Pastor Michael O. Minor, EdD

Dr. Michael O. Minor is a nationally recognized champion of faith-based health and wellness mobilization. Widely known as the “Southern pastor who banned fried chicken in his church,”he has spent more than 30 years advancing community empowerment, nonprofit development, and faith-centered public health initiatives. As an anointed and prolific Gospel preacher, he serves as the undershepherd of The Hill-Hernando Baptist Church in Hernando, Mississippi. His thought‑provoking writing appears regularly in the Sunday School Publishing Board (SSPB) Baptist Informer, and he recently published two impactful books: Post‑Pandemic Christian Leadership and A Commentary of Jonah.

Dr. Minor also serves as the Southwest Region 1 Coordinator for the SSPB of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (NBCUSA), helping Christian Education congresses across Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Germany ensure biblically sound curricula and well‑trained staff. 

His Christian education leadership extends further: president of the Mid-South Churches Cooperative Conference Baptist State Convention, co-chair of the National Faith-Based Mobilization Network(Faith MoNet), and National Director of the H.O.P.E. Health and Human Services Partnership of the NBCUSA—the nation’s largest Black religious denomination. A published researcher, he has advised numerous health-related initiatives including the American Cancer Society’s National Advisory Council on Health Equity, the SSPB National Advisory Committee, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Panel on Outreach and Education, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services National Faith and Community Coalition.

A respected national voice for faith and health, Dr. Minor has been featured across major media platforms including The New York Times, Reuters, NPR, ABC, NBC, Fox News, and international outlets. Guideposts Magazine profiled him in 2012, and Cooking Light Magazine named him one of 20 national food heroes in its November 2012 issue. He was later highlighted in In Search of the Movement: The Struggle for Civil Rights Then and Now (2015) as part of a new generation of civil rights leaders in health equity.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Minor has strengthened congregational health and wellness through his leadership with the Rising Sun Usher Federation/H.O.P.E. Ministry, where he edits a comprehensive annual guide centered on wholeness. He continues to champion the development of health ministries nationwide, promoting trained lay health educators (“ambassadors”) as catalysts for sustainable change. 

His mobilization efforts gained national visibility through his work with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative. After participating in its 2010 Mississippi launch, he received multiple White House invitations to events celebrating the program’s success. Since 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded his church and statewide collaboratives—Get Covered Mississippi, Healthy Kids Mississippi, and Healthy Together Mississippi—more than $7 million to support health coverage outreach, education, and enrollment across the state.

Dr. Minor holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University; master’s degrees in business administration and real estate development; and a doctorate in higher and adult education from the University of Memphis. He has served as both a tenure-track and adjunct professor at several educational institutions and remains committed to ongoing professional development and primary research. He was recently co‑principal investigator for a nearly $7 million NIH All of Us Research Program grant (Project Number 1OT2OD031918‑01).

He is married to the former Lottie Bennett and is the proud father of three children—B., NyKiya, and NyTasha—and grandfather to Akira and Journey.