The Reverend Edwin C. Sanders, II, is the Senior Servant and Founder of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church (established 1981) in Nashville, Tennessee. This congregation attracts a broad cross-section of people with the mission of being “inclusive of all and alienating to none.” Metropolitan has outreach ministries in the areas of substance abuse, advocacy for children, sexual violence, and harm reduction, and since 1984 has provided services to persons infected with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS with the First Response Center being founded in 1992.
Rev. Sanders received the Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Wesleyan University in 1969. His professional life began as Co-Director of Wesleyan’s African American Institute. He later served on the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees; in 2014, received the Wesleyan University Distinguished Alumnus Award; and, in 2019, was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. He pursued graduate studies at Yale University and Vanderbilt University Divinity Schools.
In Nashville, Tennessee, Rev. Sanders has served as Pastoral Counselor for the Meharry Medical College Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program, Director of the Southern Prison Ministry, and Dean of the Chapel at Fisk University.
Rev. Sanders is an emeritus member of the Board of Directors of the Black AIDS Institute, a member of the Interdenominational Ministers’ Fellowship and the Ryan White Community AIDS Partnership, a life member of the NAACP, and served as a Commissioner for the Tennessee Human Rights Commission. Appointed to the CDC Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention during the Clinton Administration, he served five years on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS during the Bush Administration. He also served as co-chair of the National Syphilis Elimination Working Group and was involved with the Obama Administration White House Office on AIDS in implementing the National AIDS Strategy. Rev. Sanders presented at the International AIDS Conferences in Switzerland, South Africa, Canada, Austria, the Netherlands and the United States, and at the AIDS Vaccine 2011 Conference in Thailand.
Rev. Sanders serves on the Boards of Directors of The National Minority AIDS Council, The Drug Policy Alliance, and Project Return addressing recidivism and mass incarceration. He is the National Coordinator of Religious Leaders for a More Just and Compassionate Drug Policy. He was the first Chair of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) Legacy Project Advisory Group which is designed to increase the participation of African Americans and Latinos in HIV vaccine studies and is presently an Ambassador for the HVTN. Currently he serves on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Scientific Advisory Board, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Board of Directors, and is Project Director for COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) Faith Community Engagement.
