Jimmie R. Hawkins serves as Director of Advocacy for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is the author of Unbroken and Unbowed: A History of Black Protest in America and The Shaping of Black Identities. He has also written for Call to Worship, Presbyterian Outlook, and Focus Magazine. Hawkins has served on the boards of Church World Service, the National Council of Churches, National Religious Campaign against Torture, National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and as a tri-chair of the Washington Interreligious Staff Committee. An ordained clergy member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he holds an MA from Union Presbyterian Seminary and a MDiv from Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary, and is the recipient of the 2024 Union Presbyterian Seminary Alumni of the Year award.