Meet Our Pastors

rev. dr. gabby cudjoe wilkes

Rev. Dr. Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes is a 3rd generation preacher, pastor & innovation strategist. She travels the country both coaching leaders and preaching the gospel. Her work bridges the lanes of faith, culture, strategy & leadership.

Dr. Gabby is the Co-lead Pastor of the Double Love Experience Church in Brooklyn, New York as well as The Inaugural Director of The Technology, Innovation & Digital Engagement Lab at Union Theological Seminary in The City of New York. Her book, Psalms for Black Lives: Reflections on the Work of Liberation has sold more than 10,000 copies, worldwide.

Dr. Gabby’s work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Essence Magazine, and Forbes. A thought leader in the public square, Dr. Gabby’s voice as a public theologian has shown up on film in project’s such as HBO/Own’s A Time of Essence, Dr. Henry Louis Gates’ Black Church documentary for PBS, This is Our Story, This Is Our Song, & The Smithsonian’s, gOD-Talk documentary. She was a recurring on-air segment host for two years on the nationally syndicated radio show, Get Up Mornings with Erica Campbell.

Dr. Gabby is the recipient of numerous awards including, citations & commendations from New York State Senator Leroy Comrie, The Guy R. Brewer Religious Leader Award in Queens, NY, The Woman of Excellence Award from Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, The Charles Mersick Preaching Prize from Yale Divinity School and more.

Prior to launching Double Love, Dr. Gabby served for five years as an associate pastor at The Greater Allen Cathedral of New York under the direction of Reverends Drs Floyd & Elaine Flake.

Dr. Gabby is a proud graduate of Hampton University, New York University, Yale University and Duke University. She is the current president of the Yale Divinity School Alumni Board and a member of the prestigious Morehouse College, Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers. She serves as the Chaplain to both her local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated as well as The North Atlantic Region of The Hampton University Alumni Association. She is married to her college sweetheart, Rev. Dr. Andrew Wilkes.

Learn more about Dr. Gabby at www.gabbycudjoewilkes.com

REV. DR. ANDREW WILKES • pastor

Rev. Dr. Andrew Wilkes is the Co-Founding, Co-Lead Pastor of the Double Love Experience Church & the Chief Policy + Advocacy Officer at Generation Citizen, a national civics education organization that prepares students & young people for informed, democratic participation.

Wilkes is also the former Associate Pastor of Social Justice & Young Adults at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York (GAC), where he served on the pastoral staff for five years.

He is a bi-vocational, ordained minister who has built his career & calling around a dual commitment to community development, spiritual formation & economic justice.

Rev. Willkes successfully defended his dissertation in the PhD program in political science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, where he also served as a Graduate Teaching Fellow at City College of New York.

He’s the recipient of several awards including: Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Advocacy Award; New York Theological Seminary’s Micah Onstitute Courage Award; the Guy R. Brewer Distinguished Leadership Award & more.

Rev. Dr. Wilkes is a public speaker & writer for multiple national outlets including The Guardian; Stanford Social Innovation Review; The Washington Post, The Huffington Post & Sojourners Magazine. He’s also a published author whose initial work is entitled Freedom Notes: Reflections on Faith, Justice and The Possibility of Democracy.

He resides in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Rev. Dr. Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes. Together, they co-authored the recently published work, Psalms for Black Lives: Resources for the Work of Liberation. Rev. Wilkes is also the author of Plenty Good Room: Co-Creating An Economy For All.

In 2015, Rev. Dr. Wilkes began his post as Executive Director of The Drum Major Institute (DMI), an organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which carries forward the social change legacy of King by promoting economic justice, dismantling structural racism & advancing civil rights.

Under his tenure, DMI executed public affairs events in Dallas, Texas & Washington D.C. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. To execute the companion events, Rev. Wilkes’ team mobilized DMI principals Ambassador Andrew Young, Martin Luther King III, & Rev. Dr. James Forbes, along with the executive leadership of Values Partnership; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; NAACP & the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

Rev. Dr. Wilkes also established the Beloved Community Initiative, a national resource on spirituality and social justice for faith communities & relaunched the nationally renowned Marketplace of Ideas Forum— a forum for bringing progressive policy ideas to an audience of activists, policy professionals & nonprofit leaders.

Following his tenure at DMI, he now serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State, the Black Mountain School of Theology and Community & the Institute for Christian Socialism, where he serves as the incoming co-chair.

A native of Atlanta, GA, Rev. Wilkes is a proud graduate of Hampton University & Princeton Theological Seminary. At Hampton, he co-started a campus wide Bible Study that clarified & consolidated his call to Christian ministry. In 2005, he was licensed to preach the liberating, love-powered Gospel of Jesus the Christ. In 2007, his graduating year, he preached the senior sermon at Hampton University’s historic Memorial Chapel.

At Princeton, Rev. Wilkes received the Edler Garnett Hawkins Award for Scholastic Excellence. In seminary, he developed an intertwined passion for public service & congregational ministry.

His decision to work in the first administration of Newark, New Jersey Mayor, Cory Booker for his field placement distinguished him from his colleagues. While colleagues were serving in churches, Rev. Wilkes followed his calling by merging his faith with social policy issues in the nonprofit & public sectors.

Rev. Dr. Wilkes was later hired as a consultant for “Fathers Now,” a division of Cory Booker’s “Newark Now.”

He then pursued the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs in New York City where he worked with various NYC companies including the NYC Department of Small Business Services; the Brooklyn Navy Yard; Edelman PR’s Public Affairs division, & more.

As a Senior Grants Manager at The American Red Cross, Rev. Wilkes oversaw a $45 million budget for Superstorm Sandy recovery in New York state & Connecticut.

Before that, he engaged 140 faith communities as the Faith & Community Relations Associate at Habitat for Humanity New York City.

In 2018, Rev. Wilkes completed his tenure as Associate Pastor of Social Justice & Young Adults at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York. In that capacity, he launched a social justice initiative called Micah 6:8, which calls for faith communities to initiate civic renewal by pursuing justice, compassion & peacemaking within our society.

You can reach him on Instagram & Twitter (X) through the following handle: @AndrewJWilkes.