Pegi Flynt Announces Retirement After Decades in Adventist Education

After more than four decades in Adventist education, Kentucky-Tennessee Conference Superintendent of Education Pegi Flynt will retire in August, concluding a career that has included classrooms, administration, higher education and the development of online learning initiatives across the Seventh-day Adventist school system.

Flynt, who has served as superintendent of education for the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference since 2018, said her passion for teaching began as a child in Berrien Springs, Michigan, inspired by her kindergarten teacher.

“I decided in kindergarten that I wanted to grow up to be like Corrine Hurt,” Flynt said. “It was such a positive experience for me to have her as my teacher, that’s when God just kind of gave me the nudge and said, ‘This is who I created you to be.’”

Flynt earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Columbia Union College, now Washington Adventist University, a master’s degree from Andrews University and a doctorate in instructional technology and distance learning from Nova Southeastern University.

Over the course of 42 years in education, Flynt served in a variety of roles including classroom teacher, principal, instructional designer, university professor and educational technology leader. Her résumé includes positions at Southern Adventist University, Liberty University and the North American Division, where she helped develop professional development courses and online learning systems for Adventist educators nationwide.

Before coming to Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, Flynt spent more than a decade at Southern Adventist University as director of academic technology and online learning, where she helped launch one of the Adventist educational system’s earliest large-scale online learning initiatives.

“Southern was one of the first Adventist universities that really launched into online learning,” Flynt said. “We had to convince administrators, professors and conferences that it could work, but once they saw the value, it changed everything. Looking back, helping build that system was one of the benchmarks of my career.”

Flynt also played a role in the early development of the Adventist Learning Community, an online professional development platform used throughout the North American Division.

Since arriving at the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference in 2018, Flynt has overseen the conference’s education system, working with principals, teachers and school boards to support academic excellence and spiritual growth across Adventist schools in Kentucky and Tennessee. Her responsibilities included curriculum oversight, teacher training, accreditation support and strategic planning.

Flynt said one of her primary goals as superintendent was to create a culture where teachers felt supported and appreciated.

“I wanted my teachers to feel loved. They are the ones doing the important work every day, not me or my team,” Flynt said. “Whatever support we could give them, that was our goal… to make them feel supported, cared for and loved on.”

As she prepares to close this chapter, Flynt says her message to teachers, students and constituents is to continue supporting Adventist education.

“What makes Adventist education different is the ability, and the responsibility, of sharing who Jesus is and teaching from a biblical foundation,” Flynt said. “If you treat every course as if it’s the only opportunity you have to share the gospel and the understanding of Scripture, that changes everything; and that has been my life work and passion.”