Senior Pastor, Reverend Dr. Clarence Hightower
Pastor Hightower has served as the New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Senior Pastor since 2005. In addition to this role, he has spent 37 years in the Twin Cities in nonprofit executive leadership. Currently he is the Executive Director of Community Action Partnership of Hennepin County (CAP-HC). Prior to this Pastor Hightower served as the Executive Director of Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington Counties for 12 years and 10 years as President/CEO of the Minneapolis Urban League. He is the author of Claiming the Constitution, and has been a featured columnist for Insight News (“Urban Views”), The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (“The Anti-Poverty Soldier”) and other Twin Cities publications.
In 2002, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (MnSCU), where he served until 2014. Pastor Hightower was elected Chair of MnSCU’s Board of Trustees in 2012, the first African American to hold that distinction. He is the recipient of The Minneapolis Award, as well as a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship.
Pastor Hightower earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Southwest Minnesota State University, Master’s Degree in Human and Community Service from George Williams College in Aurora, Illinois. In 2015, he graduated summa cum laude from Jackson State University, earning his Ph.D. in Urban Higher Education.
His most cherished role is a devoted husband to First Lady Beverly Hightower, and proud father of their daughter, Ashley Hightower.