Adventist educators establish worldview studies center at La Sierra University

The university and Zapara school will host an opening colloquium and reception at 5 p.m. in the Troesh Conference Center to launch the Daniel and Elissa Kido Center for Worldview Studies. The Seventh-day Adventist couple are instrumental healthcare and education leaders, scholars and philanthropists, whose $500,000 endowment establishes the center as an impactful resource for organizations and individuals, and that contributes to the university’s mission of worldwide service.

"The Zapara School of Business is honored by the generosity the Drs. Kido have exhibited." -- John Thomas, Dean, Zapara School of Business

The Kido Center will coordinate lectures and conferences that bring thought leaders to campus, will sponsor research publications that benefit business, church and academics, and will foster formal and informal conversations related to worldviews and their development.

“The Zapara School of Business is honored by the generosity the Drs. Kido have exhibited,” said John Thomas, dean of the business school. “The Zapara School community looks forward to the opportunities for intellectual stimulation, growth in understanding, and community impact that will result from the work of the Kido Center.”

Said Zapara school associate dean Gary Chartier, “It's awesome that the Kidos have chosen to support scholarship at La Sierra University in this way. I know that the Kido Center will create new opportunities for research by faculty members and students across campus and that its work has the potential to inform conversations about the values we seek to uphold and transmit as an institution.”

Worldviews -- particular philosophies and comprehensive perspectives on life – are fundamental to how individuals and organizations interpret reality and act. The Christian worldview is shaped by the Bible and centuries of Christian beliefs. “Involvement in worldview research will help to express La Sierra’s Seventh-day Adventist heritage of global service and its commitment to excellence,” states a proposal for the center. “Among the center’s primary objectives will be the establishment of a culture of sensitivity to the importance and implications of worldviews across the university and in society.”

The new center is a confluence of the Kidos’ life work and experiences – Elissa Kido, who holds an Ed.D. from Boston University is a scholar whose research on the benefits of the Adventist education system led to the creation in 2011 of the Center for Research on K-12 Adventist Education (CRAE) at a La Sierra’s School of Education; Daniel Kido is a neuroradiologist and vice chair of academic affairs in radiology at Loma Linda University. He has held teaching and research posts at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis. In 2018, he co-wrote a book that was published by CRAE and which is centered on how an understanding of different world views can lead to better decisions.

Elissa Kido’s Cognitive Genesis studies conducted under CRAE beginning in 2006 assessed the academic performance of 52,000 students at Adventist academies across the North American Division and showed they outperformed their peers. Another joint research project with Loma Linda University called DecisionGenesis created an instrument that identifies a person’s worldview into one of four basic categories: me first; rules first; feelings first; and others first.

“Do students with an others-oriented perspective perform academically better? And the preliminary data suggests yes,” said the study’s data scientist Udo Oyoyo. “It's fascinating to see a partnership that bridges education and neuroscience, connecting an abstract but foundational concept like worldview to measurable outcomes such as academic achievement."  

"Doors have been opened for both of us and each door has been an opportunity to grow more." -- Daniel Kido, Neuroradiologist

The Kido Center for Worldview Studies aims to expand students’ horizons by exposing them to worldview insights, and to build connections with organizations by offering opportunities for leaders to learn methods of effective decision-making and building effective teams, enhancing organizational performance and resolving worldview-related conflicts.

The center will operate under the purview of a governing board and director and with the guidance of an advisory council that will give direction on strategies, programs and activities.

For the Kidos, the work of the center, which is an extension and a gift of their own expansive expertise and experiences, is intended to catalyze lifechanging impact for others and for society.

“I think so many things that have happened to us are really providential, opportunities that we’ve had, people we’ve met,” Daniel Kido said. “Doors have been opened for both of us and each door has been an opportunity to grow more. God is a big person. His view for us is unimaginable. The greater expertise you have, the more it allows you to share.”