C. ANTHONY HUNT, D.MIN., PH.D.
leading, innovating, inspiring, transforming
Rev. Dr. C. Anthony Hunt is a pastor, professor, philosophical theologian, consultant, leadership coach, senior executive, public intellectual, thought leader, social entrepreneur, transformational leadership development specialist, organizational turnaround strategist, and community leader operating at the intersections of higher education, public theology, the church, and transformational and ethical leadership. He is internationally recognized for gifts and passion for preaching, teaching, building the Beloved Community, and facilitating strategic change.
He has led in multiple public, private, academic, ecclesial, and community settings on local, national, and global levels. He has directed multi-million-dollar private sector and governmental initiatives spanning urban redevelopment, theological education, transformational leadership development, and public and private-sector innovation. His leadership bridges institutional transformation and socially conscious innovation and entrepreneurship—from the academy to the global arena.
A native of Washington, DC, Dr. Hunt is an Ordained Elder in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church, and since 2011 has served as Senior Pastor of Epworth Chapel United Methodist Church in Baltimore, MD, and also currently serves (since 2020) as the supervising pastor of the Beloved Community Cooperative Ministry, comprised of three urban congregations in the Greater Baltimore area. Additionally, he serves as the connecting pastor of the Northwest Baltimore (Sankofa) Ministry HUB, which is comprised of 12 United Methodist churches.
He is the founder, CEO, and Principal Coach/Consultant of New Horizons Coaching and Consulting. New Horizons focuses on consulting for non-profit and religious organizations in the areas of strategic mission/visioning, turnaround and scalable growth, catalytic/transformational leadership development, and catalytic leadership/life coaching for non-profit and religious leaders.
Dr. Hunt is also the founder and Program Director of Hope for the City: Transforming Urban Leaders (TUL), a Baltimore-based Transformational Development collaborative with the Ministry in the City HUB at City Seminary of New York and the Lilly Endowment. As the TUL Program Director, Dr. Hunt is responsible for overseeing planning, design and implementation as the project aims to develop transformational leaders to serve in urban ministry contexts. Since 2022, he has been an invited member of the Ministry in the City HUB, a national collaborative of urban ministry teachers, practitioners, thought leaders, and social entrepreneurs, based at City Seminary of New York (https://epworthchapel.org/hope-for-the-city-transforming-urban-leaders/). He is also the Founder/Convener of the Baltimore-based Beloved Community Affinity Working Group, and the Leading Wholeness: Resilient Leadership in Times of Crisis and Change Working Group, also in collaboration with the Ministry in the City HUB, City Seminary of New York.
He previously served as the District Superintendent of the Baltimore Metropolitan and Baltimore-Harford United Methodist Districts in Central Maryland, as Executive Director of Hope for the City - an urban initiative to strengthen congregations and communities in Baltimore, as Executive Director/CEO of the Multi-Ethnic Center for Ministry of the United Methodist Church, headquartered in Columbia, MD, as Program Director of the Center for Community Action and Social Justice at American University's Kay Spiritual Life Center, Washington, DC, and as Dean of Haebler Memorial Chapel and Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Goucher College, Towson, MD. In 1999, Dr. Hunt was a part of the founding team and faculty of the United Methodist Pastor's School at Africa University in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa.
Additionally, he is a Professor of Systematic, Moral and Practical Theology, and a core faculty member at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore where he has taught since 2000. For the 2003-4 and 2007-8 academic years, Dr. Hunt was named the Dunning Distinguished Lecturer in recognition of excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. In 2008, he was named a Permanent Dunning Distinguished Lecturer in recognition of ongoing excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. This is the highest distinction bestowed on a faculty member of the Ecumenical Institute. He is a teaching Fellow with the Ecumenical Institute's National Civic Engagement and Moral Leadership Fellows program. He is Professor of Practice, Black, and Wesleyan Studies at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA, and is also a Faculty Fellow and the E. Franklin Frazier Professor of African American Studies at the Graduate Theological Foundation in Sarasota, Florida. Additionally, he teaches on the core partner/adjunct faculties at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, Bethel Theological Seminary and University in St. Paul, MN, and United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH where he founded and is the Director/Faculty Mentor for the “Enacting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Beloved Community” Doctoral Focus Group, along with serving as a Research Analyst for the Doctor of Ministry program. At Wesley Theological Seminary, he has served as acting director of the Urban and Missional Fellows Program and (2016) and the Community Engagement Fellows Program (2023), and he is the creator and faculty for Wesley Seminary's "Retracing the Steps of Freedom" Civil Rights Doctoral Immersion in Alabama and Atlanta, GA.
A graduate of the University of Maryland (BA in Economics, with concentrations in Econometrics and Applied Mathematics, with Honors, Black Honors Caucus Scholar, Maryland Senatorial Scholar, and Other Races Fellow), he holds advanced degrees from Troy University (MBA, with a concentration in Management), Wesley Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity, with Honors, and Wesley Merit Fellow, with a concentration in Systematic Theology), St. Mary’s Seminary and University (Graduate Certificate in Spiritual Theology, Kellogg Foundation Fellow), Bethel Theological Seminary and University (Doctor of Ministry in Transformational Leadership, with Distinction), and the Graduate Theological Foundation, in affiliation with the University of Oxford, UK (Doctor of Ministry in Applied Ministries and Pastoral Care, and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Theological Studies with concentrations in Philosophical Theology and Ethics). Completed in 2001, his Ph.D. dissertation was titled "The Search of Peaceful Community: A Theological Analysis of the Thought of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr." The doctoral dissertation was published in 2005 as Blessed are the Peacemakers: A Theological Analysis of the Thought of Howard Thurman and Martin
Luther King, Jr. (Wyndham Hall Press).
Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 2001, Dr. Hunt was selected and completed a 3-year Henry Luce Foundation-sponsored post-doctoral Fellowship at the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, NJ, where he focused on the study of Howard Thurman and the Black Church. He has also completed post-graduate studies at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK (Oxford Executive Leadership Programme), the University of Oxford, UK (Philosophy), Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (Professional & Executive Development Certificate of Leadership Excellence in Executive Development), and the Institute of Certified Professional Managers, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA (he holds the credential of Certified Manager). He has completed training in Executive Leadership Coaching Strategies at the Harvard Extension School. He has also completed training in CoActive leadership coaching with the CoActive (Coach) Training Institute, San Rafael, California, and the Life Coaching Certification Program with the Life Coaching Institute, Costa Mesa, CA (currently the Certified Life Coach Institute). Both of these programs are International Coach Federation (ICF) accredited. He holds the credential of Certified Professional Life Coach.
He is a Distinguished Military Graduate of the U.S. Army Officer's Candidate School, Fort Benning, Georgia, has served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and as a Military Chaplain, and completed clinical residencies in pastoral counseling at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC (1990) and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD (1995). He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the American Philosophical Association, the Oxford Philosophical Society, and the National Black MBA Association.
In recognition of his leadership and contributions to the church, community, and academy, Dr. Hunt holds the rare distinction of being twice inducted into the College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA with induction into the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers in 2019 and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars in 2024. Among numerous other honors and recognitions, in May of 2015, Dr. Hunt was the Commencement speaker and was inducted as a Faculty Fellow of the Graduate Theological Foundation. This is the highest distinction bestowed on a member of the Foundation's international faculty. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Society of John Wesley Award of Merit and inducted into Wesley Theological Seminary's Society of John Wesley, which is the highest honor bestowed on an alumnus of Wesley Seminary. In 2017, he received the Baltimore Faith Leaders Award from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Delta Lambda Chapter. He is a 2023 recipient of By Faith Magazine's Drum Major Award for national leadership and advocacy in social justice, and in 2023 he was also the recipient of the Dr. James Shopshire Community Engagement Award from Wesley Theological Seminary's Community Engagement Institute.
Dr. Hunt has lectured and preached extensively across the United States and internationally, and has been featured in Black Enterprise Magazine, By Faith Magazine, the United Methodist News Service, and on National Public Radio, among other national media outlets. He is the author of 19 books and over 250 articles, chapters, essays and peer-reviewed academic papers on issues related to the church and society, and has been a regular content contributor to several national publications, including Leading Ideas (Lewis Leadership Center, https://www.churchleadership.com/category/leading-ideas/) and By Faith Magazine (Black Methodists for Church Renewal).
His ongoing teaching/research interests include intersections of Transformational/Prophetic/Ethical Leadership, Systematic Theology, Urban Theology, Philosophy, Ethics, Economics, Peacemaking, Africana Studies, Black Church Studies, the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., Howard Thurman, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Henri Nouwen, Church Growth, Multiculturalism, and World Religions.
