Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown, M.Div., is co-founder and past chairperson of the Boston Ten Point Coalition, an ecumenical group of Christian clergy and lay leaders who mobilize the community around issues affecting black youth, especially those at-risk for violence, drug abuse and other destructive behaviors. In April 1999, he founded Ten Point International, a resource for churches around the world interested in overcoming violence in their communities. Brown is the author of articles on religion, youth and violence; a columnist for the Cambridge Chronicle; and a contributor to the Boston Globe's op-ed page.

"Science is Humbled" by Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown and Janis A. Pryor

"Faith Under Fire: A Benefit for Southern Churches Victimized by Fire", Committee Chairman Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown

Min. Tracy Gibbs Minister Tracy Gibbs was born in Brockton Massachusetts. She is the third child of 4 children born to Henry Gibbs Sr. and Dorcas Crane. After graduating from Brockton High School she moved to Corsicana, Texas to pursue a degree in Journalism at the Navarro College and to minister in song with the New Generation Singers under the anointed leadership of Rev Dr. Wesley McLaughlin and His wife Min. Pamela McLaughlin.

Minister Gibbs has a long history of working in the community where she serves on many boards and advisory boards. Formerly she served as a television news producer for WLVI-TV and WBZ-TV and as Director of Public Relations and Community Outreach at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She is the proprietor of Heavenly Communications a non-profit consulting firm, where she consults in the fields of non-profit management and fundraising. She is currently the Director of Marketing for the Museum of African American History.

Minister Tracy accepted the Lord at the age of 13, and grew up under the spiritual leadership of Pastor Eugene Neville at Messiah Baptist and Mount Moriah Baptist Churches in Brockton where she was baptized. Her ministry service there included: youth and young adult choir director, Sunday School teacher, and assistant youth leader. In 1998 Min. Tracy was called to Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, MA to work under the anointed ministry of Pastor Jeffrey L. Brown as Union works to lift up the vision of being a lighthouse to the community.

Current ministry assignments include Associate Minister, praise and worship leader, Sunday School Teacher (Adult Class) and she serves as the spiritual advisor to the young adults "Anointed" group.

In the Spring of 2001 she was called to preach the word of God and delivered her initial sermon on Father’s Day in June of 2001 at Union Baptist Church. Minister Tracy is currently seeking her Master’s of Divinity at Gordon Cornwell Theological Seminary.

An anointed gospel singer Min. Gibbs has been performing and singing the Good News since the age of three. Not afraid at a young age to stand-up and sing anywhere at anytime Minister Gibbs began traveling across the country as a teenager. Her musical gifts and talents have won her many awards and accolades from well-known musicians and her peers. She is the award recipient of numerous talent shows and contests. She has ministered through many gospel concerts throughout the country.

Minister Tracy has accepted her calling to sing and to preach the word of God to people who are broken, depressed and wounded and to be used of God to mend, deliver, heal and empower others to the glory of God through Jesus Christ. Seeking to be a true worshipper, she has claimed as her personal scripture:

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." - Psalm 27:4

Rev. Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, (Pronounced "Jillks"), is an Assistant Pastor (for Special Projects) of the Union Baptist Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of African-American Studies and Sociology at Colby College (Waterville, Maine). She holds degrees in sociology from Northeastern University (B.A.,M.A., Ph.D.) and has pursued graduate theological studies at Boston University's School of Theology. Her research, teaching, and writing have specially focused on the diverse roles of black Christian women in the twentieth century. Some of her essays on black Christian women are gathered in her recent book, If It Wasn't for the Women: Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2001). She has published in several social science and religious studies journals. A recent article, "'Go and Tell Mary and Martha': The Spirituals, Biblical Options for Women, and Cultural Tensions in the African American Religious Experience," was published in Social Compass: International Review of Sociology of Religion and is part of her book-in-progress, That Blessed Book: The Bible and the African American Cultural Imagination. She has also contributed chapters to several anthologies on religion and on African American women's lives. She has also lectured and presented papers at colleges, universities, and scholarly conferences in the United States, Canada, Germany, England, and South Africa. However, it is her love of the Bible -- the Word of God -- that is at the heart of her teaching ministry in churches and at conferences.

After answering her call to the preaching ministry in 1981, Rev. Dr. Gilkes was licensed (1982) and ordained (1986) through the Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in association with the United Baptist Convention of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. She is active with the United Baptist Convention of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire and its Congress of Christian Education. She teaches and serves on the Board of the Congress and she is the parliamentarian for the United Baptist Convention. Rev. Dr. Gilkes has served as a volunteer chaplain at the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston, Massachusetts, conducting Bible Study in the Women's Units. Rev. Gilkes is a member of the Cambridge (MA) Branch of the NAACP and received the organization's Education Award in 1997. She is also a Golden Life member of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. and has been privileged to preach for the Ecumenical Service at the 1997 Eastern Region Conference and for the service commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Alumnae Chapter. To the radio audience of central Maine, Rev. Gilkes is “Dr. Cheryl,” the host of a weekly gospel music program titled, “The Uncloudy Day” on WMHB, Waterville, Colby College’s station. She loves the Lord and is always "glad to be in the service."

Min. Jonathan Wilkins was born and raised in Dallas, TX. He graduated from Morehouse College in 2001 with a B.A. in General Management and concentration in Finance. He is currently a dual degree student at the Harvard Business School and Harvard Divinity School concentrating in real estate development and urban ministry respectively. He will graduate with a Master of Business Administration and Master of Divinity in 2009.

Prior to graduate school Jonathan worked in the private, non-profit and government sectors as an Analyst with Ernst & Young Corporate Finance Group in Dallas, a Manager at Greater Allen AME Cathedral in New York and Project Manager within the Tax Allocation Districts Group with the Atlanta Development Authority.

Jonathan currently serves as a minister at Union Baptist Church and is responsible for leading the church’s mission ministry at the Bromley Heath Housing Complex in Roxbury, MA where he leads a mentorship program.

Aside from school and ministry, Jonathan enjoys reading, listening to jazz and traveling and running a part-time barbering service that caters to graduate students. He is married to his college sweetheart Lin Wilkins a graduate student at Boston College and Family and Community Coordinator at the Urban Science Academy.

Dr. Sylvia Johnson Sylvia Johnson was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. She accepted Christ at an early age and was a member of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Little Rock until she moved away to attend college.

Sylvia is a graduate of Tuskegee University and Smith College School for Social Work. She also received a Ph.D. from the Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare at Brandeis University.

Currently she is a Master of Divinity student at Andover Newton Theological School and is an Assistant Pastor at the Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, where she serves as spiritual advisor to the Social Action Ministry.

Also, Dr. Johnson joined The Hyams Foundation staff in the mid 1980’s and is the Foundation’s Associate Director. In this position she oversees the Foundation’s grantmaking process and provides special leadership in the Foundation’s Youth Development program area. One of her deep interests is grantmaking to faith-based organizations, and she has worked with Hyams and other local and national foundations to develop significant partnerships between Black churches and funders.

Sylvia is married and the mother of three sons.

Min. Hillary Smash Jr. was born in Yonkers, New York to the Reverend Hillary Smash Sr. and Mrs. Johnye Doris Smash. The family later relocated to Mt. Vernon New York where he was raised and attended public school.

Rev. Smash decided to further his education after high school by receiving a B.A. degree in Psychology and Religious Studies, where he graduated with honors from the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, New York. After taking a sabbatical for two years working as a mental health counselor and volunteering his services facilitating groups on substance abuse in Sing Sing, Westchester county, Bedford Hills and Taconic State Correctional Facilities in New York State, he relocated to Massachusetts to study for a masters of divinity at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, MA

He has been a member of Union Baptist Church’s Ministerial staff for the past 4 years and has served as young adult teacher, chaplain to the Social Action Committee, Union Baptist Mentoring and is presently serving as minister to the sick and shut-in and program director for Second Chance Ministries at Union Baptist Church. He continues to work as a mental health professional and has also been recently certified as a trainer and instructor for Prison Fellowship Ministries. He would also like to say that he loves the Lord, has a tremendous love for people and he loves to serve.

Rev. Grace as she is affectionately known , is returning home to her native Cantabrigian roots after many years of laboring in the fields serving across many denominational and community based lines..Following the Lord's leaning upon her life ,Rev. Grace entered the ministry going wherever , whenever , and however she might serve, thus her faith journey reads somewhat like a cross-country and international road map. Rev. Grace most recently served as a senior pastor in the metropolitian New York area where she initiated ministries amongst youth and young adults from non-churched backgrounds ushering them into the saving knowledge of the kingdom. She has inaugurated several Christian schools including a Lay Leadership Institute designed for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12) . Rev. Grace comes to us as an associate ready, willing, and able to serve drawing from her reservoir as an educator , administrator , and community chaplain working with families infected or affected by the HIV/ Aids virus. She is currently serving as the Director of Chaplaincy Services for the Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic Violence of Boston., and is actively involved in the ever evolving ministries of UBC.