The Rev. Dr. Marlon B. Tilghman is an award-winning author for his dissertation Developing A Legacy
Giving Program For The Black Church, presented at United Theological Seminary in Dayton. He has been
featured in news articles and in a health magazine as someone who is conscience about social justice and
healthy living. The Religious Leadership and Diversity Project at Ohio State University interviewed Dr.
Tilghman as a leader in growing multi-ethnic congregations. He has taught at Africa University, in
Zimbabwe for their bi-annual Pastor's School. He also graduated from a cohort of National Leaders in the
Mid-Atlantic Labor Leadership Initiative to support Labor Unions across America.
Rev. Dr. Tilghman has degrees from Howard University School of Architecture, Wesley Theological
Seminary, and United Theological Seminary. He resigned from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an
architect and project manager in 2009. He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps
Reserves as a Staff Sergeant and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He met his best friend and wife
Barbette when they both served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. Together they have three adult sons
and two granddaughters. The foundation of his ministry and community organizing principles is nurtured
in Galatians 6:9 and Proverbs 3:3-6.
Rev. Dr. Tilghman currently serves as the senior pastor of Ames United Methodist Church in Bel Air, MD.
Ames is the oldest African American church in downtown Harford County, and it has served as a beacon
of hope, perseverance, and social justice since 1867. The congregation's mission is to spread the gospel
through family values, education, hospitality, health, and holiness to the glory of God.
