"...I learned the importance of culturally competent teaching and counseling, as well as the need for educators to be fully supported in their efforts to engage all students for success."
My Story
I am a two-time HBCU grad. Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA (not to be confused with Morehead State… wherever that is) is where I earned my bachelor's degree after double majoring in Psychology and Religion. Martin Luther King, Jr., Spike Lee, Mordecai Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Julian Bond, Lerone Bennett, Raphael Warnock and I graduated from the same school. We, along with thousands of others, are Morehouse Men.
The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University is where I earned my Master of Divinity degree. Robert Wafawanaka, Miles Jones, Patricia Gould-Champ, and John W. Kinney challenged me to think about God and the church differently. I am a more thought-full Christian because of STVU.
Education and diversity being pretty important to me, I also earned degrees from two PWIs (Predominantly White Institutions). The College of William & Mary awarded me with a Master of Education with an emphasis in School Counseling after a pretty exhausting, but incredibly informative, two-year stint in Jones Hall. Considering American history, it was occasionally surreal to be a student at the second-oldest institution of higher learning in the country. I was living the daydream of some African and Native American ancestors who experienced the nightmare of making the school what it is. I didn't forget that. I didn't forget them. The debt related to my education is far greater than student loans.
Wesley Theological Seminary, being the incarnate community of faith that it is, accepted a Baptist pastor with a Pentecostal background and Catholic grade school education into its Methodist centered doctoral program in Church Leadership. I was excited about acceptance but overjoyed about graduation. The historic Washington National Cathedral is where my family, and hundreds of others, gathered for commencement as I received the Doctor of Ministry degree. I hope my children will never forget that day. It was really for them. And my parents.
Speaking of children, I am the proud father of four. I started raising my oldest daughter when she was five. She is the bonus that came along with marrying her mom. I love her. And she would rather die than live without me, or her cell phone, or Instagram, or a manicure, or makeup. Smh. She's that kind of girl. No one has ever tested my patience like her. Her teenage attitude was the tool God used to teach me what longsuffering really feels like. She nicknamed me Pancake. I call her Waffle.
My firstborn child is my only son. He's a cool kid. I really like him. He's into football teams, video games, and acting like he doesn't pay attention to the life lessons I try to teach. The good news is that we talk quite a bit about quite a bit, and I often hear my thoughts coming out of his mouth. I love it when that happens. His career aspirations have included military service, medical science, ministry (although he denies ever saying it), architecture, and dermatology. I'm not sure what he'll be. I just pray that it'll be legal, lucrative, and God-honoring.
My youngest children were a shock in more ways than one. First, they were conceived when my son was somewhere around two months old. Secondly, they were twins. We were a family with a nine-year-old girl, a twelve-month-old boy, and two newborn babies. These girls are amazing, though. They've been together since they were in their mother's womb and are still best friends. The oldest twin is older by one minute. She is a cellist, artist, and great student. Her heart is pure gold, and her compassion for others is Christlike. The younger twin is the baby of our family and thoroughly enjoys her position. She's a gifted kid. Witty, sensitive, analytical, and intuitive, she's a joy to be around.
I've always respected women. Having great relationships with my mom, sister, grandmothers, and other women gave me a clear sense of the value that good women add to the world. That became far more clear to me when I married my wife. She is the one who carried two 7½ pound babies in her belly and spent months breastfeeding them at the same time. She literally breastfed them at the same time. She had one baby latched to her right breast and the other baby latched to the left breast while she planned dinner, managed phone calls, and worked hard to ensure that our house was a home. She is the one who went back to work once she realized that being a stay-at-home mom was harder than any job outside of the home, and while being the wife of a bi-vocational pastor, mother of four kids, helping me launch A Better Life, Inc., and chair of a high school special education department, she somehow managed to maintain a 4.0 grade point average while pursuing an Educational Specialist degree. Yeah, she's tough and she's my wife.
My wife and I met when we were teaching at Warwick High School in Newport News, VA. I spent the majority of my career in education as a school counselor in Newport News, Norfolk, and Chesapeake Public Schools. Working in suburban Chesapeake was pleasant, but teaching and counseling in urban schools were absolutely exhilarating. These environments are where I learned the importance of culturally competent teaching and counseling, as well as the need for educators to be fully supported in their efforts to engage all students for success
In the same way that children need to be wholly engaged for success in school, people need to be wholly engaged for success in life - mind, body, emotions, and soul. I'm passionate about this too, so… I pastor. Since 2009, I've been privileged to pastor a fantastic congregation in Chesapeake, Virginia. New Hope Baptist Church is more than a century old and has a mission that I love. We've been growing together for more than a decade, and we haven't seen our best days yet. We're an intergenerational church with a promising future, and I like who we're becoming.
Wow. That’s a lot about me.
I’d love to hear about you.