2022 Commencement Exercise Program

Commencement Speaker Candidate for the Honorary Degree Doctor of Humane Letters Bishop Marvin Frank Thomas, Sr.

Bishop Marvin Frank Thomas, Sr. was elected the 62nd Bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church on July 1, 2014, at the 37th Quadrennial Session and 38th General Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Presently, Bishop Thomas serves as the Presiding Prelate of the Second Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The areas of his oversight include the states of Kentucky, Ohio, and the Central Indiana Regions. He also serves as the chair of the denomination’s Department of Lay Ministry and is the acting pastor of the Metropolitan Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. His ministerial assignments have also included serving as pastor of Walls Memorial CME Church in Chicago, Illinois, and serving in other capacities as presiding elder in the states of Alabama and Tennessee. He also pastored the Good News Community CME Church in Lithonia, Georgia. Prior to his election as Bishop, he was the seventh president and dean of The Phillips School of Theology, at The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Further, he was the Chair of the Council of Deans and an adjunct instructor. Additionally, his academic experiences have included serving as the Vice President for Student Affairs and as a faculty member in the Department of Religion while at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, and as a member of the faculty and administration at Stillman College. Bishop Thomas holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in History, with a minor in Sociology, from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He also earned the Master of Divinity degree from The Phillips School of Theology at ITC and the Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Bishop Thomas is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He is the second of six children born to Mrs. Minnie Thomas Brown. Bishop Thomas has two adult children, Ms. Kourtney Lea Thomas and Mr. Marvin Frank Thomas, Jr., and has one grandson, Kameron.