The Reservoir of Hope with Colette Pierce Burnette

Igniting Imagination

In this episode of Reservoirs of Resilience podcast, Lisa Greenwood, Vice President of Leadership Ministry at Texas Methodist Foundation (TMF), and Bishop Janice Huie, Leadership Formation at TMF, speak with Colette Pierce Burnette.

Dr. Burnette knows about drawing on the reservoir of hope to survive and thrive through difficult times. As President and CEO of Huston-Tillotson University, Dr. Burnette reflects on the hope she receives from her students, many of whom are first-generation, and how maintaining hope helps her to navigate the challenging landscape of higher education today. Her wisdom about how to live and lead out of hope, especially when facing one challenge after another, is not to be missed. The vulnerability and leadership Dr. Burnette demonstrates, even through this conversation, is remarkable.

QUOTES

• “I’m hopeful that in my children’s lifetime or their children’s lifetime, we as a nation will continue to get to this space of equity, every realm with every generation. Because if I think about the people that marched across the Selma bridge and people like my father, if they had just kind of given up and succumbed to the lifestyle that has been driven to them, I’d wouldn’t be here sitting here as the president of Huston-Tillotson University having this conversation with you right now.” -Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette [12:08]
• “She said to me that in a meeting that they were having, someone said ‘This community is so resilient.’ She said that there was a Black woman who stood up and said, ‘When does resilience become abuse?’” -Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette [29:17]

TIMESTAMPS

• [00:00] Intro
• [00:24] Bishop Huie reads from Reservoirs of Resilience
• [03:45] A reflection from Bishop Huie’s writing on the reservoir of hope
• [06:36] Meet Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette
• [08:25] A personal story of how hope that helped her become resilient
• [14:51] Hope is a noun and a verb
• [19:08] What gives Dr. Burnette hope
• [23:19] What it means to her to be an agent of hope
• [28:05] Who are her agents of hope
• [30:47] Wisdom to help people reorient towards living a sense of hope
• [36:21] Dealing with fear of the unknown
• [38:11] Rapid fire round with three sentences
• [39:09] Bishop Huie’s reflections and takeaways
• [42:34] Outro

RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS

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Follow Colette Pierce Burnette on Twitter @HTPresCPB

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Huston-Tillotson University (HT) nurtures a legacy of leadership and excellence in education, connecting knowledge, power, passion, and values. Find out more about HT and support their mission by visiting https://htu.edu

Learn more about Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who Dr. Burnette references in the podcast, at https://rabbisacks.org.

Reservoirs of Resilience is inspired by the monograph written by Bishop Janice Huie. Read the full publication here.

"That's Something" music and lyrics by Billy Crockett, © 2016 Spare Room Music, BMI, from the album In Session (with Roscoe Beck), Blue Rock Artists, 2020

"Resilience" music by Billy Crockett, © 2021 Spare Room Music, BMI

This podcast is brought to you by TMF’s Leadership Ministry. Leadership Ministry connects diverse, high capacity leaders in conversations and environments that create a network of courage, learning, and innovation in order to help the church lean into its God-appointed mission. For more information and to support TMF’s Leadership Ministry, visit https://tmf-fdn.org/leadership-ministry.