Ward Society

Your opportunity to shape tomorrow’s health care leaders begins here.

Lipscomb has a strong legacy in health and sciences, and as a student here you were an important part of all we have accomplished. Now as a professional in your chosen field, you can make an even greater impact in our future—our students' futures.

The J.S. Ward Society was created to encourage even greater support for the university's health sciences and to recognize those who have dedicated themselves to advancing Lipscomb’s mission of education and service. It is a society of like-minded professionals who want to “pay it forward” by helping the best and brightest among the university’s students to reach their dreams in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and allied health professions. 

As our alumni, we realize and appreciate the importance of your professional experiences and how that can help shape those who will soon follow in your footsteps. We see in our students the future of our country and our world. And we want to share that vision through collaboration, mentoring and partnerships between our alumni and students that will advance them to even greater heights. As evidence in our alumni of thousands who are currently working around the globe, our students graduate ready to make an impact with a commitment to helping and serving those in need with an educated hand and a faithful heart.

Your support of our program, as part of the J.S. Ward Society, will continue to impact our students for years to come. 

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Creating An Impact That Makes a Difference

We strive to connect our health science students and our alumni by coming together to learn about professional health careers, as well as explore the various health related opportunities provided by Lipscomb. Below are some programs you can become involved in.

Your ideas and involvement is crucial to the future of our college and the success of our students. To learn more about becoming an active participant in the Ward Society, please contact Jeff Fincher, Ward Society Executive Director, at jeff.fincher@lipscomb.edu or 615.966.6214.

Ward Scholars Program

Each year, the society competitively awards this prestigious scholarship to students who must first be nominated by faculty members.   

Applications are then submitted to the Lipscomb University Health Professions Advisory Council which makes recommendations to the dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences for final awarding. The dean determines the number of scholarships that will be awarded each year.

Ward Scholars are then paired with a science mentor for the duration of their scholarship. Awards from the Ward Scholarship Program emphasize the excellence, ethics, compassion and faith to which Lipscomb graduates are called, encourage research, reduce graduating debt and empower students with a broader freedom of choice in post-graduate studies.

Ward Society Mentoring Program

This program perpetuates the valuable connectivity between students and alumni, whose advice and counsel through email or telephone conversations to current students is invaluable as they plan their career. There simply is no substitute for sage “boots on the ground” experience in helping to guide young students more successfully to their dreams.

Ward Society Executive-in-Residence Program

Underwritten by the society, Ward Executives-in-Residence enrich student learning and faculty development by connecting students with practitioners who have excelled in health care. The program brings to campus senior health care executives, renowned physicians and successful entrepreneurs from a variety of industries, large and small, private and public. During the residency, the visiting professional speaks in classes and meets with students, faculty and local business groups.

Heroes of Science

Sponsored by the Ward Society within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the Heroes of Science program recognizes non-alumni leaders who have demonstrated ethical business practices while excelling in scientific achievement and working from a foundation of Christian faith. Those honored as part of this program share their stories with aspiring health professionals and the greater Lipscomb community in order to help shape their perception of those currently working in the field of health science.

Ward Society Board of Visitors

A non-governing, volunteer board of visitors whose goal is to advance the mission of the society as well as the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Lipscomb University advises the society. Among its members are accomplished leaders in health care professions who facilitate the fulfillment of Lipscomb’s mission and vision.  Board Members also enhance its standing as one of the premier undergraduate pre-health science programs in the country. As a group of committed donors, fundraisers, advisors and advocates, board members serve an initial two-year term with the opportunity for renewal.

Our Board of Visitors leads with insight and experience. 

The Ward Society Board of Visitors

Jeff Bennie - Nashville, Tenn.
Mark Cobb - Columbia, Tenn.
Robbie Davis - Nashville, Tenn.
Harry Jacobson* - Nashville, Tenn.
John Little - Knoxville, Tenn.
Robert McClure - Columbia, Tenn.
Jimmy Netterville - Nashville, Tenn.
J.W. Pitts - Birmingham, Ala.
Ann Price* - Nashville, Tenn.
Shane Reeves - Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Neika Stephens - Nashville, Tenn.
Becky Raby - Huntsville, Ala.
Lon Raby - Huntsville, Ala.
Howard Rupard - Shelbyville, Tenn.
Judy Simmons - Nashville, Tenn.

Ex-officio, as chair of Health Professions Advisory Committee - Jim Arnett
Ex-officio, as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - Norma Burgess
Ex-officio, as executive director of the J.S. Ward Society - Jeff Fincher

* indicates member of the Ward Scholars Advisory Committee

A Life of Purpose: A Short Biography of J.S. Ward 

James Samuel Ward was born on September 29, 1867, and grew up in Gadsden, Ala. In 1885, he entered Transylvania College in Lexington, Ky., where he graduated with his medical degree as valedictorian at age 21. He continued at Transylvania the next year taking post-graduate work in chemistry and physics. He entered the medical school of the University of Nashville where he received his DDS degree at age 26, graduating summa cum laude and becoming the first in the state to receive both a degree in medicine and dentistry.

In Nashville in 1893, Dr. Ward joined the faculty of a new school for which his father, J. R. Ward, was both a trustee and had been involved in the purchase of a home to house the small, faith-based school where “the Bible was taught as a textbook every day.” The school had been founded two years earlier by David Lipscomb and James A. Harding, marking the beginning of what is today known as Lipscomb University and Academy. 

Ward would see patients at his medical office in the morning, catch a streetcar to the campus and teach science in the afternoon, donating his services to the school. Dr. Ward’s contribution was key to the founding of the school’s science department as he added science credentials to the school’s small faculty.  David Lipscomb wrote, “Emphasis on the sciences—particularly through the influence of Dr. J.S. Ward—has turned many of the students toward pre-med study.”  With Dr. Ward, Lipscomb’s legacy in preparing young people for careers in health care had begun.

After practicing medicine for several years, Ward accepted the chair of chemistry at the University of Nashville, a position that he held for 21 years while continuing to donate his teaching services to the young but thriving Nashville Bible School, twice serving as its president.  During this time, he purchased supplies and science equipment for his teaching and lab work out of his own pocket.  When the school moved to the Lipscomb farm south of Nashville on Granny White Pike, J.S. Ward and his family moved with it, living on campus, where Mrs. Ward ran the girls’ dormitory and raised their three children.

About 1912, the University of Nashville moved to Memphis to become known as the University of Tennessee.  J.S. Ward was invited to go to Memphis to continue his chairmanship of the science department and teaching, but he declined out of devotion to Lipscomb and the Nashville Bible School and his desire that his children continue their education there.  Ward resigned from the school in 1918, soon after Lipscomb died. He then accepted an offer from his friend, A. M. Burton, to set up the medical department of Life and Casualty Insurance Company in Nashville and became its first medical director, a position he held for 23 years.