Meet our Team!

In January 2025, we said farewell to our dynamic co-pastor team, Rev. Veronica Johnson and Rev. Sarah Lusche, who are moving on after shepherding us through an eventful six years (Dec. 2018-Jan. 2025). Rev. Frank Walton served as our intentional interim minister in 2025. We are overjoyed to begin 2026 with Rev. Dr. Joel Mitchell as our senior minister.

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Rev. Dr. Joel Mitchell
​Senior Minister

Rev. Dr. Joel Mitchell accepted the call to serve as the minister of Hyde Park Union Church at the start of 2026. An ordained and licensed minister, Pastor Joel also has a three-decade career in social services. In addition to working with youth-in-care, at-risk teens, and individuals impacted by mental illness and HIV/AIDS, he served for over 15 years as Deputy Commissioner with the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services. In that role, Rev. Mitchell oversaw the City of Chicago’s six Community Service Centers, which offered a wide range of human services to over 30,000 low-income individuals each year, and led the Department’s Workforce Division, which had a budget of over $10 million and funded over 100 delegate agencies.

Rev. Mitchell also serves as the Executive Director for EMMAUS, one of the few organizations in the nation that provides services for boys and young men who are victims of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

Pastor Joel was licensed to the Gospel Ministry at Mount Hermon M.B. Church in Chicago in 2002. He went on to study at McCormick Theological Seminary, where he obtained a Master of Theological Studies in 2010 and a Master of Divinity in 2013, and was ordained at Saint John Church-Baptist in the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. In 2018, he earned a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Care and Counseling from Chicago Theological Seminary. From 2020-2025, he pastored Morgan Park American Baptist Church.

Rev. Mitchell shares his life, love and ministry with his beautiful wife of 23 years, Rev. Dr. Naomi Mitchell. Pastor Naomi has her own extensive resume, with a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Pastoral Care & Counseling from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry in Homiletics from the Association of Chicago Theological Schools, and co-pastored Morgan Park American Baptist Church.
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Together they have been blessed to raise three wonderful young adults, a set of 22-year-old twin sons, Jasper Caleb and Jacobi Israel and a 20-year-old daughter, Sidni Joi and a Golden Retriever, Maximillion Nicolas Mitchell.

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Elikem Fiase
Director of Music & Office Administrator

Elikem (he/him) has both a BA in Business and a BM in organ performance from Coe College as well as a certificate in organ performance. Originally from Ghana, Mr. Fiase has settled here in Chicago, and we are blessed to have him here at Hyde Park Union Church.

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Norman Cummings
Building Manager

Norman (he/him) is a Chicago native with a penchant for optimism, dedicated hard work in keeping our building running, and Fig Newtons. 

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LaShaun Bryant
Space Sharing Manager

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Qiana McNary
Worship Leader

Qiana (she/her) is a graduate of the Chicago College of Performing Arts where she finished a Master of Music Degree in Voice Performance. She began her vocal studies and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University where she received her Bachelor of Music Degree.

​In the summer of 2007, Qiana furthered her vocal studies at The Italian Operatic Experience in Urbania, Italy.

She has performed in numerous opera and musical theater productions in and out of the country that include, South Shore Opera Company's Chicago premier of Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom (Rittia), Sister Act  (Deloris Van Cartier), Saul and the Witch of Endor (The Witch), Ragtime (Sarah), Working (Maggie Holmes), and premiered a hip-hop opera, Hopera: Chronicles of a Fallen Hero, at the DuSable Museum – Chicago.

​Ms. McNary was not only a National semi-finalist in the Emerging Young Artist competition, but won first place in the district and local rounds of the competition sponsored by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. She is a proud member of Mu Phi Epsilon music honorary and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Currently Ms. McNary is the lead vocalist for her band, The McNary Experience.

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Foster J. Pinkney
Scholar-in-Residence

​Foster (he/him) is a writer, organizer, and doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago Divinity School in the field of Religious Ethics. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, he received his MA in Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Foster studies faith as it is reflected in the formation of value and ethical understandings of communal power. Working from a Christian humanist perspective, he uses Black theology, political philosophy, and Stoicism to reconceptualize the ethical demands of social existence. He is also a member of Hyde Park Union Church. 

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