Dr. William Arnold To Keynote Dismas House Forgiveness Luncheon

July 27, 2022

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Dismas House of Nashville, one of the largest residential reentry programs in Tennessee, has announced its selection for the 2022 keynote speaker for its signature fundraiser, the Forgiveness Luncheon.

The Forgiveness Luncheon will be held on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel. This year’s keynote remarks will be given by Dr. William “Fry” Arnold, Jr. He will be sharing about the trials and triumphs in his journey to reentry. After being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 25 years, Arnold worked to overturn his conviction. After spending six years and nine months in prison, an Appellate Court overturned his conviction, vacated his sentence, and dismissed all charges in February 2020. This life experience birthed a renewed sense of calling to help practitioners and system leaders actualize systemic change through policy interrogation, analysis, re-visioning, and development.

The Memphis native has over 17 years of experience in higher education and community engagement, particularly in the areas of compliance, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Arnold served as an early architect for the diversity plans and their implementation by the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) system. Through his work, TBR’s then 39 campuses and the central office staff progressed toward developing and implementing focused diversity plans and programs that included annual benchmarks of achievement.

Dr. Arnold now serves as the Director of the Office of Reentry for the state of Tennessee. He also founded Arnold Diversity and is also a Research Advisor for the See Change Institute.

The annual Forgiveness Luncheon raises funds to support the organization’s Four Pillars of Programming: Basic Needs, Health & Well-Being, Life Skills, and Legal Support.

To register to attend the 2022 Forgiveness Luncheon or serve as a table host, visit https://www.dismas.org/events/forgiveness-luncheon or contact Jessica Guzman at jguzman@dismas.org .