SU Ag Center - Faith Based Conference

Home
About the Center
Welcome
Speakers
Agenda
   Faith-Based Conference
   Grant Writing
   Church Administration
General Information
Highlights
Registration
Photo Gallery
2003 Conference
   2004 Conference

Conference Speakers

Linetta J. Gilbert, Program Officer
Ford Foundation

Linetta J. Gilbert is well known and highly regarded in the community development field and the community foundation world. For ten years she worked as a program officer at the Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF), and from 1995 to 2000 she served as vice president for programs. She was the lead on two Ford Foundation initiatives, the Rural Development Community Foundation Initiative and the Community Development Partnership work. At GNOF she provided strategic direction and developed a grant portfolio for community initiatives in affordable housing, community development, workforce development, violence prevention, youth development, and rural development. She worked closely with donors and potential donors to show them the value of community philanthropy in the New Orleans region. Gilbert has played a leadership role in community development, both in advancing faith-based community work and in her role as a board member for the Neighborhood Funders Group, where among other accomplishments she was instrumental in launching the Rural Funders Working Group. She is an experienced, strategic grantmaker with a deep commitment to building community leadership and civic capacity. She is currently working as a program officer in the Community and Resource Development Unit at the Ford Foundation in New York.

Rev. Fred Lucas, President and CEO
The Faith Center

   Born and reared in Washington, D.C, the Rev. Fred Lucas is the founding president and chief executive officer of the Faith Center for Community Development, Inc., a national, nonprofit organization providing training, technical assistance, and funding for church-based community development. Headquartered at 120 Wall Street in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district, the Faith Center also assists financial institutions and socially-concerned investors in accessing business and investment opportunities in underserved neighborhoods, through collaborations with community-focused religious institutions.
     Educationally, Lucas holds a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, MA; a master of divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School; and a doctor of ministry degree from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School. He has completed additional coursework at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Long Island Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, as well as the certificate program in strategic perspectives in nonprofit management at the Harvard Business School. In the secular realm, Lucas has held positions with the Cambridge Center for Community Economic Development; the Youth Opportunities Services of the government of Washington, D.C.; and has served as a parole agent for the Boston Juvenile Court.
     With 25 years of pastoral experience at four churches, Rev. Lucas has held pastorates in Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; and Brooklyn, New York. He has provided leadership to congregations with as few as 40 members and as large as 4,000 and has licensed 64 sons and daughters in the gospel ministry. During his pastoral years, Lucas provided pastoral leadership in launching a long list of community and economic development projects and programs, including a development corporation, federal credit union, HUD-sponsored senior citizens housing, senior citizens center, elementary school, Head Start center, after-school tutorial center, youth employment program, and food distribution, homeless and prison ministries.
     Rev. Lucas presently serves on several boards, including the United Way of New York City, United Way-Tri-State, Fannie Mae NYC Advisory Council, and the Chase Manhattan Bank Community Advisory Board. In addition to his duties at the Faith Center for Community Development, he presently serves as an associate minister at the Union Baptist Church of Stanford, Connecticut, where he and his wife, D. Pulane Lucas, serve the Lord with joy and thanksgiving.

Bishop Thomas Hoyt, 4th Episcopal District of CME Church
President
National Council of Churches of Christ

   The National Council of Churches’ (NCC) incoming president, Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr., of Shreveport, LA, is a leader in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church-one of the Council’s seven historically Black member communions. He also is a New Testament scholar, a preacher, writer, teacher, administrator, and pastor. Before being ordained as a bishop in 1994, Hoyt had established a reputation as a distinguished scholar in theological education. A former teacher, Bishop Hoyt’s new role at the NCC places him in a sort of “national classroom” that debates issues of peace, justice and unity, and to which he brings many qualifications. He is a former Professor of New Testament at Hartford Seminary (1980-1994); Howard University School of Religion (1978-1980); and Interdenominational Theological Center (1972-78). Earlier he pastored CME churches in North Carolina and New York. He also served as pastor in United Methodist and Presbyterian congregations.
     He earned a bachelor of arts degree from CME-related Lane College; master of divinity degree from Phillips School of Theology, a part of Atlanta’s Interdenominational Theological Center (1965); master of systematic theology degree from New York City’s Union Theological Seminary (1967); and a doctorate degree in religion from Duke University, Durham, N.C. (1975).
     In his current role as presiding bishop of the CME’s Fourth Episcopal District, Hoyt is responsible for 240 pastors and 320 congregations in both Mississippi and Louisiana.
Promoting good relationships among Christians, Jews and Muslims is high on his agenda. He currently serves as a vice-chair on the national board of directors of the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), an organization formerly known as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, which works for understanding and respect among all races, religions and cultures.
     He is the author of three books on New Testament themes, co-author of three other books, and contributor to many more. He was one of two senior editors for the American Bible Society’s 1999 Jubilee Bible, and he worked on The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version, sponsored by Oxford Press. Bishop Hoyt is married to Ocie Harriett Hoyt. They have two children and one grandchild.

Vada hill, Senior Vice President
Fannie Mae Corporation

Vada Hill, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, is responsible for strengthening the organization’s product strategies, positioning and offerings to its lender partners by driving a greater sensitivity to consumer needs.
     Hill was a brand manager at Procter & Gamble throughout the 1980’s, successfully repositioning such brands as Cheer and Dreft laundry detergents and Luvs diapers. Hill left P&G to run the 1990 congressional campaign for current Ohio Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell and served in the Bush Administration as the special assistant to then U.S. Secretary of Education and current U.S. Senator, Lamar Alexander. As part of the U.S. State Department South Africa Election Support Project, Hill, worked with the Zulu based Inkatha Freedom Party political party to help them prepare for the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.
     Following several years as a senior account manager at the advertising agencies of Ogilvy & Mather in New York and BBDO in Los Angeles, Hill joined PepsiCo and the Taco Bell Corporation. As Taco Bell’s chief marketing officer, Hill was responsible for developing the renowned “Chihuahua” advertising campaign, making such phrases like “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” and “Drop the Chalupa” part of America’s vernacular. He successfully repositioned the brand and drove sales and profits through the launch of such products as Gorditas and Chalupas and of course, those cute, cuddly, talking plush Chihuahuas.
     Hill is a native of Cincinnati and graduate of Harvard University. He also serves on the board of directors of American Forests and the Denny’s Corporation.