Our Co-Pastor

Reverend Vanessa Oliver Ward is Co-Pastor of the Omega Baptist Church, a fast growing, community oriented church; she is a community leader, serves as Chair of the Board of the Omega School of Excellence; she is a role model to women who are trying to have a career and raise a healthy, happy family and she is a very trustworthy and dependable friend to many.

Establishment of the
Omega School of Excellence

Vanessa is tireless in her dedication to the Omega School of Excellence, a school, designed to grow middle schoolers into leaders. Vanessa created the Omega School of Excellence, a Dayton charter middle school that opened in Fall 2000. Vanessa researched the local need for such a school and designed a middle school that focuses on developing leaders for the Dayton community. She traveled to Boston and Texas in search of models of the best schools in the nation. Rev. Ward modeled the school on the Knowledge is Power Program, known for its intensity. The Omega School began with a 57-hour week (Monday through Saturday) with Saturday being dedicated to developing skills like leadership and teamwork. She interviewed experts, hired 18 faculty/staff, coordinated preparation of the building, enrolled the children and started what eventually became a school for 200 children. The school began with fifth and sixth graders, added seventh graders the next year and eighth graders the following year.

Co-Pastor of the Omega Baptist Church

She is a partner, with her husband, Reverend Daryl Ward, in the success of the Omega Baptist church, a community oriented church, which has partnered with the Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority and the City of Dayton to deliver Dayton's first Hope VI Project. Omega Community Development Corporation has been established to serve the Old Dayton View neighborhood that Omega has committed to redevelop with the neighbors and the Hope VI partners. Reverend Vanessa Oliver Ward, in partnership with her husband, Reverend Daryl Ward, has been an integral part of the growth of the Omega Church from 150 members to over 4,000 members in the last 17 years. Her contributions have been enormous to the success of this church, and to the community focus that the church has developed and honed over the years. Additionally, Vanessa was responsible for the innovative Religious Education curriculum at the church, which is designed like a college quarter system, giving members the opportunity to take many classes over the year. The curriculum blends the practical with the theological, providing classes in aerobics, computer skills, personal finance, parenting skills, sign language, liturgical dance and sewing, in addition to gospel studies. Under Reverend Vanessa Ward's guidance, attendance in religious education classes rose over 200%. When Reverend Ward taught a special Women's Study on Monday nights, she attracted over three hundred women from many different churches. Reverend Ward has taught several people who have gone on to be leaders in their own right.

Director: The Character Academy

Prior to beginning the Omega School of Excellence, Reverend Ward also served as Director of the Character Academy, which was an after school program that was offered free to the community. The curriculum included tutoring, cultural awareness, health, foreign language and much more. Educators and other professionals throughout the Miami Valley came together across ethnic and denominational lines to volunteer their time, energy and expertise to children. The Character Academy also provided curriculum credit hours for University of Dayton students in the areas of Education and Social Work.

Vice-President, Director of Curriculum Development for Urban Outreach Foundation

Vanessa worked with this national organization for continuing education of urban church leaders. She designed and developed curriculum for regional conferences for hundreds of Pastors and Christian Educators for leadership development of the urban church of the next millennium, 1996 - 1998.

Director of the Transcultural Program at United Theological Seminary

Developed sites both nationally and internationally for graduate seminary students (1993 -1995). This involved a great deal of coordination and creativity in order to allow students to experience other cultures. Various assignments included travel to Haiti, Ghana, Korea, Russia, etc. All of the assignments had to be developed to maximize the students' experiences in the various locations, including their travel, accommodations, as well as work assignments.

Uniqueness of Contributions

Vanessa Ward's contributions are unique in that she continues to strive for excellence, accomplishing great things in a numerous areas, and yet with all of her responsibilities, she remains grounded and even humbled. She maintains the most demanding schedule a person can imagine, and yet will always respond when someone's in need. This is exemplary behavior, which is admired by everyone around her as she inspires people to reach beyond their normal abilities.

Account of Achievements: unequaled, a first for women, and an inspiration to others

Vanessa Oliver Ward continues to make an impact in a wide variety of areas. Her focuses include trailblazing in the ministry (first woman Preacher in several locations), improvements in health and education (founded a charter school and a breast cancer survivors support group), enhancement of culture and the arts (serving on Boards ranging from Dayton Contemporary Dance Company to the Dayton Foundation Board Committee on Grants and Programs). Her dedication also extends around the world to assist with efforts in Ghana, West Africa in developing programs through World Vision through sponsorship of children. The program concentrates on one village at a time and assists with a wide range of necessities, including wells, schools, etc. Vanessa jump-started Omega's involvement in this program by doing everything from organizing participants to leading the trips to Ghana.

Significant Awards

• Recipient of Black Achievement Award presented by WROU 92.1 FM & KeyBank
• Martin Luther King Commemoration Award, Defense Electronics Supply Center
• Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority "Take Our Daughters to Work" Keynote Speaker
• 2nd Annual H. Beecher Hicks, Sr., Institute of Great Preaching Award and Participation
• 4th Annual African American Women's Think Tank Award
• Dayton Public Schools' Career Inclusive Program Award

Other Contributions

• Speaker and Mentor at schools throughout the community including: Fairview Middle School, Franklin Montessori, Van Cleve Elementary, Edison Elementary
• Active parent participant at Miami Valley School functions including Lecturer for Black History and Spanish classes, Tutor for math skills and Chaperone for class trips
• Frequent speaker at churches throughout the community
• Board of Directors for Dayton Montgomery County Library
• Member of S.I.S.T.E.R. (Sisters in Service, Transforming, Energizing, Restoring, Sharing)

Career Achievements

• Co-Pastor, 2005 - present
• Director, Omega School of Excellence, 1999 – present
• Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, 2003 – present
• Links, Inc.
• Dayton Foundation – Grants Committee, 2003 - 2005
• Journey to the Well, Biblical Interpretations for African American Women, accepted for publication by Urban Ministries, Inc. 2000 "Minister of Religious Education at Omega Baptist Church, 1991 - 1999
• Published two articles entitled "The African American Sunday School: Reclaiming its role as Moral Teacher," Precepts for Living. Urban Ministries, Inc., and "Towards an understanding of a Petrine School," Aufstieg and Niedergang der romischen Welt, Wolfgang Haase and Rudolph Temporini (Berlin: Walter DeGruyter)
• Scholar in Residence at The College of Wooster, 1999
• New Testament Instructor at Scarritt Bennett College in Nashville, Tennessee, 1997
• Recipient of a grant from Fordham Foundation for research of models in educational reform, 1998

Professional Activities

• Member of American Baptist Churches/ Ohio, Regional Board of Trustees
• Dayton Christian Center Steering Committee
• Member of Search Committee - Responsible for Locating/Hiring City of Dayton Chief of Police

Other pertinent information

Impressive as it is, this narrative does not capture why Vanessa is so extraordinary. This list of achievements does not describe the quiet tenacity and calm with which Vanessa greets each challenge, the caring and love with which she addresses people who are in need, from students to executives, from people in the neighborhood to members of the church. A few years ago, Vanessa was accepted for a full Ph.D. scholarship in New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. She chose to turn down the scholarship in order to dedicate herself to her church, her family and the community. That type of sacrifice is what typifies Vanessa's level of dedication to others.