Out of the darkest moments of her life, the Rev. Caryl Griffin Russell began thinking about how systems change. The retired Methodist minister and former nurse lost her 22-year-old daughter in 1997 after a preventable exposure to a virus in a research lab.
Rather than seek retribution for the loss of her daughter, Griffin Russell worked with research labs and other organizations to improve biosafety standards and training around the world. Her family’s work grew into the Elizabeth R. Griffin Research Foundation, now a part of Georgetown University.
The process of systemic change is messy, it takes time and it takes people working together, Griffin Russell said.
The 75-year-old lives on the eastern shoreline of Watts Bar Lake and uses the home she shares with her husband as “safe sanctuary,” a place where people carrying varying ideologies and from many walks of life can visit to work, reflect and learn. The retreat space features a dock, screened-in deck, a fire pit and hundreds of books, from Michael Crichton thrillers to James Cone theological analyses.
A rainbow flag hangs near the entrance, representing in a way the other system Griffin Russell is seeing to change: Her church.