Dr. Forrest E Harris, Sr. is the new President of American Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition, he is the Director of the Kelly Miller Smith institute on African American Church Studies and Assistant Dean for African American Church Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. As Assistant Professor for the Practice of Ministry at Vanderbilt, Dr. Harris teaches courses in the area of Church Community and the Theology of Ministry in the Black Church tradition.

Dr. Harris holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from Knoxville College, a Bachelor of Theology (Th.B.) degree from American Baptist College, Master of Divinity (M. Div.) and Doctor of Ministry (D. Min.) degrees from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where he was a Benjamin E Mays Fellow and recipient of the Florence Conwell prize for preaching.

Dr. Harris is the son of Mr. And Mrs. WT. and Sallie Mae Harris of Memphis, Tennessee. He has a twin brother, and seven other sisters and brothers.

From 1971 to 1979, Dr. Harris was a Federal Compliance Officer with the Energy and Research Development Administration, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. As a senior compliance officer, Dr. Harris received a Special Achievement Certificate Cash Award for negotiating a $1.2 million affected class remedy for minorities and females in the Southeast United States.

In 1975, Dr. Harris resigned his position with the federal government to respond to a call to prepare for the Christian preaching ministry. In the subsequent years ending in 1982, Dr. Harris commuted between Nashville and Oak Ridge to complete his seminary training.

While a seminary student at Vanderbilt, Dr. Harris pastored the Oak Valley Baptist Church, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. During his pastorate in Oak Ridge, Dr. Harris brought together several community organizations and founded the Oak Valley Development Corporation. He also served a three-year term as president of the Oak Ridge Branch of the NAACP. From 1985 to 1987, as an instructor at Roane State Community College, Dr. Harris initiated a Black Studies curriculum and coordinated social outreach programs and special events for Roane State.

Since 1988, Dr. Harris has been a member of the faculty and the Director of the Kelly Miller Smith Institute on the Black Church at Vanderbilt Divinity School, which now has a 1.2 million dollar endowment. Through the institute at Vanderbilt, and with grants from the Lilly Endowment and the Pew Charitable Trusts totaling over 1.3 million dollars, Dr. Harris coordinated a national ecumenical dialogue on "What Does It Mean to be Black and Christian?" Over 12,000 people participated in this national discussion resulting in the publication of two - What Does It Mean to be Black and Christian? Pulpit, Pew and Academy in Dialogue, Townsend Press, 1995; and What Does It Mean to Be Black and Christian? The Meaning of the African American Church

African American Church, Townsend Press, 1997. Also supported by foundation grants, Dr. Harris was instrumental in establishing a black church history and preservation project resulting in the establishment of a Black Church Historian Society in Nashville.

In addition to several journal articles, Dr. Harris also is the author of Ministry for Social Crisis: Theology and Praxis in the Black Church Tradition, Mercer University Press, 1993. Dr. Harris received a journalism prize, cash award from The Journal of Intergroup Relations, National Association of Human Rights Workers for his article, "South Africa Beyond Apartheid," The Journal of Intergroup Relations, the National Association of Human Rights Workers, Fall 1993.

As a member of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, Dr. Harris traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa in 1993, and as a member of the Human Rights Commission, World Baptist Alliance, traveled to Hong Kong, China, Vancouver, Canada, and Duban, South Africa where he delivered papers on topics related to human rights, global and ethnic conflict.