Our History
While completing her Master of Divinity at New Brunswick Theological Seminary (NBTS) in 2022, Dr. Pauline Lloyd, President and Executive Director of Islay Walden Education Alliance, came across a letter written by Alfred Islay Walden to The Reformed Church of America (RCA). Alfred Islay Walden, formerly enslaved himself, was a 19th-century scholar, theologian, and humanitarian. During his advocacy in vulnerable Middlesex County communities, Walden identified humanitarian needs in 1879 that continue to persist today. In the letter, Walden petitioned the RCA for scholarship support while he advanced efforts of providing educational and humanitarian support to newly manumitted American citizens.  Pauline found it unacceptable and unethical that economic, access, and resource disparities identified in the late1800s continued to persist in the early to mid-2000s. In 2022, she founded Islay Walden Education Alliance to identify and eliminate barriers to personal and professional growth. Islay Walden Education was incorporated as a non-profit in 2023.

Born in Randolph County, North Carolina (1847) and emancipated at the end of the Civil War, Walden graduated from Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1879  after spending some time at Howard Univesity. Upon graduation from NBTS, Islay Walden returned to North Carolina, establishing the Promised Land Church and Academy in Randolph County, NC, advocating for vulnerable communities in his hometown. The Promised Land Church and Academy continues to serve Randolph County by celebrating the life and legacy of Islay Walden and providing spiritual support to families and visitors. Islay Walden's work also continues through the programming and sustaining initiatives of Islay Walden Education Alliance.

Islay Walden consults with historian, author, and Isaly Walden descendent,  Margo Williams. Williams supports the scholarship and archival efforts of New Brunswick Theological Seminary and the programming of Islay Walden Education Alliance.  In her own right, Williams provides insight into the life of Islay Walden in her publications, From Hill Town to Strieby: Education and the American Missionary Association in the Uwharrie “Back Country” of Randolph County, North Carolina, and Born Missionary: The Islay Walden Story. As a result of her advocacy, in 2022, the Randolph County Historic Preservation Commission renamed the original site to Strieby Church, School, and Cemetery Cultural Heritage Site,  and designated it as a literary landmark.

Our Vision and Mission
The mission of Islay Walden Education Alliance is to help people understand themselves and others through education research and advocacy. Through inward retrospection, we aim to identify and eliminate barriers to personal and professional growth. Our vision and mission are achieved through our Annual Ethics and Equity Conference and four sustaining projects. Each project demonstrates our commitment to research, education, and advocacy for humanitarian justice.
 
Our Leadership Team
The Islay Walden Education Alliance leadership team consists of industry experts and undergraduate, graduate, and high school Interns with health and human services interests in education, health care, compliance, ethics, finance, and economics. Our interns include international, national, and local scholars committed to advancing our vision and mission.

Our Achievements
To date, Islay Walen Education Alliance has hosted the nation's first Ethics and Equity Conference, launched three of its four sustaining initiatives, and is hosting it Inaugural HEIR visit with our international collaborators from the Al Amana Centre. With membership in local and state non-partisan civic organizations, we continue to advance our ethics pledge, in principle and practice, to advocate for and advance the development and implementation of ethical public policy and equitable resource distribution to ensure the highest standards of human affirmation for vulnerable citizens, present and future.