Barry Dunn ’05 tells Founders’ Day Celebration crowd that Lindsey Wilson knows the stories behind the statistics.
COLUMBIA, KY. (04/25/2025) No matter its name, Lindsey Wilson College is a place that “makes it happen.”
That was the message delivered by 2025 Lindsey Wilson Founders’ Day Celebration keynote speaker Barry Dunn ’05 on Thursday, April 24, at the college’s Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center.
“This is a place that makes it happen,” said Dunn, an Adair County native who is president and CEO of Kosair for Kids. “This is a place that graduates the best, that has the best — the best president, the best faculty, the best trustees, the best students.”
Dunn spoke to Lindsey Wilson supporters, faculty, staff and students less than half an hour before the Lindsey Wilson Board of Trustees unanimously voted to rename the school Lindsey Wilson University, effective July 1.
“This is a place that means hope, it means that there’s a future, it means that people are coming here with one purpose and one purpose only — that’s to better themselves and their station in life,” said Dunn, a first-generation college student who also earned a law degree from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, where he was named outstanding graduate in his class.
Dunn said that Lindsey Wilson’s generous financial aid program made it possible for him and his wife, Leslie ’04, to attend the college. Leslie, who grew up in Monticello, Kentucky, went on to earn a pharmacy degree after she graduated from Lindsey Wilson.
“So for you trustees, staff and faculty, all I can say is that I thank you for what you are giving now to help students, but I doubly thank you if you were giving before 2005, when I graduated,” said Dunn, who served as Kentucky deputy attorney general from 2019-22. “Because of you I was able to get an education that equipped me to do some neat things. Because of you I’m able today to give back by serving the children of Kentucky and Southern Indiana.”
Kosair for Kids is a nonprofit organization based in Louisville, Kentucky, that supports the health and well-being of children in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Last year, Kosair for Kids served more than 208,000 children.
Originally known as Kosair Charities, Dunn recalled how it was renamed Kosair for Kids when the nonprofit organization celebrated its centennial in 2023 “because we felt it better messaged who we are.”
And just as Kosair for Kids sees beyond the numbers by learning the story of each child it serves, Dunn said Lindsey Wilson does the same with the students it serves.
“I thank the good Lord that Lindsey Wilson is a place that knows that behind every one of those statistics is a story,” he said. “And that’s why I’m a proud graduate of what’s soon to be known as Lindsey Wilson University.”
Kosair for Kids President and CEO Barry Dunn ’05 delivers the 2025 Lindsey Wilson College Founders’ Day Celebration keynote address on Thursday, April 24, at Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center.
Lindsey Wilson College President William T. Luckey Jr., right, joins Kosair for Kids President and CEO Barry Dunn ’05, who delivered the 2025 Lindsey Wilson Founders’ Day Celebration keynote address on Thursday, April 24, at Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center.
Lindsey Wilson College student Paisley Bolin ’26, a business administration major from Somerset, Kentucky, delivers one of two student addresses at the 2025 Lindsey Wilson Founders’ Day Celebration on Thursday, April 24, at Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center.
Lindsey Wilson College student Connor Wilhoit ’26, a psychophysiology major from Campbellsville, Kentucky, delivers one of two student addresses at the 2025 Lindsey Wilson Founders’ Day Celebration on Thursday, April 24, at Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson College)