Office of the Interim President

Parnell M. Lovelace, Jr., PhD, DMin.

Dr. Parnell M. Lovelace, Jr. serves as the Interim President of Jessup University. He is described as a strategist, communicator, teacher, thinker, and progressive leader. He serves as a mentor and friend among multitudes of pastors, trans-denominationally. The merging of his spiritual journey and that of social science has served to facilitate an approach that reaches and embraces the disenfranchised, the poor, the youth, the elderly, the marginalized, and people of all communities. He is held in high esteem regionally and globally for his character, integrity, and life-transforming teachings. Reared in Sacramento, CA, he planted the Center of Praise Ministries in 1989.

His educational accomplishments include an Associate in Arts Degree, American River College; Bachelor of Arts in Social Work, Oral Roberts University; Master of Arts in Social Work, University of Oklahoma; Master of Arts in Practical Theology (High Honors), Oral Roberts University; and a Doctor of Ministry, Talbot School of Theology (Biola University). He earned his PhD in Intercultural Studies at the Cook School of Intercultural Studies, Biola University (2021). He is an inductee of the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. International Board of Preachers and Collegium Scholars at Morehouse College (2012). He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including being presented the Key to the City of Rancho Cordova for his leadership in facilitating the development of the innovative Rancho Cordova Youth Center.

He is the author of several journal articles and a well-received book on pastoral succession, Set it Up: Developing Leaders for Healthy Churches. He has served as the North American editor for the Great Commission Research Journal, an academic journal devoted to research and scholarly thinking. Prior to his appointment as Interim President, he served as Vice President of Community at Jessup University and he is a senior fellow with the American Leadership Forum.

He is married to the lovely Lady Dianna (Richardson) Lovelace. They are the proud parents of a son and a daughter, and grandparents of one granddaughter.