Professor of Urban Christian Ministry, Fellow in the Council of Intercultural Engagement
Dr. Byrd has more than 18 years’ experience as a senior pastor and has served as campus minister at two universities in Ohio. Dr. Byrd serves as Director of Evening Ministries Program at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He has served as workshop facilitator for the Cultural Sensitivity Seminar in Jacksonville, Fla., and was a member of the strategic planning committee meeting for the African-American church division of the Florida Baptist Convention. He is 2012-2013 president of the African American Caucus of the Academy of Homiletics of North America.His authorship and presentations include the “History of the First Black Church,” “The Non-African Perception of the African American Religious Experience” and “Inter-ethnic Cultural Communication,” presented for the American Association of Behavioral Sciences and National Association of African-American Studies. He has also presented “Martin Luther King Jrs., Evangelical Liberalism: An Approach to Social Justice” at the National Association of Christian Social Workers, and “King the Churchman: An Examination of the Ecclesiology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” for the North American Academy of Homiletics.Dr. Byrd published extensively with the Baptist Press. He has published the History of the Union Baptist Church now archived at the Cincinnati Historical Society Library, and has contributed to the Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary series in 2011-2013. His first full length book, I Shall Not Be Moved was an international bestseller. His second book, By This Shall We Be Known: Interpreting the Voice and Message of Dr. King, was released in October, 2011. Dr. Byrd was recognized in Marquis 2011 Who’s Who in America, and the 2004-2005 “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers,” honoring the nation’s most respected teachers. In 2007, he received the Charles and Hazel Corts Award for Outstanding Teaching. Dr. Byrd currently serves on the board of Urban Youth Impact.
Degrees:
A.S., Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary; B.A., M.A., Miami University; M.Div., United Theological Seminary; Ph.D., The Union Institute.