ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

Dr. Constance Simon is the middle child of the late Ebie and Johnsie Banks, of Middletown, Ohio. Dr. Simon holds a B.S. in Elementary Education and an M.Ed in Supervision and Curriculum from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, respectively. At the age of thirty, she earned her Doctorate in Administration and Supervision from Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1987. In June 2011, Dr. Coni, as she is affectionately called, earned her Master of Divinity from the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, Mi. Presently, she is a Jeremiah A. Wright scholar at McCormick Theological Seminary. With over thirty years of experience in public, private, Higher Education, and Christian Education teaching and administration, she stresses the importance of education as a liberating force for all people.

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Professionally, at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, she is the Director for the Doctor of Ministry program, former Special Assistant to the Academic Dean, and she teaches Christian Education, Worship, and Womanist Theology. Dr. Simon is presently the Associate Conference Minister for the Detroit Metropolitan Association, United Church of Christ, which serves the twenty-plus churches in the Detroit Metropolitan Association. Additionally, she has served on the Board of Directors for the Michigan Conference, as well as a member of the Church and Ministry Committee and the UCC’s Michigan liaison for the Detroit Metropolitan Association Linking Board. In 2019 Dr. Simon was selected to represent the Michigan Conference to lecture and preach in Germany as a part of an ongoing international partnership.

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Dr. Simon retired as the first African American female principal in a State of Michigan correctional facility. She was also the youngest African American female Division Chair over the five departments in the School of Education at Tougaloo College in Mississippi.

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With research as one of her specialties, she has taught quantitative and qualitative analysis at Tougaloo, Jackson, Mississippi, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, and Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia.

Presently, she teaches a weekly viral Sunday school lesson that airs on YouTube and the Fellowship Chapel web site. She will represent the Michigan Conference, UCC as an ecumenical partner for their viral International Pentecostal Sunday Service in Germany. In 2019 she held the Urban Ministries VBS Training; speaker for the Little Rock Baptist Church Fall Christian Education Conference; speaker for The Social Justice Symposium for the Baptist Youth and Young Adult Conference; Invocation speaker for Jackets for Jobs and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Foundation; speaker for the Women’s Retreat in Midland, Mi. Women’s day preacher at Carter Memorial, CME; She was honored to be one of the keynote presenters for the Commemoration of the Shrine of the Black Madonna’s 50 year Presentation of the Black Madonna and Child; she was the Keynote Speaker for the Detroit Metropolitan Women’ Conference; keynote speaker at the University of California, University of Wisconsin and Brown University on the topics of Education, Human Resource Management, Organizational Management, Grant and Proposal Writing, and Christian Education. She has written grants, books, training manuals, and published in journals.

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Dr. Coni has been active in church all of her life. Getting her start as Sunday School secretary in High School and she has also taught children and adults in Sunday School, Bible Study, developed workshops, training sessions, coordinated VBS programs, organized conferences, and prayer breakfasts for Christian educators willing to work for God. Presently, at Fellowship Chapel, Dr. Coni is a Sunday School teacher, past Sunday School Superintendent, developed and Instructed Fellowship Chapel's Bible Institute Teacher's class, and a member of the Official Board. Fellowship Chapel's Christian Education Department consists of Tot's Assembly (infant care), Children's Church, Sunday School for all ages, 10 Bible Study classes held very morning, except Wednesday and every evening except Saturday, the Scholarship Committee, Girl Scouts, Senior High Youth Group and the Youth Coordinating Council. She is also on the Church and Ministry Committee and a Board Member for the United Church of Christ.

In 2010 she was the recipient of the Rev. Wendell Anthony Pastoral Scholarship, and in 2009 she was awarded a scholarship from the Korean Churches of Detroit. Dr. Simon has been an active participant in the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Program at the St. Francis Retreat Center, Dewitt, MI. In 2010/11, she was part of the Emotional Intelligence training under Dr. Jackie Bahr-Hinkle and Dr. Roy Oswald.

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Dr. Coni is the widow of the late William G. Simon, her best friend. Her surrogate children are Tremaine Radcliff, Cassie Rankin, and Charles Fobbs, who are also members of Fellowship. The Simons also have two rambunctious dogs, Homes and Muckett. She enjoys cooking, writing, reading, and boating in her spare time. She lives by the mantras of her parents. From her father: "if I can help somebody along life's way, then my living shall not be in vain" and from her mother: "When the Great Scorer comes and writes beside your name, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you played the game."

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Love abundantly, Dr. Coni

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