On Thursday, Sept. 18, Dr. Brandi Pritchett-Johnson will kick off Grand Rapids Community College’s Annual Diversity Lecture Series. As a nationally recognized psychologist, passionate activist, and creator of The Diane Morgan Group, Pritchett-Johnson has plenty of insight that she is eager to share with GRCC as she facilitates conversations about connection and care in a time where hopelessness and apathy threaten our sense of community.
Many burnt-out adults feel exhausted or intimidated as they try to “find their village” in the more difficult seasons of their lives. How can they be expected to show up for others when they themselves are running on fumes? Born from this overwhelm is a coexisting sense of allure and shame around the desire for isolation. However, Pritchett-Johnson wants GRCC students to know they don’t have to choose one or the other.
“Disconnecting with intention is a form of care,” remarked Pritchett-Johnson in an interview with The Collegiate. “There is still a call-to-action to return, (but) it’s not one or the other. It’s about being discerning and about being intentional.”
While she is a proud alumni of both Clark Atlanta University and Western Michigan University, much of Pritchett-Johnson’s knowledge stems from more than just her experiences in academia.
Having lost her mother at only 10-years-old, she learned the value of cultivating her own community early on and finds a lot of fulfillment in helping others do the same.
“There’s a distinction between self-preservation and restoration,” Pritchett-Johnson said. “Preservation, the intention is self-protection, it is a reaction-usually to harm or fear. It’s an attempt to prevent damage. But restoration, it’s about returning to our original form. And in our original form, we are communal. We need people. You cannot exist in isolation. You certainly cannot thrive in isolation.”
She admits that even as a people-person and trained psychologist, she too has periods of her life where that restoration must take priority. Still, with the support of her friends, family, and faith, she knows those moments of solitude do not last forever, nor do they mean she is truly alone. Instead, Pritchett-Johnson aims to acknowledge the ways our ever-changing circumstances are constantly shifting the goalpost.
“I am an activist. I am a visionary. I lived my life-at one time- doing all the things, all the marches…and it was relatively consequential,” she said. “I am also an activist when I cook dinner for my children…When I sit with my 13-year-old son, who is going to be a Black man, and I sit with my 10-year-old son, and I eat a meal with them and work with them on their emotional intelligence. When they’re telling me about school and I say, ‘Well, what’s the feeling?’ I watch them struggle, and then I give them options, and then they tell me… I mean, that’s activism.”
During her lecture at GRCC’s Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center, Pritchett-Johnson hopes to help the students in attendance identify and work in alignment with their own values, as well as reimagine how they are showing up and contributing to the world around them. Whether it’s finally settling into that journaling routine, adopting a more curious outlook, or giving yourself permission to withdraw for a little while, the aim is to let people know that the path to true leadership does not have to be a constant uphill battle, nor should it be walked alone.
While discussing the culture of apathy and experience of collective grief felt by many in 2025, Pritchett-Johnson highlights the value of exposure to different perspectives and environments as a way to acknowledge the bad without fully living in it:
“My invitation to (GRCC students) is to award themselves an opportunity to be enlightened. To be reminded that whatever you’re experiencing is not the only experience to be had. Because maybe – just maybe – you’ll be exposed to a word, a phrase, some knowledge that I can impart, or even a conversation with the person sitting next to you, that will enlighten you in a way that makes life worth living just a little bit more.”
The lecture will take place from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in GRCC’s Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center, Auditorium 168, 151 Fountain St. NE. Students interested in attending can RSVP for the free event.
