dedication recipient Karen Kelley, assistant professor of nursing, advocated for the betterment and education of impoverished communities through her classes. During her 25th year teaching at Harding, Kelley taught community health nursing and culture of poverty courses. Before joining the Harding faculty, Kelley worked in Memphis, Tennessee, as a care coordinator at one of Le Bonheur Children's Hospital's outpatient facilities. While working at Le Bonheur, she administered home IV therapy and coordinated financial logistics of helping patients return home and core education of home-health nurses. Kelley said her passion to advocate for impoverished communities started at Le Bonheur, where she was introduced to people from all socioeconomic classes and deep inner-city poverty. "I've just always had a soft spot for folks who are having trouble and are more vulnerable," Kelley said. Kelley said she grew up in a low-income household. Her mother worked in a factory and modeled a positive work ethic for her and encouraged her to receive an education, which Kelley said was not always the case in low-income homes. To illustrate poverty, she told students her family did not install indoor plumbing until she was 5 years old. Kelley also described the varying differences in opinion that arose while discussing impoverished communities. "It is sort of an 'us and them' discussion at times," Kelley said. "So, I just want to make it clear from the beginning when I talk about that -- I am 'them,' and now I'm 'us.'" Senior nursing major Ally Davis, who was a student in Kelley's community health nursing class in fall 2019, said Kelley's class was unlike any other nursing curriculum. She said that instead of having a single patient assigned to each student like in other classes, each student's patient was an entire community. Davis said Kelley was the perfect teacher for the class because of her work with the local homeless population through a nonprofit organization in Searcy. "Her life is engrossed in community health," Davis said. "She is deeply involved with Mission Machine and the homeless population in general in Searcy. She's instrumental in getting the warming center [at First United Methodist Church] facilitated." Senior interdisciplinary studies major Spencer Wright, a student in Kelley's fall 2019 culture of poverty class, said the class focused on material poverty. "The cycle of material poverty is vicious,'' Wright said. "It's expensive to be poor. It's very easy to get into a really tough situation when you don't have resources." Wright said Kelley hoped the class inspired students to learn more about the culture of poverty and work to positively reform the institutions in place to further aid impoverished communities. He said before meeting Kelley, he first heard her described as a godly woman. "[After] getting to be around her this semester, ... I have no qualms with that assertion,'' Wright said. "I see her love in the way that she continually moves toward people that are in poverty." Wright said while Kelley worked to better the lives of impoverished people, he believed she would say she was the one who benefited from the relationship. story by Caleb Manor dedication 5
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