Leading in an election year

The 2024 political season is ramping up as is the rhetoric and stress. We know that pastors have the added pressure of navigating differing viewpoints, difficult conversations, and intensified emotions.

We are thrilled to partner with the Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins for several online events designed to make your ministry path easier this fall. Derrick has served three congregations and was a pastor to President Barack Obama for 8 years in Washington, D.C. He has extensive experience navigating the political landscape and he does all of this with a pastor's heart. 

Join us for one or more of these events (see list below).

You are welcome to attend just one or as many of these discussions as you like!

Discussion Dates

1. Tuesday, September 24, 11am-12:30pm

2. Thursday, September 26, 3:00 - 4:30pm

3. Monday, October 7, 11am - 12:30pm

4. Tuesday, October 15, 11am - 12:30 pm

Leader

Rev. Dr.  Derrick Harkins

The Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins serves as a principal in The Raben Group’s Issue Campaigns practice area, with a focus on using expertise drawn from his extensive political and ministerial career to form coalitions and lead initiatives at the intersection of faith and public engagement.

In June of 2021, Dr. Harkins was named an appointee to the Biden Harris administration where he served as Director of the Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

Prior to his role at HUD, he was Director of Interfaith Outreach for The Democratic National Committee, where he also led faith outreach during the 2012 reelection campaign of President Barack Obama. 

From 2015 to 2020 Harkins was Senior Vice President for Innovations in Public Programs at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He has served as Chair of the Board of Odyssey Impact Productions and is an executive producer of several acclaimed documentaries including, The Rape of Recy Taylor, and most recently, A Crime on the Bayou. 

Dr. Harkins served for seventeen years as pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, DC., where he was extensively engaged in relief and development work in Rwanda, Burkina Faso, and Jamaica. He served as a member of the Board of Directors for World Relief, Faith in Public Life, and Sojourners. Before beginning his pastorate at Nineteenth Street, he served as the Senior Minister of the New Hope Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, where he was also President of the Greater Dallas Community of Churches, and a founding board member of The Dallas Leadership Foundation. In Dallas, his was a leading voice in the efforts toward reconciliation between the African American and Latino communities. 

Dr. Harkins’ ministerial career began at the Historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York as Assistant Minister. He has been a guest lecturer on the church and social action at a number of colleges and universities including, Rutgers, Cornell, Iona College, Howard University, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. Harkins was a contributing author for The Audacity of Faith: Christian Leaders Reflect on the Election of Barack Obama (Judson Press) He has earned a B.S. degree in Broadcasting and Film, from Boston University, a Master of Divinity degree in Church History from Union Theological Seminary, NY, and a Doctorate in Homiletics as a Proctor Booth Fellow from United Seminary, in Dayton, Ohio. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he and his wife Juli, a healthcare policy specialist, are the parents of two adult daughters.