Reverend Todd Sheridan Yeary, Ph.D. Chair

Reverend Yeary

Dr. S. Todd Yeary serves as the senior pastor of the Douglas Memorial Community Church, a Covenant Congregation, and is an adjunct professor in the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore.  Additionally, Dr. Yeary serves as the chief executive officer of DMCC’s two community development corporations – Douglas Memorial Community Church Village and Camp Farthest Out.  Formerly, Dr. Yeary served as a collateral duty senior EEO Counselor during his tenure as an air traffic control specialist with the Federal Aviation Administration. From 2000-2010, Dr. Yeary served as associate director of the Center for Black Studies at Northern Illinois University. Dr. Yeary’s social justice work includes serving on the national board of National Action Network, immediate past Political Action Co-Chair for the Maryland State Conference NAACP, as co-founding principal of Community Churches for Community Development, Inc., and as a former steering committee member of OneBaltimore, Baltimore City’s collaborative public-private coordinating organization.  Additionally, Dr. Yeary is a founding principal and policy director of SALT (Strategic Advocacy and Legislative Thinktank), a faith-based public policy collaborative that works on regional and national empowerment strategies impacting the African American community. Dr. Yeary is often called upon to facilitate creative conversations that solve challenging problems, having served on the Governor’s Commission to Reform Maryland’s Pretrial Justice System, as well as speaking in a variety of policy and leadership forums, including providing regular testimony on policy issues before the Congressional Black Caucus and the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Maryland General Assembly, the Faith Leader’s Roundtable at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference, and as a panelist at the 2014 Color of Wealth Summit. Dr. Yeary believes honest dialogue creates opportunities to form strategic partnerships that strengthen families and communities.  He models his partnership commitment through public participation as he currently serves as interim chair of the Community Relations Commission of Baltimore City, vice-chair of Behavioral Health Systems Baltimore, and an advisory board member to the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. Dr. Yeary formerly served as a gubernatorial appointee to the board of trustees of Baltimore City Community College from 2013-2017. Dr. Yeary holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from National-Louis University, a Master of Divinity Degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and the Graduate Certificate in African Studies and the Doctor of Philosophy Degree (Ph.D.) in the area of Religion in Society and Personality from Northwestern University.  Dr. Yeary is a member of the 2012 class of the Board of Preachers of the Martin Luther King, Jr. College of Preachers and Laity of Morehouse College. Dr. Yeary is married to the Rev. Rhonda S. Boozer-Yeary.  They are the proud parents of Robert Aaron, Simone Kathlene, Jordan Amani, and Joshua Asante.