Reverend Felecia Pearson Smith has dedicated herself full-time to ministry with her husband, Pastor Michael A. Smith and serves as the Administrative Director of Community Church, as well as the Executive Director of the Community Empowerment Development Corporation, a faith based initiative developed by Community Church. She has also established herself as a speaker, instructor, scholar and community servant. Presently, she is an instructor for the In Service Training Institute at Anderson, University, facilitates women’s conferences and preaches on a local and national level.
Reverend Smith is a graduate of Wesleyan College, Atlanta GA, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion. She also graduated from Candler School of Theology at Emory University where she became the first African American woman to enter and graduate with a Master of Divinity. In 1977 she was licensed and in 1985 she was ordained by the Georgia Ministerial Assembly of the Church of God, Anderson, Indiana.
Prior to recent leadership roles Reverend Smith served as the President/CEO of the Shenango Valley (PA) Urban League, Inc. She was also an adjunct faculty member at Westminster College and Penn State University’s Shenango Campus and a founding member of the Minority Health Advocacy Committee. In 1998, Reverend Smith was appointed Director of the Bonner Scholars Program at Spelman College, and then in 2004 she was appointed Director of the new Bonner Office of Community Service and Student Development. As Director she took the program to new heights and executed her vision for the expansion of the culture of service on Spelman’s campus.
Reverend Smith also earned several honors and awards including honorary membership to the Golden Key International Honor Society and in 2005 she was honored for being the first black female graduate from the Candler School of Theology at the program of Black Church Studies at Emory University.
Of all her accomplishments and accolades, she takes great pleasure in her personal relationship with God and her family. She is the mother of two adult children, Allan and Allyson. Reverend Smith is known to be a distinct woman of great character, integrity, and grace. In all she accomplishes, it is done with strength, balance and in truth. She believes that she “can do all things through Christ that strengthens her”, this is a true testament of her walk, her faith, and all that that she continues to do for God.