Biography: Rev. Dr. Michelle Laws

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Rev. Dr. Michelle Laws

Rev. Dr. Michelle Laws is a much sought after preacher, skilled public speaker and seminar presenter on women’s issues, human rights, and social justice. She has presented and preached extensively spreading messages of self-empowerment, faith and hope in God’s transformative power and restorative grace throughout the US and abroad.

Professionally, Rev. Dr. Michelle Laws is a consultant specializing in health disparities research and health communications and promotion program development and evaluation with a particular focus on improving health outcomes for poor and African American women and children. Rev. Dr. Laws’ theology is rooted in her upbringing in the United Holy Church and is greatly influenced by teachings from the master theologian and preacher Rev. Dr. William Turner, Jr. and her pastor Rev. Dr. Kenneth Ray Hammond, Sr. Pastor at Union Baptist Church in Durham NC where she serves as an ordained associate minister.

Comparing her courage and commitment to social justice to that of the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm, Dr. E. Lavonia Allison (long-time civil rights fighter and chair-emeritus of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People) once characterized Mrs. Laws as “unbought and unbossed.” She attributes her political prowess to her spiritual mother, the late Senator Jeanne Lucas, the first black woman to serve in the North Carolina senate and Dr. E. Lavonia Allison the chair emeritus of the legendary Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.

Rev. Dr. Michelle Laws’ distinguished professional career also includes serving as the former Executive Director of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP (2014-2016); a college adjunct professor where she taught undergraduate sociology courses at North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University and in federal and state prisons; legislative liaison for the NC Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services. She is also an entrepreneur and the former CEO and Senior Associate for MACLaws & Associates and founder and owner of Christian Tees, Inc.

Despite a rewarding and distinguished professional career, Rev. Dr. Michelle Laws says her greatest rewards stem from her work as a minster devoted to helping to heal and restore broken and battered lives to a meaningful and transformative faith in El Elyon—the Most High God, through the teachings Jesus Christ. Rev. Dr. Laws believes that no matter how dark the path, God’s love, mercy and grace are sufficient to cast out the darkness and light the way. She knows through her life’s experience that there is absolutely nothing too hard for God. Her life’s guiding principles are lessons taught by the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and nobler life.” And Jesus Christ: “When I was hungry, you gave Me food; thirsty, you gave Me drink; a stranger you took Me in; naked, you clothed me; sick, you visited me; and in prison you came to Me…inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren you did it to Me.”

Rev. Dr. Michelle Laws believes that one of the greatest tragedies of social progress is for people to ascend the social and economic ladder and forget those who are left behind by ignoring the plight of the poor and less privileged. Her service to the community has won her several prestigious awards and honors including the 2016 Ebonettes “Dare to Make A Difference” Community Service award’ 2010 NAACP President’s Award for Outstanding Leadership; 2010 Women on the Move award from the Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP; 2010 Woman of Distinction Award; and the 2009 WCHL Village Pride and 2009 Indy Award.

Rev. Dr. Laws is a native of Chapel Hill, NC and holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Arts Degree in Sociology from North Carolina Central University (Magna Cum Laude graduate) and a PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the Department of Health Behavior and Policy, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine (Phi Kappa Phi honor inductee). Rev. Dr. Michelle Laws is married to Mr. Karl Quintin Laws, also from Chapel Hill, and a man whom she proclaims is “one of the best God created.”