President & Senior Leader

[email protected] 
(317) 250-0855 - The AfricaLogical Institute 

Ivan Douglas Hicks has served as the Pastor of First Baptist Church North Indianapolis for 25 years. His congregation has served the same neighborhood in the Near Northwest Quadrant of core Indianapolis, Indiana for more than 138 years.  
​
Dr. Hicks holds a Ph.D. from the College of Social Sciences in African American Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The early purveyor of the scholastic discipline Afrocentricity, Molife Kete Asante, was Dr. Hicks’ major professor and dissertation chair. Dr. Hicks established a consulting firm in Washgington, D.C. prior to being awarded his Ph.D. from Temple in 2003. The AfricaLogical Institute, now at Purdue University, has conducted research projects and undertaken scholar activist missions for more than two decades - so far. 

Dr.. Hicks is a Co-Investigator on a team of scholars currently - 2023-2025 - conducting a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation commissioned Health Equity Study, a follow up to his team's study published in 2019, Health Equity and Urban Congregations. This current study looks to, again now as the Public Health Emergency unwinds, determine and make recommendations for the remediation of racial and structural barriers discovered and identified - that keep black and brown people in Indiana from proportionate health outcomes. Dr. Hicks is an Ethnographer and an intentional emancipatory scholar seeking to uplift and equip those that need equipment most. 

Pastor Hicks is a serial social entrepreneur and founded TheGrindery.Org in 2012 as the first urban business incubator in the urban core of Indianapolis.Dr. Hicks strategcially serves of boards and provides counsel to many individuals and organizations that need clear direction and thought partnership.