Dr. Sheridan Todd Yeary is the Senior Pastor of the Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore, Maryland. He also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of DMCC’s two community development corporations – Camp Farthest Out, Inc. and Douglas Village, Inc. Dr. Yeary is the former Associate Director of the Center for Black Studies at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.
Dr. Yeary holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from National-Louis University, a Master of Divinity Degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, the Graduate Certificate in African Studies from Northwestern University, and the Doctor of Philosophy Degree (Ph.D.) in the area of Religion in Society and Personality from Northwestern. He is also a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree in clinical pastoral counseling from Louisville Seminary. Dr. Yeary’s travels and research are centered in Ghana, West Africa, focusing on the relationship between traditional African values and the African American experience.
A third-generation preacher/pastor, Dr. Yeary serves the faith community of Douglas Memorial as the fifth pastor in its 86-year history. He emphasizes visionary leadership that demonstrates excellence in community service and promotes the building of long-lasting institutions for future generations. Dr. Yeary promotes knowledge and love of self and community, having presented in a variety of forums, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture Series on Racial Reconciliation at Hamline University (2003-2004), the Brown v. Board of Education Summit at College of DuPage (2005), and the African American Family Summit at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (2002-2006). Dr. Yeary’s presentation on the role of religion in promoting diversity at the spring 2006 convening of the Oxford Roundtable at the University of Oxford in England was later published in the Oxford Round Table’s Forum on Public Policy journal.
Dr. Yeary’s interests include mentoring youth and young adults, community activism, urban public policy and the development of processes of productive transformation for oppressed people. He is the Founder of the non-profit Community Excellence and Empowerment Development Corporation in Illinois. Dr. Yeary previously served as the 2nd Vice-President of the Young Adult Men’s Department of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, as a member of the Civil Rights Commission of that same body, as Regional Director and National Moderator of the African American Male Empowerment Summit™, and as a member of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s mayoral transition team. Currently, he serves on the boards of the Center for School Mental Health and Baltimore Mental Health Systems, Inc. Dr. Yeary is a member of the Ministerium of the International Council of Community Churches and currently serves as the international liaison between the Council and constituent churches in Ghana, West Africa.
Dr. Yeary is currently writing two books – “Get R.E.A.L.”, and “Sacred Identity: Pilgrimage and the Reconstruction of the African American Self.” He is married to the Rev. Rhonda S. Boozer-Yeary, and is the father of two teen children – Robert Aaron, 15 and Simone Kathlene, 14 and an infant son Jordan Amani.
