Rev. Dr. David Childs is Director of Black Studies and Professor of History, Social Studies and Black Studies at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). He is also Adjunct Professor and Chair of Black Church Studies at Temple Bible College and Seminary in Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Saint Joseph University. He earned two Masters’ degrees and a Ph.D. from Miami University of Ohio. He also earned his Doctorate of Divinity from Temple Bible College and Seminary.

Dr. Childs has been an ordained clergyman for 20 years. He was ordained both as a Baptist minister and in the Church of God in Christ under the late Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson. He currently pastors the historic First Antioch Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio (Est. 1882). He hosts a weekly Christian radio program on a variety of stations. Dr. Childs is an international scholar and has done work at such places as Washington, DC, San Francisco, California, Mexico City, Vancouver, Canada, Oxfordshire, England, Paris, France and Liberia, Africa. He is a prolific writer and author, having published over 170 articles in academic journals, books, blogs, and encyclopedias. He published his doctoral dissertation as an e-text in 2009 on the history of African American education and the black church grounded in Black liberation theology. Dr. Childs wrote a historical fiction novel entitled Escaping from Home: A Novel about Slavery and Freedom. He writes a regular column for Cincinnati’s local NPR station (WVXU) entitled Democracy and Me on civics, diversity, social studies education, and history. He is currently working on another book entitled Uncovering a Hidden Curriculum: Teaching and Learning Black History and Culture, scheduled to print in 2024 that will be published by the University of Kentucky Press.

Rev. Dr. Latimore has over twenty years of pastoral experience. He most recently served as the sixth Senior Pastor of the Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He has also served as Senior Pastor at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church (Joliet, IL), the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church (Gainesville, FL), the Southern Union Baptist Church (St. Louis, MO), and has also served the First Calvary Baptist Church (Durham, NC) as Senior Associate Minister. Rev. Dr. Latimore was licensed into ministry by Bishop Paul S. Morton at Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church (New Orleans, LA).