Keith L. Magee
With a charge in life to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, Keith L. Magee is an internationally sought-after theologian, social justice and poverty scholar. He is an Honorary Distinguished Senior Fellow on Race, Religion and Poverty, University of Birmingham England, where he is researching “Justice for the Poor: Social Justice vs. Prosperity Gospel and the Impact on the Poor.” He is also a Visiting Scholar on Religion and Poverty at Boston University.
Dr. Magee served for five years as the founding director of the National Public Housing Museum and Center for the Study of Housing and Society in Chicago. He successfully led a $13 million capital campaign to open the Museum and Center, which is committed to being a living cultural experience on social justice and human rights. He took the appointment after serving as senior religious affairs advisor with the Obama for America campaign and as a senior director at the Museum of African American History-Boston and Nantucket.
His studies have taken him through the prestigious halls of Ohio University, University of Pennsylvania, London School of Oriental and African Studies, Georgetown University, Grace International College, and Harvard Divinity School. He was conferred the doctorate of theology degree, also additional training in psychology and economics.
Rooted in the Methodist tradition, Dr. Magee’s ministerial calling has led to leadership as pastor of Berachah Church, Boston, MA and as resident seminarian of Mount Carmel Church and minister of summer programs for Northminister Presbyterian Church, both of Washington, DC. He has served on the White House African American Clergy Network and chair of the Massachusetts Council of Chaplains for Governor Deval Patrick. He is also the senior faith and politics advisor to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).
Additionally, Dr. Magee is passionate about providing humanitarian aid to children and families throughout the world, especially in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Soweto and Johannesburg, South Africa. He is co-founder of Abba House, created for children infected and affected with HIV/AIDS. He has worked with Drs. Paul Farmer and Peter Drobac, to develop a chaplaincy model for hospitals in Rwanda. He also serves on the board of directors of the Sankofa Justice and Equity Fund, founded by Harry Belafonte. He is a patron of the Co-ED Foundation in the United Kingdom and serves on the board of advisors of the Anti-Defamation League-World of Difference Institute. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a member of the International Association for Religious Freedom, American Academy of Religion, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, American Historical Association and American Association of Museums. He was inducted into the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiums of Scholars. Additionally, he is founder of the Multicultural Dyslexia Awareness Initiative at Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.
He is a life member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., having served on the fraternity’s national board of chaplains, Guide Right Commission, the board of directors for Metropolitan Kappa Foundation and as nominating committee chair for the fraternity’s Boston Alumni Chapter.
Dr. Magee, who equally divides his time between the United States and United Kingdom, is scheduled to release A Prayer For Our Children in August 2014.
website: www.keithmagee.com