Liberty University Hires Former NFL Player Kelvin Edwards and Former Coach Turner Gill to Help With School’s Diversity
The Freedom Tower at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Tower is the home for Liberty’s School of Divinity. | Courtesy Liberty University
Liberty University has hired former football coach Turner Gill and former NFL player Kelvin Edwards to promote diversity after controversial behavior within the school’s leadership led some students and staff to leave the school.
In a statement Tuesday, the Virginia-based evangelical higher education institution announced that Gill, who retired in 2018 after seven seasons coaching the Flames, will serve as executive vice president of diversity, development and inclusion.
Meanwhile, Edwards, a graduate of the Liberty class of 1986 and a former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, has been hired to serve as executive vice president of management efficiencies and diversity.
“We want the future leaders in our country and internationally to be trained at a top-notch Christian university so that people are exposed to the Gospel, are educated with Christian values, and are living out their purpose according to God’s will,” Gill said.
Gill said he spoke with LU president Jerry Falwell in November about becoming a member of the development program.
Gill asked Falwell to change the position to contain “diversity and inclusion,” which Falwell accepted.
The additions to the LU diversity staff come after Falwell faced much criticism from African American LU community members after he posted a controversial tweet in May in which he joked that he created a face mask featuring a school photo of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam in blackface.
