The famed author Maya Angelou once said: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

The Reverend Joy Thornburg Melton, J.D. ’77, the recipient of this year’s Pfeiffer University Outstanding Alumni Award, likes to cite this quote and has taken it to heart. Her work has been a groundbreaking response to the collective awareness of the potential for the abuse of children in settings of the United Methodist Church (UMC). This risk awareness has become far greater than it was about 20 or 30 years ago, and thanks to Melton, there’s been a marked improvement in policies and resources designed to reduce the risk of abuse from occurring.

She authored and has taught numerous seminars based on the Safe Sanctuaries series of books and related resources. These set forth and provide guidance on writing “policies and procedures to prevent the risk of abuse of children, youth and vulnerable adults” — which all UMC churches are required to implement.

Safe Sancturies, a 1996 mandate of the UMCGeneral Conference, was a response to a ritual-abuse scandal that rocked a Presbyterian congregation in the Midwest. Among other things, the training program has led to obligatory background checks and training for prospective youth leaders in UMC churches, and everything from forms of abuse to appropriate responses to them is now clearly outlined as policy. Since its rollout in the late 1990s, the Safe Sanctuaries materials have been revised periodically to account for factors such as an increasingly online world and congregants who prefer video learning.

UMC congregations must have formal Safe Sanctuaries policies in place to be insured by United Methodist Insurance. Many other denominations and ministries have taken notice, having made Safe Sanctuaries a part of their cultures as well.

“The launch and the continued publication and use of Safe Sanctuaries resources has been successful in terms of preparing churches and volunteers to appropriately supervise children and youth,” Melton said. “Leaders in UMC Annual Conferences have made Safe Sanctuaries procedures mandatory in local churches. That’s good. That’s a definite win.” Melton was tasked with writing Safe Sanctuaries materials because of her unusual background: An Ordained Deacon in Full Connection, she holds a B.A. degree in Christian education from Pfeiffer, and she earned an M.A. degree in the same subject from Scarritt College in Nashville, Tenn. She has taught Christian education classes at churches, in addition to directing education programs. She’s also a founding partner in the law firm of Hindson & Melton, LLC, in Atlanta, Ga., having earned a J.D. from Atlanta’s Emory University School of Law.

In a sense, Melton’s ecclesiastical-legal journey began during her junior year at Pfeiffer, to which she had transferred from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, because that institution lacked undergraduate studies in Christian education. She would prosper at Pfeiffer, where she served as the Assistant Editor of The Chimes yearbook and chaired the Christian Life Council.

During her senior year, while Pfeiffer’s chaplain was on leave, Melton worked with The Reverend Terry Matthews, a Chaplain Intern from Duke Divinity School, to maintain the regular worship schedule for the student body.

In the spring of 1978, Melton married The Reverend H. David Melton  (President of the Class of 1976) in Henry Pfeiffer Chapel on Pfeiffer’s Misenheimer, N.C. campus. Subsequently, the couple became charter members of Pfeiffer’s Met My Mate Society.

More recently, Joy Melton has been in serious pay-it-forward mode: She served as a member of the Pfeiffer Alumni Association Board (2004-2012) and co-chaired it with her husband (2007-2009). During her long service on Pfeiffer’s Board of Trustees (2010-2023), she wore several hats, from chairing the Academic Experience Committee to chairing the most recent Presidential Search Committee, which recommended the hiring of Dr. Scott Bullard, Pfeiffer’s current president.

Melton was the first woman to serve as Chair of Pfeiffer’s Board of Trustees since the period during which the school was governed by the UMC’s Women’s Division.

Bob Brietz ’65, the 2022 recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award, served with Melton on both the Alumni Board and the Board of Trustees. He chaired the Board of Trustees immediately prior to Melton and recommended her strongly for the Outstanding Alumni Award.

“She became one of my confidants and someone I could call on at any time of the day,” he said. “When we were left without a president in 2019, Joy was one of my first calls for help.”

Melton was happy to meet this and other challenges.

“Pfeiffer has been such an important part of my life,” she said. “I have been privileged to use my experience and training to help better my alma mater.”