2015 Opening Celebration
Rev. Traci deVon Blackmon’s sermon on Acts 16 capped a powerful and moving Opening Celebration which acknowledged the difficult issues around mass incarceration and systems of exploitation.
Video
Keynote Preacher: Rev. Traci deVon Blackmon
NOTE: Due to copyright restrictions, videos of the full Opening Celebration will not be provided.
Keynote Speaker
Reverend Traci deVon Blackmon is the proud Pastor and Teacher of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO. Initially ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Reverend Blackmon served in various capacities of ministry for 9 years, prior to becoming the 18th installed and first woman pastor in the 159 year history of Christ The King United Church of Christ. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Birmingham – Southern College (1985) and a Master of Divinity degree (2009), with coursework emphasis in Womanist Liberation Theology, from Eden Theological Seminary.
Additionally, Traci serves as Coordinator of Healthy Mind, Body, Spirit for BJC HealthCare. Healthy Mind, Body, Spirit is a faith-based outreach program designed to impact health outcomes in zip code areas with large health disparities through collaboration with community and faith-based outreach programs. As a licensed Registered Nurse with over 35 years’ experience in health care, Reverend Blackmon has served the community in a variety of professional positions.
In collaboration with The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Rev. Blackmon has developed an outreach initiative designed to reach the uninsured and underinsured members of our community who are most in need of preventative health services. She is the founder of the Sista SOS Summit, an annual intergenerational symposium designed to assist women and girls toward spiritual and sexual wholeness, and Sacred Conversations on Solomon’s Porch, quarterly clergy in-services designed to better equip local clergy to identify physical and spiritual health concerns within in their congregations and themselves.
Reverend Blackmon was the lead organizer of Souls to the Polls, an ecumenical transportation outreach that was successful in providing over 1,800 rides to the polls during the Presidential Election. As a certified diversity trainer for National Conference for Community and Justice, The Anti-Defamation League and The Praxis Group LLC, an organizational development company, she has created and facilitated capacity building workshops on such complicated issues as racism; sexism; heterosexism; classism; interfaith dialogue; congregational and communal grief.
Reverend Blackmon is a graduate of Leadership St. Louis, and has served on several local boards such as St Louis Effort for AIDS; The Kidney Foundation; The Minority Business Council; and The St. Louis Black Rep. Currently, she serves on the founding Board of Directors for Magdalene House St. Louis, and the Advisory Board of The Behavioral Health Network. Her early and prominent response to racial tensions in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown, Jr, earned Rev. Blackmon an appointment to the Ferguson Commission. She is also the recipient of The President’s Volunteer Service Award from the White House, St. Louis University Community Leader of the Year, Drum Major Award from The Coalition of Black Trade Unionist, NAACP St. Louis County Rosa Parks Award, and several others from local organizations.
Reverend Blackmon is the proud mother of three adult children: Kortni Devon; Harold II; and Tyler Wayne Blackmon, as she currently resides in Florissant, MO.