Office of Equity and Inclusion Vice President Greg Dowel candidly shares about his family life to graduate students

You can almost always expect some kind of homey smell to overtake your senses well before your foot crosses the threshold of Liberty University’s Commuter Lounge. But the lounge isn’t just for commuters, it is for graduate students as well. 

Gretchen Cline, associate director for Graduate Student Life, moved quickly and swiftly. Bright eyed and full of charisma she did not miss a thing while preparing for the night’s dinner and guest speaker in the commuter lounge Some might even describe her as the powerful maternal figure for these 20-something-year-olds who are on the cusp of real adulthood. 

As students grabbed their seats to enjoy yet another inviting dinner, they are introduced to tonight’s speaker, Vice President for Equity & Inclusion Gregory Dowell. 

Dowell began with an unexpected and very candid story of a childhood that was far from easy. He was quite open when sharing about his family life and some of the demons his parents faced. 

“I’m giving you this background to lead you up to something, and I don’t talk about this a lot,” Dowell said. “I even waited until my parents were dead to ever talk about it. I didn’t come from a Christian home. My father was an alcoholic and so was my mother, but they were working alcoholics.”

Dowell’s mother was a highly skilled nurse and his father was Senior Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force, who became a Christian before becoming a truck driver. They worked 40 hours a week while still drinking, and it was the weekends that consistently showcased the more horrific sides of this disease.  

With the room under a quiet hush and student’s barely touching their meals, he continued sharing stories one would only expect to hear in a police report or that of a Dr. Phil episode. He somehow shared these sad truths from a place of contentedness and healing. His story illustrated God’s hand of protection over him from the time he was a small child.  

“I’ve graduated several times and my parents didn’t come to one of them, they didn’t even come to my wedding,” Dowell said. “But God has been good. I’m here to tell you that there’s nothing that I’ve done to get where I am today, I shouldn’t even be alive. … It’s all by the grace of God. I believe that God presents himself to people and if you are called then God will reveal himself to his children.”

He shared his powerful testimony of how he came to Christ at 16-years-old. While lying on the couch recovering from a hernia operation, God presented himself to Dowell through a man preaching the gospel who gave an invitation for salvation at the end. Dowell said the sinner’s prayer that day while watching the late Dr. Jerry Falwell Sr. 

A few years down the road, he went forward during a church service in Germany, and through a series of diving events found himself being discipled by the people of Liberty University.

“I love this place,” Dowell said. “In a lot of ways I owe my life to Liberty
University.”

While it was far from an easy process, or a quick one by any means, Dowell dedicates all of his accomplishments to the glory of God. He has not only been the Dean of Students here at Liberty University but has also pastored a church faithfully for the past 16 years. He has managed consulting firms for both ministries and businesses, received his Doctor of Ministry from Liberty University and has co-founded many notable clubs around campus focusing mainly on the inclusion of international students and promoting racial awareness. 

“The whole idea is to bring diversity, equity and inclusion to all four of these groups,” Dowell said. “There is an advocacy wing to what I do as well as an adjudication wing to what I do. Whether it be from a programmatic, engagement, or educational standpoint, I hope to see all of these things flow out of that.”

Before closing in prayer, Dowell left students with an enlightening word of encouragement when asked how to be successful in school and in their spiritual lives.  

“What I would like to share with you is something I was told when I went to grad school,” Dowell said. “When you go there, studying, getting good grades and finishing your degree is your ministry. Don’t ever feel like you’re not serving God because this is what you’re here to do. This is what God has put on you, it is what you are supposed to be doing, finish what you started faithfully and he will give you your next assignment.” 

To participate in the next Grad Connect, come to the Commuter Lounge March 8 at 5:30 p.m. where they will be hosting a women’s panel offering godly counsel from a working woman’s perspective.