Alton B. Pollard, III, Ph.D.

Alton B. Pollard, III, is Dean and Professor of Religion and Culture at Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. He holds degrees from Fisk University, Harvard University Divinity School, and Duke University. His previous faculty appointments include St. Olaf College, Wake Forest University, and Emory University where he was Director of Black Church Studies at Candler School of Theology and Chair of American Religious Cultures in the Graduate Division of Religion, and various visiting lectureships throughout the United States and Africa.

Pollard has published widely in the areas of religion and culture. He is the author of Mysticism and Social Change; a new edition of W.E.B. DuBois, The Negro Church; and Helpers for a Healing Community: A Pastoral Care Manual for HIV/AIDS in Africa; co-editor of The Black Church Studies Reader; and How Long This Road; consulting editor for the multi-volume Papers of Howard Thurman; and former associate editor of the journal Black Sacred Music. He is P.I. for the Lilly-funded research project, “Equipping the Saints: Promising Practices in Black Congregational Life.” An ordained minister, he has served churches in Tennessee, Massachusetts and North Carolina. He is an associate minister at Covenant Baptist UCC Church in Washington, DC, and board member and consultant to numerous organizations. He and his wife Jessica Bryant Pollard, a high school counselor, have two phenomenal adult children.