Biography for D. Anthony Everett, BS ORM, MDIV, DMIN

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Social Entrepreneur / Public Theologian / Prophetic Activist

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Reverend Dr. D. Anthony Everett (he, him, ours) is the executive director of Mission Behind Bars and Beyond, Inc.Links to an external site., an ecumenical, faith-based 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate every community across the Commonwealth of Kentucky to welcome, support, mentor, and equip returning citizens with the tools to successfully re-enter society.  He is passionate about faith, justice, leadership, social entrepreneurship, and well-being/wellness.

Dr. Everett’s personal mission is to lead Mission Behind Bars and Beyond Inc. as a social enterprise that transforms Kentucky communities impacted by mass incarceration.  Dr. Everett has a vision of building and leading a movement of prophetic activists who empower and mobilize marginalized and oppressed people for holistic social transformation.  He is also an ordained elder of the United Methodist Church.  He served as associate director for African American Ministries for the Kentucky Conference and pastored churches from Lexington to Dallas, Texas, and Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Everett graduated magna cum laude from Paul Quinn College in Dallas receiving a B.S. degree (2004) in Organizational Management.  He received an MDiv degree (2008) with the Certificate in Urban Ministry from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, also in Dallas, where he was a Seminarians for Worker Justice Intern with Interfaith Worker Justice.  Dr. Everett earned a DMin degree (2020) from United Theological Seminary (UTS) in Dayton, Ohio as a fellow of the Prophetic Preaching and Praxis Walker/Cummings Cohort.  He is also the founder and faculty mentor for the “Prophetic Activism: From the Cross to the Community” Doctoral Cohort at UTS in conjunction with The Centre for Prophetic Activism of which he is also the founder and president.

Dr. Everett is an advocate for the human rights of oppressed and marginalized Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).  His advocacy and faith led him to support sentencing and criminal justice reform legislation in Kentucky and nationwide, including legislation seeking voter enfranchisement of citizens who were previously incarcerated, the abolition of for-profit prisons, and the transformation of the mass incarceration / criminal punishment complex.  Dr. Everett has written op-eds on criminal injustice, has held prayer vigils to bring to light the issue of voting rights for returning citizens, and has been repeatedly interviewed on issues of faith and politics.  He was a panelist for a discussion on the film “Suppressed: The Fight to Vote” hosted by the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church and hosted a premiere showing and discussion on the film “Just Mercy.”

Dr. Everett served as a representative from the Kentucky Council of Churches to the initial Kentucky Smart on Crime Coalition.  He was an avid supporter of the Takeback Cheapside Movement which successfully removed two Confederate statues from public property in Lexington, Kentucky.  He has made numerous presentations before church, civic, and collegiate bodies on topics of interest ranging from racial justice, mass incarceration, voter disenfranchisement, civil and human rights, LGBTQAI+ discrimination, and the Movement for Black Lives.

A 2010 Leadership Kentucky graduate, the Honorable Governor Steven Beshear appointed Dr. Everett for two terms to the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights as an at-large member where he served as vice-chair.  Governor Beshear commissioned him with the title of Kentucky Colonel, Kentucky’s highest title of honor bestowed in recognition of an individual’s noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to the community, state, and nation.  In consideration of Dr. Everett’s contributions to the Lexington community in areas of interfaith, fairness, justice, and inclusion, the Honorable Mayor Jim Gray of Lexington declared April 23, 2018, Reverend D. Anthony Everett Day in Lexington.

Prior to ministry, Dr. Everett transitioned from the role of an executive with over 19 years from EDS Corporation (now HP Enterprise), a global information technology services company where he serviced accounts in Flint, Michigan as well as Dallas and the corporate headquarters in Plano, Texas.  During his tenure, he served as a loaned executive to the United Way of Genesee County and a volunteer executive director for the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation.  He provided in-kind services as the EDS Project Manager for the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation School of Adaptive Computer Training of Atlanta, Georgia and raised over $1.5M for the program.  He volunteered as an AMACHI Program Mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, a program that mentors children of incarcerated parents.  Under his leadership, Project Alpha, a teenage male pregnancy program sponsored by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, reached the Dallas County Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center and over 300,000 households in the Dallas Metro Area.

Aside from activism, corporate, and academic life, Dr. Everett enjoys family time, music, comedy, audible books, podcasts, and exercising.  He is a light-middle weight, three-time gold-medal National Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Association champion and received the volunteer of the year award from the Urban League of Greater Flint for his outreach to neighborhood children through a free program teaching Tae Kwon Do.

Born in Washington, D.C., Dr. Everett is married to American Spiritual Ensemble soprano soloist, Dr. Angelique Clay Everett, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky School of Music and native of Louisville, Kentucky.  The Everetts are an empty nest, blended family with four adult children and one grandchild.

Contact information/email: daeverett@prophetic-activism.org ~phone: +1 (502) 214-5338~Twitter: @DrEverett.~ Facebook: @DrAnthonyEverett.

 

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