Dr. Ella Smith Simmons, vice president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, met with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spoke at Brigham Young University on February 12, 2015.
By invitation, Simmons met with LDS Church leaders in Salt Lake City and later toured the Church’s Humanitarian Center, Welfare Square and Family History Library.
After meeting with LDS Church leaders, Simmons addressed BYU students, faculty and administrators about the importance of education as part of a lecture series of Faith, Family and Society. Simmons emphasized faith-based education as a critical part of our society.
“Perhaps this is one of the greatest roles for faith-based education in today’s world — to interpret humanity for a world that has lost sight of an understanding as it attempts to relativize all things and to do so from a purely human and significantly secular perspective,” Simmons said. “And while it should not be the case, education is sometimes more powerful than the church and the home.”
Simmons’ love for education began at an early age. Simmons remembers the impact that one teacher had on her while attending a newly desegregated elementary school in Louisville, Kentucky. “[My teacher, who was white,] made me feel as if I could learn anything,” Simmons told Deseret News.
That teacher inspired her to pursue a career in education and later administration. Simmons has served as chairwoman for Kentucky State University, and associate dean of the University of Louisville, and professor and administrator at Adventist-owned Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, and La Sierra University in Riverside, California.
Simmons’ next stop will be San Antonio, Texas, for the Seventh-day Adventist quinquennial business session, where church leadership comes together to elect the next president of the church, who will lead the church for the next five years.
