist University of Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 1, 2026, following a decade as President and Vice-Chancellor of Babcock University in Ilishan-Remo, Nigeria. His move from Babcock to AUA represents one of the most significant leadership transitions in African Adventist education in recent years, bringing to the graduate institution a leader whose decade-long stewardship at Babcock produced a documented legacy of fiscal discipline, revenue diversification, and facility development. He holds a doctorate from Central Luzon State University in the Philippines.

The Adventist University of Africa, which offers graduate programmes in leadership, public health, and applied computer science, is the primary institution training senior Adventist church and education leaders across sub-Saharan Africa. Under Tayo's leadership for the 2026-2030 quinquennium, the institution is positioned to strengthen its role as the formation centre for the next generation of African Adventist educators and administrators. For school leaders across East and Central Africa, Tayo represents the most visible voice of institutional Adventist education on the continent.

19. Afolarin Ojewole

Afolarin Olutunde Ojewole assumed the presidency and vice-chancellorship of Babcock University in December 2025, taking the reins of West Africa's most prominent Adventist university. A scholar of Old Testament exegesis and church ministry, Ojewole's inaugural GRACE agenda, standing for globally relevant, research focused, Adventist focused, competent community, and entrepreneurial, signals a vision that centres Adventist identity as the source of academic excellence rather than a constraint on it. Babcock University serves approximately 12,000 students in Ogun State, Nigeria, and as one of the most widely recognised private universities in West Africa, its leadership directly shapes how Adventist education is perceived across the region.

Ojewole's commitment to servant leadership, grounded in what he described at his inauguration as "humility, grace, vision, excellence, and courage," reflects the formational purpose that Adventist universities exist to instil. His presidency begins at a moment when Nigerian higher education is under significant pressure around quality, funding, and graduate outcomes, and his ability to hold Adventist identity alongside genuine academic rigour will define Babcock's trajectory in the coming years.

20. Abel Apaza-Romero

Abel Apaza-Romero serves as Associate Director of Education for the South American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, overseeing the educational dimensions of a system that spans 583 basic education institutions and 11 higher education institutions across eight South American countries, serving more than 360,000 students. His contribution to the 2025 Journal of Adventist Education special issue documented the work of the South American Division's education department under the theme "Going Beyond Teaching," articulating how Adventist schools in South America are approaching education as mission rather than simply service delivery.

The South American Division runs one of the most extensive Adventist school systems outside North America, and Apaza-Romero's role in coordinating its educational priorities across Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay represents a breadth of responsibility that few others on this list can match. His published work contributes to the documentation of Adventist educational practice in the Global South, a body of knowledge that is still underrepresented in the English-language literature.

Category 7: European and International Mission Contexts

21. Kayle de Waal

Kayle de Waal serves as Education Director for the Trans-European Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, overseeing Adventist education across 22 countries from the United Kingdom and Scandinavia through Central and Eastern Europe. The TED operates in what de Waal has described as a post-Christendom context, a territory where the cultural assumptions that once supported Christian schooling have largely dissolved, and where Adventist schools must articulate their distinctive value clearly and compellingly to families who have no denominational loyalty. His 2025 Journal of Adventist Education article documented the strategic priorities of TED education for the 2020-2025 quinquennium, framing schools as centres of influence for surrounding communities.

His approach to Adventist education in Europe emphasises urban outreach, with the division's strategic plan specifically targeting large urban areas where Adventist institutional presence is thin and the opportunity to serve diverse communities is significant. De Waal's leadership of the TED Education Department in a context where Adventist schools are a small minority of the education market, and where every school must earn its place through genuine quality and distinctive formation, makes his work a relevant case study for any Adventist school leader navigating a secularising environment.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several figures who have shaped the field over decades were considered for this directory but not included in the main list. Beverly J. Robinson-Rumble, who served alongside Faith-Ann McGarrell in the JAE editorial team for many years before her retirement, played a significant role in building the journal's reach and was a valued contributor to the Adventist educator community. Dennis Plubell served as interim vice president for education at the NAD following the passing of Arne Pedersen in June 2024 and his contributions to the ASDASA community throughout that difficult period deserve acknowledgement.

Marlene Alvarez, Vice President for Education at the Atlantic Union Conference, and Berit von Pohle, who retired as Vice President for Education at the Pacific Union Conference in 2025 following a lifetime in Adventist education, are both voices that shaped their respective union systems in important ways. The reason these names appear here rather than in the main directory is not that their contributions are less significant. It is that this list is specifically about people who are actively shaping the conversation in 2025 and 2026.

Common Mistakes Adventist School Leaders Make When Engaging With Thought Leadership

The first mistake is treating thought leadership as a source of inspiration rather than a resource for structural analysis. Reading what Lisa Beardsley-Hardy writes about the redemptive purpose of Adventist education, or what Elissa Kido's research says about the academic benefits of the system, and then returning to school without changing anything is a common pattern. The people on this list are not offering a motivational boost. They are offering tools, frameworks, and evidence. The return on engaging with their work comes from asking: what specific practice, policy, or structural element in my school should change as a result of this?

The second mistake is treating the North American conversation as though it is the whole global conversation. The majority of the most publicly visible voices in Adventist education are based in the NAD, and NAD institutions produce the most research and the most publications. But the majority of Adventist students are outside North America, in South America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, and the challenges those schools face are often fundamentally different from the ones that dominate the North American professional development conversation. Engaging with Abel Apaza-Romero on South American Adventist education, or with Kayle de Waal on the European post-Christendom context, requires more deliberate effort but offers insights that the NAD literature will not provide.

The third mistake is expecting thought leaders within the denominational system to be critics of the system. The people on this list work within Adventist education institutions and are committed to its mission. That does not mean they avoid honest analysis; the JAE and Adventist Educators Blog both publish work that names challenges directly. But the purpose of that honesty is improvement from within, not critique from outside.

The fourth mistake is bypassing the journal literature in favour of social media content. The Journal of Adventist Education is one of the most substantive resources available to Adventist school leaders anywhere in the world. The people on this list contribute to it regularly, and it is freely accessible online at journalofadventisteducation.org. School leaders who restrict their professional reading to posts on social platforms or articles shared in group chats are missing the best thinking the field has to offer.

The fifth mistake is treating the global and the local as separate rather than as nested. What Lisa Beardsley-Hardy articulates as the philosophy of Adventist education is not abstract unless a school principal chooses not to connect it to the specific curriculum decisions, hiring priorities, and culture-building practices of their particular school. The thought leaders on this list operate at the system level because someone has to. The translation of their work into a specific classroom, staff room, or board meeting is the job of the school leader.

Implementation Guide: Making the Most of This Directory

Step one: Identify your current challenges. Before looking at any individual on this list, spend 20 minutes writing down the two or three most persistent challenges in your school's leadership or culture. Do not start with the directory and work backward to your situation. Start with your situation and then find the voices who speak most directly to it.

Step two: Prioritise by challenge type. If your challenge is about academic quality and evidence-based practice, start with Elissa Kido's CognitiveGenesis research and the JAE archive. If it is about early childhood or elementary programme design, start with Leisa Morton-Standish and Evelyn Sullivan. If it is about the philosophy of Adventist education and why it exists, start with Lisa Beardsley-Hardy's editorial work and George R. Knight's Educating for Eternity. If it is about higher education leadership development, start with Bordes Henry Saturne's JAE series on university presidents.

Step three: Engage with the journal. The Journal of Adventist Education at journalofadventisteducation.org is freely accessible online. The Adventist Educators Blog at adventisteducators.org is similarly free. There is no reason for any Adventist school leader anywhere in the world not to be reading them regularly. Block 20 minutes per week for professional reading in these resources and treat it as non-negotiable.

Step four: Bring the conversation to your team. Thought leadership is most valuable when it is shared rather than consumed individually. Consider setting aside 10 minutes in your next staff meeting or leadership team gathering to share one insight from a recent JAE article, one finding from CognitiveGenesis, or one framing from de Waal's post-Christendom analysis. The question to ask is always: "What does this mean for how we lead this school?"

Step five: Build a relationship with your divisional or union education department. Many of the people on this list are accessible through the structures of the Adventist education system. Ruth Horton, Leisa Morton-Standish, and Evelyn Sullivan at the NAD, Jean Carter and Malcolm Coulson in the South Pacific, and the GC Education Department team led by Lisa Beardsley-Hardy are all part of a support infrastructure that Adventist school leaders can access.

For school leadership teams who want support in building the culture and communication structures that make genuine professional development possible, organisations can bring Jonno White in to facilitate Working Genius sessions, lead executive offsites, or deliver keynote presentations. Many organisations find that international travel is far more affordable than expected. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Adventist schools different from other Christian schools? Adventist schools are shaped by a specific educational philosophy derived from the writings of Ellen G. White, who articulated in her 1903 book Education that genuine schooling develops the whole person physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially, with the redemptive purpose of restoring in students the image of God. This distinguishes Adventist education from Christian schooling that focuses primarily on academic excellence with faith as an add-on, and from purely evangelical schooling that centres on conversion. The holistic development philosophy has practical implications for how Adventist schools structure the school day, approach health and wellbeing, and integrate faith into every curriculum area.

Who oversees Adventist education globally? Adventist education is overseen by the General Conference Education Department, led by Director Lisa Beardsley-Hardy, which coordinates quality standards and professional development across all 13 world divisions through the Adventist Accrediting Association. Each world division has its own education director who adapts global policy to regional contexts. The North American Division, led by Vice President for Education Ruth Horton, operates the largest single division system with more than 1,000 elementary and secondary schools.

What is the Journal of Adventist Education and why does it matter? The Journal of Adventist Education is the official peer-reviewed professional journal of the General Conference Department of Education, published since 1938 and edited since 2014 by Faith-Ann McGarrell. It is the primary vehicle for research-based professional development for Adventist educators across all levels and all divisions, available freely at journalofadventisteducation.org. Every school leader in the Adventist system who is serious about evidence-informed practice should read it regularly.

What is the CognitiveGenesis study and what did it find? CognitiveGenesis was a landmark research study directed by Elissa Kido at La Sierra University from 2006 to 2009, assessing the academic performance of 51,706 students across every NAD Adventist elementary school and academy. Its confirmed findings showed that Adventist students outperformed national academic norms at every grade level and in every subject, and that the performance advantage grew the longer students remained in the Adventist system. The study also found that students who transferred into Adventist schools saw significant improvement in their test scores.

How can I engage with Adventist education thought leadership practically? The most direct routes are the Journal of Adventist Education (freely accessible at journalofadventisteducation.org), the Adventist Educators Blog (adventisteducators.org), and participation in divisional leadership conferences like ASDASA for NAD leaders. For team-level leadership development, organisations can hire Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, to facilitate Working Genius sessions, deliver keynotes, or lead executive offsites. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Final Thoughts

The 21 leaders on this list are not the only voices that matter in Adventist education globally. They are the ones whose work is publicly documented, institutionally significant, and contributing to the conversation in ways that travel beyond their own schools or offices. The field they serve is larger, more diverse, and more intellectually serious than most people outside it realise.

What makes the Adventist education conversation distinctive, and worth engaging with even for school leaders who are not themselves Adventist, is its refusal to separate excellence from mission. The argument that runs through the work of every person on this list, from George R. Knight's foundational philosophy to Kayle de Waal's post-Christendom strategy to Elissa Kido's academic achievement data, is that Adventist schools are better because they are clear about what they exist to do. The redemptive purpose of education, the development of the whole person toward their full God-given potential, is not in tension with academic rigour. It is its foundation.

For any Adventist school leader who wants support translating these ideas into practical action in their own school, bring Jonno White in for a Working Genius session, an executive offsite, or a keynote. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected. To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email 

jonno@consultclarity.org.jonno@consultclarity.org

Sources

Adventist General Conference Education Department. "About Us." adventist.education/about-us.

Journal of Adventist Education, Volume 87, Issue 1 (2025). journalofadventisteducation.org.

Kido, Elissa, et al. CognitiveGenesis research, La Sierra University / Andrews University, 2006-2009. adventisteducation.org.

North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. "Ruth Horton Elected as Vice President for Education." nadadventist.org, November 2025.

Adventist Record. "Jean Carter to lead Avondale's School of Education and Science." record.adventistchurch.com, September 2025.

Next Read

For a wider picture of Christian school thought leadership, including voices from Anglican, Reformed, evangelical, and non-denominational traditions, explore the directory at 35 Best Thought Leaders in Christian Schooling (2026). For the best thought leaders in Christian schooling across Australia and New Zealand, which includes several voices with direct experience in Adventist school contexts, see the directory at 36 Best Thought Leaders in Christian Schooling AUNZ.