A Graduate Fellow and Research Assistant for the State of New Jersey Amistad Commission, Rev. Christopher Michael Jones is pursuing his Doctoral studies in Speech Communications at The University of Memphis. His focus includes rhetoric in black preaching during the Reconstruction Era and the function of tonality in black preaching. Jones earned his Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Rutgers University-New Brunswick as a Merit Scholar. He has also studied Religion and Society at Christ Church College, University of Oxford and was selected in 2006 as one of America's emerging Young-Adult Leaders by the NAACP Leadership 500 Summit. Jones finished 2nd place in the Fall 2006 The African American Pulpit "Seminarian Sermon Contest" publishing the sermon titled "By Whose Authority Do You Preach?" Jones is senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Hillside, NJ and former Hip-Hop and R&B music producer having produced multi-platinum recording artists The Notorious B.I.G, Nas, Shaquille O'Neal and Toni Braxton to name a few.