NASSAU CELEBRATION FOUNDERS’ DAY 17TH BIENNIAL NATIONAL THE BAHAMAS JANUARY 7-11, 2026
NATIONAL FOUNDERS’ DAY THE BAHAMAS
Brother Adkins announced that he was buying a copy of his upcoming book, Curiosity Redefines the Limits, for every undergraduate in attendance. “Curiosity lives in you,” he told them. “It is your superpower.” On a resort island built around curated experiences and curated sun- shine, it was a potent counter message: your deepest power is not the view from your balcony, but the questions you are brave enough to ask, and the lives you are willing to change.
CIVIC AND ACADEMIC VANGUARDS
The afternoon panel on “The Future of Leadership: Bold Thinking, Progres- sive Action, Unmatched Energy and Exceptional Results” put leadership’s consequences on full display. On stage sat four men who live with those consequences every day: two university presidents—Dr. C. Andy McGadney (Theta Iota 1989) of Knox College and Dr. Antoine J. “Tony” Allen (Nu Xi 1989) of Delaware State University (DSU)—and two big city mayors, Andre Dickens (Lambda Delta 1996) of Atlanta and Paul Young (Mu Rho 2000) of Memphis. Moderator Britton Smith (Alex- andria-Fairfax (VA) AL 2011), the fraternity’s Deputy Chief of Staff, framed the conversation as an exper- iment in applied leadership: “We’ve assembled a dynamic cast of folks that are going to talk about the future of leadership and what it takes to be suc- cessful in leadership roles … as we push forward in the current days, weeks, years, decades.” Brother Dr. McGadney spoke first,
Kappa Alpha Psi’s Deputy Chief of Staff Britton L. Smith served as a moderator.
“YOU CREATE BELIEF IN WHAT’S POSSIBLE. YOU SPEAK IT INTO EXISTENCE.”
- Dr. C. Andy McGadney President, Knox College
outlining his vision to “venture boldly” at Knox, a small liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, where he launched the first comprehensive fundraising campaign in two decades—and raised roughly $130 million in four years. “You create belief in what’s possible. You speak it into existence,” he said. Among his favorite metaphors: moving organizational “prisoners”—those actively resistant to change—into “pas- sengers” who will at least ride along, and then into “players,” the people
actively pulling with you. Brother Dr. Allen, who leads DSU, an HBCU, called one of the most important American institutions, told a story of audacity under pressure. During the height of the COVID- 19 pandemic, he pushed to acquire nearby Wesley College, a move that preserved educational access, pre- vented an estimated $180 million economic hole for the state of Dela- ware, and expanded DSU’s footprint. He also told on himself. Years earlier,
42 THE JOURNAL ♦ WINTER 2025-2026
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