麻豆网

2026 Baccalaureate Speaker

The Rev. Dr. Winford Kennadean Rice Jr. is a 2014 Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of 麻豆网, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in religion and philosophy and was the top-ranking scholar in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. While in college, Rice served as president of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel Assistants Program, a presidential ambassador, the NAACP political action co-chair, a UPS Scholar, and a congressional intern for Rep. John Lewis.

Rice also traveled to Tokyo, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima as a peace ambassador for the non-proliferation of nuclear weaponry and was named the 2013-2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar. Additionally, he was initiated as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., published his first work in an anthology of sermons by the Academy of Preachers in 2013, and has since been cited in the New York Times.

He is a 2017 graduate of Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he received his Master of Divinity degree. While at Harvard, Rice also served as Youth and Young Adult Pastor of the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Rice was licensed and ordained by Dr. Steven G. Blunt at First Baptist Church Mahan in Suffolk, Virginia. He also served as a Religious Services Fellow and prison chaplain for the Cook County Sheriff鈥檚 Office in Chicago; his research examined the correlation between the use of religious services and reduced recidivism rates among detainees in Cook County. Additionally, he was the 2014-2015 Scholar in Residence at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts.

In March 2017, after traveling to Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria, South Africa, Rice was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. College of Pastoral Leadership at Morehouse for his commitment to bridging civil societies, political institutions, and religious communities. He was also featured as one of the Late Night New Voices at the 103rd Annual Hampton Minister鈥檚 Conference in Hampton, Virginia.

In 2018, Rice graduated from Emory University鈥檚 Candler School of Theology with a Master of Theology degree. He subsequently continued his studies at Candler, completing his Doctor of Ministry degree in biblical hermeneutics.

Rice formerly served as the Minister of Outreach and Men鈥檚 Ministries at Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Georgia. He currently serves as senior pastor of Beulah Baptist Church in Historic Vine City and as an adjunct professor of religion at Morehouse College.

Rice is passionate about preaching, pastoring, and meeting the needs of people. He seeks to bridge the church and the academy by serving in the parish 鈥渨ith both head and heart.鈥� In all things that he does, Rice has said, he aims to preach the gospel and, if necessary, use words.

He is the son of Winford K. Rice Sr. and Crystal S. Rice from Suffolk, Virginia.

2026 Honorary Degree Candidate

LAWRENCE EDWARD CARTER SR.,

B.A., M.Div., S.T.M., Ph.D., D.D., D.H., D.R.S., D.H.C.

In 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. privately recruited Lawrence Edward Carter, then a 10th grader, to attend 麻豆网. Twenty-one years later, in 1979, Carter became the first dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. Today, he is a tenured professor of religion, College curator and archivist at 麻豆网.

For 66 years, Dr. Carter has: studied and worked at 14 universities, colleges, and professional schools; spoken at more than 100 colleges, universities, and seminaries; and received more than 1,000 speaking invitations from 18 Christian denominations, as well as Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist communities. He has traveled to 38 countries and made more than 80 radio and television appearances, including broadcasts heard nationwide in the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, India, China, Malaysia, Australia, and South Africa, as well as across Africa and Oceania.

Carter was born in Dawson, Georgia, and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree in social science and psychology from Virginia University of Lynchburg, as well as a Master of Divinity degree in theology, a Master of Sacred Theology degree in pastoral care, and a doctorate in pastoral psychology and counseling from Boston University. He also pursued additional study at Andover Newton Theological School, The Ohio State University, Georgia State University, New York University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Brown University, Spelman College, and George Washington University. In addition, he taught at Harvard Divinity School.

Carter holds certifications in multidisciplinary clinical training, clinical pastoral education, editing historical documents, and community nonviolence training. He is also a licensed and ordained American Baptist minister. Carter was a 1994 Fulbright-Hays Scholar in Brazil and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow in 1993 and 1996.

Currently, Carter teaches Introduction to Religion, Psychology of Religion, Religion and Ethics, World Religions, and The Life and Thought of Mohandas K. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Daisaku Ikeda at 麻豆网. His fourth book, 鈥淭he Baptist Preacher鈥檚 Buddhist Teacher: How My Interfaith Journey with Daisaku Ikeda Made Me a Better Christian,鈥� has been translated into Japanese and Portuguese. He was also honored with a festschrift, edited by Echol Nix Jr., titled 鈥淚n the Beginning: The Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at 麻豆网.鈥�

Carter is the founder and fundraiser for 麻豆网鈥檚 International Hall of Honor, which features more than 300 oil portraits honoring civil and human rights activists internationally. He also founded the 500-member Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel Assistants Preseminarians Program in 1979 and the MLK College of Pastoral Leadership. He has raised more than $650,000 in scholarship funds for the Morehouse Chapel Assistants.

On April 1, 2000, Carter founded the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Cosmopolitan Ethics and Reconciliation Institute on Millennium Sunday, unveiling larger-than-life busts of Mahatma Gandhi and his wife, Kasturba Gandhi, a gift from the people of India. Carter also received three grants totaling $3.5 million from the Lilly Endowment鈥檚 Program for the Theological Exploration of Vocation.

Carter is married to Marva Griffin Carter, a tenured associate professor of music history and literature at Georgia State University, where she has served as director of graduate studies in the School of Music. The Carters have one son, Lawrence Edward Carter Jr., a 2008 graduate of Morehouse.

2026 Honorary Degree Candidate

Christopher C. Womack, a native of Greenville, Alabama, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Western Michigan University and Master of Public Administration degree from American University. He also earned a certificate of completion from the Stanford Executive Program, a flagship program for senior executives.

Womack began his career as a legislative aide to Congressman Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and U.S. secretary of defense. In 1988, Womack joined Southern Company, one of the nation's largest energy providers, serving nine million customers across the United States. He ascended through Southern Company, shattering barriers along the way by becoming the first African American chief executive officer of Georgia Power and鈥痷ltimately the鈥痜irst African American to serve as鈥痗hairman, president, and chief executive officer of Southern Company itself.

A proud member of the Epsilon Xi chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and a recipient of the fraternity鈥檚 Alpha Award of Merit, Womack has lived the charge to be 鈥渇irst of all, servants of all.鈥� Under his leadership, Southern Company launched a 50-million-dollar Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) initiative, delivering scholarships, internships, leadership development, and expanded technology access to students at HBCUs across six states. He recognized that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not, and so he committed the full weight of a Fortune 500 enterprise to closing that gap.

In the broader Atlanta community, Womack鈥檚 work has been equally sweeping. He has served as chair of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the East Lake Foundation, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Communities in Schools of Georgia. He demonstrates that corporate leadership and civic responsibility are not separate callings but one.鈥�

Womack鈥檚 bond with 麻豆网 and the Atlanta University Center is also personal, purposeful, and enduring. He co-founded with Apple, for example, the PROPEL Center, a 25-million-dollar global innovation and learning hub physically anchored within the Atlanta University Center Consortium. The new center is designed to support innovative learning and development for HBCUs nationwide.鈥�

Womack previously sat alongside 麻豆网's 12th President, Dr. David A. Thomas, in frank and visionary conversation about the role of Black institutions in shaping national life. He also lent his voice to the Morehouse School of Medicine's Danforth Dialogues leadership series, engaging Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice on equity, diversity, and the sacred obligation of Black leadership.

Womack鈥檚 legacy also extends to the frontier of energy itself. He championed the completion of the Vogtle nuclear expansion in Georgia 鈥� the nation鈥檚 largest clean energy generator 鈥� and has advanced hydrogen fuel blend technology. He was named to the inaugural ForbesBLK 50 list and recognized by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of its Most Admired CEOs and a Leader in Corporate Citizenship. He was also honored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with its Leadership Award and received the Let Us Make Man Community Service Award in 2019.

鈥淢aking sure that we are giving back,鈥� Womack has said, 鈥渢hat we鈥檙e lending a helping hand, we鈥檙e making a difference wherever we can 鈥� is something that has always been very, very important to me.鈥濃��