Community Leader, Educator, Activist, and Empowerment Strategist

Program Title: Welcome To Already

Reverend S. Todd Yeary is the Senior Pastor of The Empowerment Fellowship of Logan Street Baptist Church in Batavia, Illinois. He also serves as the Assistant Director of the Center for Black Studies at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, teaching in the areas of African Studies, Psychology and Religion. Additionally, Pastor Yeary acts as a consultant to organizations dealing with change in an era of fewer resources through his company R.E.A.L. Initiatives, Inc. Yeary also spent 13 years as an air traffic controller with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Yeary holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from National-Louis University, a Master of Divinity Degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, the Graduate Certificate in African Studies from Northwestern University, and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the area of Religion in Personality and Society at Northwestern University. His travels and research are centered in Ghana, West Africa, focusing on the relationship between traditional African values and African American reality.

A third-generation preacher/pastor, Pastor Yeary serves the faith community of Logan Street as the seventh pastor in its 84-year history. He emphasizes visionary leadership that demonstrates excellence in community service and promotes the building of long-lasting institutions for coming generations. Pastor Yeary promotes knowledge and love of self and community.

Rev. Yeary’s interests include mentoring youth and young adults, community activism, and the development of processes of productive transformation for oppressed people. He accomplishes this through serving as 2nd Vice-President of the Young Adult Men Department of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, as a member of the Civil Rights Commission of that same body, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Two Rivers Head Start. Additionally, he has served as Regional Director and National Moderator of the African American Male Empowerment Summit™, an organization committed to the revitalization of African American manhood for the 21st century.

Yeary is currently writing two books – “Welcome to Already”, and “From Point Seven to Ph.D.”

Pastor Yeary is the father of two children – Robert, 9 and Simone, 8.