Dr. Kornegay provides executive-level management, development, and implementation of faith-inspired innovation strategies in technology, politics, government, community development, education & religion. Dr. Kornegay has over 27 years of experience in organizational development and urban transformation.

As a Faith Leader, Dr. Kornegay has over twenty-five years of experience encountering, teaching, and motivating marginalized youth, young adults, and non-traditional adult learners in an urban context, urban ministry programming, community organizing, and socio-literacy advocacy. Dr. Kornegay has worked with several faith-based/ & social justice organizations, most notably the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education, Center for African American Theological Studies (CAATS), R.I.S.E. Reentry at Living Word Christian Center, The Joseph Center/Joseph Business School and Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions. He offers critical insight into the planning, development, and implementation of programming designed to assist in the promotion of transformational action in education, faith, and justice reformation. He has done notable work with transforming reentry and faith praxis maximizing the ability of those impacted by detention/incarceration to flourish in the 21st century.

As a Scholar, he is described as a “premier interdisciplinary theological philosopher, whose ability to think multiple identity perspectives along with profound commitments to liberation excites and motivates [people] to think in new ways about their own understandings of identity, history, literature, and meaning in relation, especially to gender and race.” He is a preeminent scholar of James Baldwin, black theology & society. His critically acclaimed book, Queering Black Theology: James Baldwin's Blues Poetics and Gospel Prose remains an essential text for understanding the misgivings of James Baldwin's contribution to black theology and interpretations of black Christian thought. His theological canon is thought-provoking and widely used in the interrogation of categories of race, religion, and gender. He also founded(2012-2015) the Baldwin-Delaney Institute for Academic Enrichment & Faith Flourishing to address social issues faced by black male youth & the black community writ-large. He is a former Dissertation Fellow for the Fund for Theological Exploration; Fellow for the Center for the Study of Black Faith and Life, and Harvard Divinity Seminar. He is a former member of the American Academy of Religion and the Society for the Study of Black Religion.

As a Software Developer, Dr. Kornegay is a tech entrepreneur and founder of FaithCloud Concepts, LLC. (www.faithcloudconcepts.com). His company creates app-based software solutions for logisctical ecosystems related to reentry and beyond. Dr. Kornegay combines Full Stack development with his expertise in linguistics, vernacular significations, hermeneutics, semiotics, and socio-cultural religious amplification to produce innovative software solutions and product development.

Dr. Kornegay is a distinguished graduate of the Chicago Theological Seminary, and the first African American male to earn a Ph.D. (Theology, Ethics & Culture w/Distinction) in the nearly 200-year history of that institution. It should be noted that Dr. Kornegay shares this distinction with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was given his first honorary degree by Chicago Theological Seminary in 1957. Dr. Kornegay received his Master of Divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary, Master of Sacred Theology from Chicago Theological Seminary, and Bachelor of Arts in Professional English from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. He also earned a certificate in Graduate Theological Urban Studies from the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education, a Ministerial Training Diploma from Living Word School of Ministry, and a Certificate of Completion as a Certified Software Developer from Bethel School of Technology.

Dr. Kornegay currently serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Poverty Solutions at the Illinois Policy Institute. He oversees and directs the formation of partnerships with direct service organizations to exchange ideas about the best ways to empower people to overcome poverty.

He served his country as a United States Marine and is married to Vada Kornegay and father of four children: Eddie III, Taylor Denise, Anthony, and Taylar.

EL Kornegay, Jr. PH.D.

FAITH for INNOVATION