Reverend Wallis C. Baxter III, PhD serves as the Senior Pastor of the Second Baptist Church (formerly of Southwest DC) in District Heights, MD. He is Vice President of Academic Affairs at Maple Springs Baptist Bible College and Seminary and an Academic Research Fellow at the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis. He received the Bachelor of Arts Degree from Morehouse College in 2006, majoring in English. He received the Master of Divinity Degree from Duke Divinity School in 2009 and a PhD in African American Literature from Howard University in 2017. He is the author of several articles and book chapters. His book length publications include Phillis Wheatley as Prophetic Poet: You Must Be Born Again (May 2022) and co-editor of Preaching During a Pandemic: Sermons from the Black Preaching Tradition (March 2023). 

Currently, Rev. Baxter serves as co-chair of the Constitution Committee of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., a Board Member with both the Baptist Convention of DC and Vicinity and the DC Baptist Convention. He is a past President of the Langston Hughes Society and founding President of Helping Hands of Maryland CDC, Inc. He is married to Dr. Shayla Atkins Baxter, and they are the parents of one son, Elijah.