Founding Director
Rev. Shelley D.B. Copeland serves as the Executive Director of
The Capitol Region Conference of Churches, a 106-year-old
faith-based non-profit organization serving a regional
network of almost 500 Protestant and Roman Catholic
churches in Greater Hartford. During the last five years, her
organization has planted over 30 ministries in local churches
serving over 12,000 people yearly to strengthen families at
risk.
Appointed by Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, she also serves
as the State of Connecticut’s director of Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives as part of the White House Initiative.
In this role, she and her team of 10 staff provide funding and
consultation services for faith based organizations seeking to
provide ministry beyond the walls. As the Founding Director
of Faith-Based Coaching, a national consulting firm, she
equips faith-leaders for community transformation in some of
the nation’s most impoverished cities. In addition, for the last
decade, she and her husband, Reverend Michael Copeland
have also led The Sons of Thunder Coalition, an urban
ministry which uses basketball to engage over 200 young men
and women each year in life-skills training and career
exploration.
Rev. Copeland received her Bachelor of Arts degree in
Communication from Central Connecticut State University; a
Master of Arts Degree in Religious leadership from Hartford
Seminary and a Master of Divinity Degree from Yale
University Divinity School. She is currently pursuing her
Doctorate in Ministry at Hartford Seminary. When time
permits, Reverend Copeland, an ordained elder in the A.M.E.
Zion Church also serves as an adjunct faculty member at
Hartford Seminary and Yale Divinity School in the areas of
preaching and supervised ministry and lectures regularly
across the country.
