A Pioneer at Trevecca and Beyond

When it comes to accomplishing a series of firsts, Bernard Turner is a Nashville trailblazer in the fields of both grant writing and higher education.

He was also a trailblazer at Trevecca, as the school’s first African American male to earn a Doctor of Education in leadership (Ed.D.) in 2003. He went on to establish himself as an unparalleled grant writer for Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and Medical Center and Meharry Medical College in Nashville before being chosen as the founding director of the nation’s first undergraduate program in social entrepreneurship at Belmont University in 2008.

Turner is being honored this fall by the Grant Professionals Association. He is one of three individuals nationwide who’ll receive the 2024 Distinguished Fellow Award in recognition of his exceptional commitment as a grant professional, outstanding achievements and enduring impact on the grants profession. He is the eleventh recipient and first African American to receive this honor. 

While his career has been marked with impressive accomplishments, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Turner’s journey is the unlikely turn of events that set him on his way.

Turner didn’t intend to work in grant writing. When he moved from his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, to Nashville in 1986, he got a job as a business management consultant for the Nashville Minority Business Development Center. He’d already earned an undergraduate degree in business administration from Findlay College in Ohio and an MBA from the University of Toledo. He’d also decided to pursue a second master’s degree in philanthropy and development from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. 

But just a few years into his work at the center, the organization’s federal funding wasn’t renewed. Turner found himself out of a job. 

An acquaintance told him about an opening with United Way of Middle Tennessee. “They were trying to diversify their staff,” Turner remembers. “I interviewed for what was described as a government relations position.” 

When United Way extended him an offer, however, there was a twist. It was a role as a grant writing specialist.

“I told them: ‘You’ve changed the job description. I don’t know anything about grant writing,’” Turner recalls.

His future boss replied, “You know how to write business plans and we think you can be good at this.” 

“That’s how I got into grant writing,” Turner explains with a laugh.

He indeed did become good at it, writing the initial grant that would establish an HIV/AIDs initiative for United Way of Middle Tennessee and bring in more than $500,000 in the next four years. This marked the beginning of his work with several Nashville organizations and schools throughout the next two decades that would secure millions of dollars through his grant writing efforts.

As development director at Vanderbilt’s Comprehensive Care Center from 1998-1999, for example, he amplified support for HIV care, securing a $1.2 million federal grant for primary care services that has consistently been renewed since 1999. 

Also in 1999, he began working at Meharry Medical College and helped secure a $10 million corporate gift from State Farm. The insurance company partnered with the college to study attitudes about seat belts and child safety seats among African Americans in order to create a plan to increase seat belt use. 

Turner turned toward earning his Ed.D. in 2000. He knew it would lend credibility and expertise to his current work, and he’d always harbored the dream of becoming a college professor. Earning his doctoral degree could help potentially pave the way for this, he thought. 

Trevecca’s Ed.D. program was challenging from the start, and during his first semester he considered quitting. But then two classmates approached him separately and said, “We’ve got to support each other.” The camaraderie made all the difference. The three of them committed to interacting and working together as a support system. 

“After that, I didn’t have any doubts,” Turner says. 
 
“The program was well worth it,” Turner continues. “It strengthened my writing and also my ability to complete research. But most of all, it taught me about leadership—about how to lead a team and lead myself.”

Turner’s applied doctoral project focused on his work at Meharry. He titled his dissertation “Implementing Fundraising Strategies for Securing Corporate Support to Meharry Medical College.” 

When he walked across the stage in 2003 to receive his diploma, Turner became the first African American male to earn his Ed.D. from Trevecca. In the following two decades, the University grew to become sixth in the nation for African Americans receiving doctoral degrees in education (Ed.D.) and tenth for African Amerians receiving doctoral degrees across all disciplines, according to Diverse magazine.

After finishing his Ed.D., Turner returned to Meharry and was promoted to associate vice president of corporate and foundation relations. There, he was part of a team that garnered a $9 million grant to start a health policy center in collaboration with Vanderbilt's College of Arts and Sciences. 

His dream of working in higher education became a reality in 2008, when Belmont University hired him with a new idea. They wanted to start an undergraduate social entrepreneurship degree program—the first of its kind in the nation—and they chose Turner to lead the way.

Since establishing that program in 2008, he’s served both as the program director and as an associate professor, helping a total of almost 200 students to date earn this interdisciplinary degree that combines courses in social entrepreneurship, financial management, sociology, business ethics, entrepreneurship and grant writing, to name a few. 

“It’s been really impactful,” Turner shares. “We’re concerned about social problems and having an impact on people’s lives. I’m proud of that.”