We recently connected with Dr. Jay Augustine and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Jay Augustine, thanks for joining us today. Have you ever had an amazing boss, mentor or leader leading you? Can you us a story or anecdote that helps illustrate why this person was such a great leader and the impact they had on you or their team?

When you hire good people, there’s never a reason to micromanage. Trust your hire to do what you believed they could do, or would do, when you hired them!

Years ago, much earlier in my career, I had two great bosses who most certainly fit this bill. Immediately after graduating from Tulane Law School and being admitted to the bar, I was as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Bernette Joshua Johnson, the first African American to serve as chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Years later, after having successfully practiced law, while also holding publicly elected office and teaching law, I was appointed by Louisiana’s 55th governor to serve as deputy executive director at the Louisiana Workforce Commission (the former Department of Labor), where I had the honor of being second-in-command to Curt Eysink, the Workforce Commission’s executive director.

Working for Justice Johnson was such an influential part of my professional development. Not only did the 1-year judicial clerkship experience propel me to amazing success in the legal profession, as both a practitioner and professor, but learning from her trusting, hands-off leadership style also taught me how to show people you trust their instincts as a means of engendering confluence and motivating them to excel.

Working under Curt was also an amazing experience because, as his trust in me grew, so did my public visibility as the Workforce Commission’s representative. I testified during legislative committee hearings, accepted speaking engagements around the entire state, and did lots of TV and radio interviews. Curt gave me complete trust and I gave him, and the Department, complete loyalty. Although those experience were both earlier in my career (before I accepted the call to ordained ministry and began serving as a pastor) both of those bosses still have a significant impact on how I lead and manage my professional relationships. They were both amazing people to work for and I was blessed to learn “people skills” from them. “You ALWAYS get more flies with honey than with vinegar.” They were both exemplars of this time-honored axiom.

Dr. Jonathan C. Augustine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a pastor. I have the awesome responsibility of leading the social justice-oriented faith community known as St. Joseph AME Church. I’m an author. Over the last two years, I had two books published, When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit (Fortress Press, 2023) and Called to Reconciliation: How the Church Can Model Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion (Baker Academic, 2022). I’m also a professor. I have taught at Southern University Law Center, Jarvis Christian University, North Carolina Central University Law School, and remain a member of the consulting faculty at Duke University Divinity School, where I also serve as a member of the Board of Visitors and as a missional strategist with the Center for Reconciliation.

I have a rare blend of practical and academic experiences that make me an effective communicator and motivator. They also influence my leadership and have given me multiple perspectives in problem solving. As a multidisciplinary practitioner and scholar, I have successfully litigated cases in state and federal courts and even filed a brief, in a major voting rights case, before the US Supreme Court. I have also been a very successful law professor who has written academic articles published in many journals. Moreover, in addition to teaching at Duke Divinity School and supervising students in independent research, I have also excelled as a pastor. After serving two smaller congregations in Louisiana, I successfully led Historic St. James AME Church (1844) in downtown New Orleans, the oldest predominately Black and Protestant church in the city. Just before the church’s 175th anniversary in 2019, I was appointed to serve St. Joseph AME Church (1869) in Durham, North Carolina, as it was preparing for it’s 150th anniversary.

I live by my faith, work ethic, and absolute determination.

My professional success was also made possible by academic preparation. After graduating from St. Augustine High School, in my hometown, New Orleans, I earned an economics degree from Howard University, along with an active duty commission to serve as an infantry officer in the United States Army. After four years of decorated service, I returned to New Orleans to earn my law degree from Tulane University. After I was called to ministry, I fully embraced the philosophy that, “A calling to preach is a calling to prepare,” and earned a Master of Divinity degree from United Theological Seminary. After a fellowship at Princeton Theological Seminary, I later earned my Doctor of Ministry from Duke University.

Have you ever had to pivot?

There is an old saying that goes, “If God brings you to it, God will also bring you through it!”

While living in South Louisiana, back and forth between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, not only was a going through a very difficult personal time, my entire life was turned upside down by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. My home was destroyed and it felt like all was lost . . . “But God!”

As a child I learned that the only way to make a diamond, is to put presume on a piece of coal. The pressure made my shine, after the flood waters receded away. In the wake of Katrina’s destruction, I bought a new home, expanded my law practice and began teaching law, just before a revelation of peace came to me that was my call to ministry . . . . “But God!”

Now, years and years later, in addition to serving as a pastor and nationally recognized interdisciplinary scholar and social justice advocate, I also serve as an elected member of the AME Church’s Judicial Council, the denomination’s Supreme Court. There is NO WAY I would have ever been able to foresee being where I am now, based on where I was. That’s why I say again . . . “But God!”

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I am deeply happy where I am, as a law and religion scholar and social justice advocate. If I could go back and redo an ordering, however, maybe I would have started divinity school earlier, even doing a joint degree program, like a Master of Divinity and law degree. That would have saved me at least a year of school, before beginning doctoral studies. I affectionately almost cringe in responding to the question, however, because although that would have been “my plan.” God took me on a path that WAS NOT a straight line for a reason. Having said that, indeed, I might have done some things differently, but because I did them in divine order, I am absolutely content with the way God’s plan is unfolding!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jayaugustine.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayaugustine9
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jayaugustine9B91
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-augustine-47863833/

Image Credits
Photo Credits: Davenport Photography