The Reverend Dr. Susan Newman has had a 32-year career as a pastor, a community advocate, a teacher, a chaplain, and author. A native Washingtonian, Dr. Newman is the President of Sincerely Susan, LLC, whichprovides products, services and advice for profit, non-profit and governmental organizations.    She has served as the Director of the Balm in Gilead’s Washington, DC Office, Senior Advisor to the District’s Mayor for Religious Affairs, and is an Adjunct Minister of Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ, an Open and Affirming church in Washington, DC.   Dr. Newman is an inspirational, motivating and humorous speaker whose soul-stirring, thought-provoking insights on healthy relationships from a spiritual perspective have garnered nationwide attention and acclaim. Hailed by Ebony magazine as one of the Top Black Women Preachers in America, Dr. Newman has moved audiences throughout the United States, Switzerland and Ghana to hallelujahs and social action.  She has been called “down-to-earth,” powerful,” “life-changing,” and “a reality check for the church.”

She consults as a Teen Pregnancy and HIV/AIDS Prevention Educator and Trainer, and has worked with several community organizations and faith-based groups, including the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, and Planned Parenthood.  Dr. Newman has served in various advisory roles in the Washington, DC LGBT community.  She is a consultant with Us Helping Us, People Into Living, the Human Rights Campaign, and a former board member of Women In the Life Association. She was appointed by Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ to the DC Task Force on HIV and AIDS.

While in Atlanta, Ga., Dr. Newman served as the Senior Pastor of First Congregational Church, UCC; as Chair for the Mayor of Atlanta’s Commission on Community Relations and the Georgia Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Welfare Reform. She also served as the Executive Director of Georgians for Children, an Atlanta-based child advocacy organization that monitors and recommends changes in Georgia policies that affect children and their families. 
An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Dr. Newman has served as the Resident Chaplain at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC; Adjunct Professor at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where she mentored Doctoral students in The Wheeler-Newman Fellows; as the Religious Coordinator for the Children’s Defense Fund; as the Chaplain and Director of Community Service at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and is a member of the Executive Board of the Ministers for Racial, Social, and Economic Justice, UCC.