Our Keynote Speaker
Rev. Michael L. Atty
Rev. Michael Atty is the National Organizing Manager for Faith Communities for the Children’s Defense Fund. He previously served as Executive Director of United Congregations of Metro-East, and a national organizing trainer for the Gamaliel Network. He is a licensed and ordained minister. Rev. Atty served as a youth minister at Trinity Mount Carmel for 15 years, currently serving on the ministerial staff at The Antioch Baptist Church in the Ville neighborhood of St. Louis, MO. He is the Lead Servant of the Social Justice ministry.
After working in corporate America for many years previously at IBM, he began working as a community organizer for Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) in St. Charles County. He worked with local clergy and laypersons to address structural racial disparity in education, policing and housing in the community. Rev. Atty worked with and helped found North City Citizens Action Network (NCCAN) to work towards better community policing in north St. Louis city.
He worked in the Metro-East Illinois communities of East St. Louis, St. Clair, and Madison counties. Leading the way in southern Illinois to major legislative wins in transformational justice ending money bail in Illinois and environmental racism with the passage of the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) the most progressive environmental justice legislation in the country. He now works for Children’s Defense Fund organizing faith communities around policy and issues of child well-being at local, state, and national levels.
Michael has a Master of Business Administration from Webster University. He completed his Master of Divinity degree in 2016 at Eden Theological Seminary. His focus was pastoral care for marginalized communities and education ministry. In Rev. Atty’s current vocation, it is his earnest desire to seek justice for all persons who find themselves at the margins. His personal faith-belief is that God wants the best for the lives of all human beings.
He believes in organizing that transforms the lives of people by focusing on caring for the least of these in our community and society. Rev. Atty believes that structures of racism, classism, sexism and any other ism that creates marginalized groups is the work of evil in the world. These structures need to be dismantled and people of faith are particularly placed in the world to effect change on these systems to bring about the beloved community.