Rodney McKenzie, Jr. is Vice President of Ally Development at the Fetzer Institute, helping build the spiritual foundation for a loving world.

Listen to hear Rodney speak about the role that the church played in his early years as a place to be seen as fully human. He shares how radical forgiveness supported his journey to understand that he is worthy of love and that in order to attract love, he has to model love for himself. Today, through the Fetzer Institute, Rodney and others are working to transform the world so all can flourish.

Rodney McKenzie, Jr., Vice President, Ally Development, Fetzer Institute

I am an openly gay person of faith, a community organizer, and a reverend. I come to Fetzer from Demos, a “’think-and-do’ tank that powers the movement for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy.” I served there in many roles, most recently as executive vice president leading the organization’s programmatic, movement building, and communications functions. Prior to Demos, I worked at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force—the nation’s oldest national LGBTQ advocacy organization—where my work focused on disrupting the national narrative that LGBTQ people aren’t people of faith and that people of faith don’t support LGBTQ equality and running smart campaigns to win power for marginalized communities. 

Earlier in my career, I co-founded Expansion Church where I served as its spiritual director, regularly preaching on Sundays using a framework of liberation theology. I also served as the executive director of Resource Generation, an organization comprised of 18-35 year olds with access to wealth who are among the richest top 10% of individuals or families in the United States. I currently serve on the boards of the Freedom Center for Social Justice in North Carolina, the National LGBTQ Task Force, and Seek Common Ground. I received my bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas and a master’s degree in divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. I grew up in Dallas, Texas.