Rev. Mark Whitlock is a contributing writer for the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. He is the pastor of Reid Temple AME Church, Glenn Dale, Maryland.

Whitlock previously served as the executive director of the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, where he helps other pastors take on the work of community and economic development. Before his full-time call to the ministry, he served as the founder and executive director of FAME Renaissance, the economic development arm of First AME Church, which raised more than $400 million in grants, loans, and contracted service initiatives that created more than 4,000 jobs with South Los Angeles. The FAME Renaissance Venture Capital Fund and Commercial Loan programs funded more than 200 small businesses. FAME Renaissance’s Home Loan Program created more than 200 new home owners and trained more than 2,000 home loan candidates. Rev. Whitlock was a board member and lecturer at Harvard Divinity School’s Summer Leadership Institute from 1994 to 2004. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of La Verne with a major in religion, and he has a master of science in social entrepreneurship from University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He received an honorary doctorate from American International University in Humanities.