Leadership

J. Matthew Pinson is Welch College’s fifth president, having served in that office since 2002. A native of Pensacola, Florida, he attended Welch College in the 1980s and went on to graduate from the University of West Florida with a B.A. in humanities and M.A. in history.

President Pinson received his Master of Arts in Religion from Yale University, where he met his wife Melinda, a North Carolina native who was a graduate student at Yale. They were married in the summer of 1994 and began a pastorate in South Georgia. While there, he engaged in doctoral studies in history at Florida State University, and Mrs. Pinson managed a historic hotel and restaurant. The Pinsons have two children: Anna and Matthew.

After assuming the presidency of Welch College, President Pinson completed his doctorate in higher education leadership from Vanderbilt University. He is the author or editor of numerous articles and books, including Perspectives on Christian Worship (B&H), Four Views on Eternal Security (Zondervan), A Free Will Baptist Handbook (Randall House), Classical Arminianism (Randall House), and Arminian and Baptist (Randall House).

Matthew McAffee serves as Provost at Welch College and teaches in the area of Biblical Studies for the School of Theology. His M.A. and Ph.D. are from the University of Chicago in Northwest Semitic Philology. He is also a graduate of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and Welch College (B.A.).

He has published articles and book reviews in such journals as Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Journal of Biblical Literature, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and Bulletin for Biblical Research. He is author of Life and Mortality in Ugaritic: A Lexical and Literary Study (Eisenbrauns, forthcoming) and co-author of Going Deeper with Old Testament Hebrew (B&H Academic, forthcoming).

He has ministered in Free Will Baptist churches in Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois, and Canada. He is married to Anna, with whom he has five children (Abigail, Lydia, Samuel, Marianne, and Jonathan Isaac).

Kevin L. Hester was named the Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness in 2017 following six years of service as the Director of Institutional Planning and Assessment. In this role he oversees all institutional and academic assessment and institutional planning in order to insure fidelity to mission and attainment of institutional goals. Dr. Hester also serves as the institutional liaison to Welch College’s accrediting bodies the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the Association for Biblical Higher Education Commission on Accreditation. He regularly serves as a peer evaluator for both accrediting bodies.

Dr. Hester is the Chairman for the Commission for Theological Integrity for the National Association of Free Will Baptists. He is a 2019 Presnell Fellow of the Executive Leadership Institute of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association and serves as an editor for the Biblical Higher Education Journal.

Dr. Hester has served as Professor of Theology since 2003 and Dean of the School of Theology since 2016. A graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1997) and Saint Louis University (Ph.D., 2002), Dr. Hester regularly teaches classes on Christian theology. Notable published works include: Free Will Baptists and the Priesthood of Believers (Nashville: Randall House Publications, 2010); and, Eschatology and Pain in St. Gregory the Great: The Christological Synthesis of Gregory’s Morals on the Book of Job. (London: Paternoster, 2007).

An Alabama native, he now resides in Gallatin, Tennessee with his wife Leslie (Hampton) Hester. They have four sons: Spencer, Seth, Justin, and Jackson.

Dr. Greg Ketteman is the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Professor of Education, and Graduate Dean of Education at Welch College. A 1977 Welch graduate, Dr. Ketteman earned the M.Ed. degree at Middle Tennessee State University in 1981 and the Ed.D. degree at Tennessee State University in 2005.

He is a Nashville native whose experience in the field of education includes 15 years of teaching and 14 years as a principal in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School system.

His wife Jill and their two children, Jack and Emilee, are also graduates of Welch College. Dr. Ketteman is a member of Cross Timbers Free Will Baptist Church (Nashville) where he has served as a deacon, music director, and Sunday school teacher. His father, the late Paul J. Ketteman, was the first student to arrive at the college in 1942, and later worked 25 years for the college.

Daniel Aaron Webster serves as Vice President for Administration and Student Engagement at Welch College. He joined the College in 2016 and provides leadership in campus operations, enrollment, and student life, cultivating a cohesive and mission-driven experience for students and employees.

He earned the Ph.D. in Church Music and Worship from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2025. Daniel also holds master’s degrees in theology and church music from Maranatha Baptist University and a master’s degree in biblical studies from Virginia Beach Theological Seminary. His primary research interest is early Christian music and its formative role in the life of the church.

A native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, he has served as pastor and associate pastor in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee since 2003 and currently serves at Immanuel Free Will Baptist Church in Gallatin, Tennessee. He is the author of several academic journal articles, has written for D6 Family Ministry, and serves on the Music Commission of the National Association of Free Will Baptists. Daniel and his wife, Kimberly, have three children.

Todd Parrish has served as Vice President for Institutional Advancement since July 2022. He and his wife Merinda are Welch College alumni. Merinda serves as Welch’s Clinical Coordinator for Teacher Education. They have two daughters. Emily and her husband, Zach Vickery, live in Chapmansboro, Tennessee, where Zach pastors the Oaklawn Free Will Baptist Church. Ellen Stox and her husband, Kevin, live in Albany, Georgia, where Kevin serves as Youth and Children’s Pastor at First Free Will Baptist Church.

Todd graduated from Welch College in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in Church Music and a minor in Christian Education. He holds a master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from Webster University and a master’s degree in Theology and Ministry from Welch College. Currently, he is working toward his Doctor of Educational Ministry degree at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Todd and Merinda came to Welch in January 2018 after pastoring for many years in North and South Carolina.

Matthew Bracey serves as the Vice Provost for Academic Administration. He also teaches courses in history, law, theology, and interdisciplinary studies, and he coaches cross country. Matthew holds degrees from Cumberland School of Law (J.D.), Beeson Divinity School (M.T.S.), and Welch College (B.A., History, Biblical Studies). He completed his Ph.D. studies in Christian Ethics Public Policy with a Christian Philosophy minor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2024.

He is a co-founder and Senior Editor of the Helwys Society Forum (thehsf.com). He has written a number of scholarly articles in journals such as the Biblical Higher Education Journal and Integrity: A Journal of Christian Thought, as well as popular articles in publications like The Brink Magazine, FUSION, and ONE Magazine. In addition, he has contributed chapters to The Promise of Arminian Theology (Randall House Academic), which he also co-edited, and Sexuality, Gender, and the Church: A Christian Response in the New Cultural Landscape (Welch College Press).

Matthew and his wife Sarah live in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. They attend Sylvan Park Free Will Baptist Church, where they serve in multiple capacities.

Board of Trustees

REV. JOSUE SUAREZ
Pastor, Ebenezer Free Will Baptist Church
Miami, FL

REV. CHRIS TRUETT
Pastor, Bethel Free Will Baptist Church
Kinston, NC

DR. FRED YERBY
Family Physician
Fayette, AL