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Connections

Local church leader on his impact as a pastor and "homie"

Three people wearing headphones sit at a table in a radio talk studio: a young woman at left has long dark braids and is wearing glasses, a white shirt and a brown sweater; a man at center has a dark beard and is wearing an orange knit cap and grey t-shirt with white lettering; a man at right has very short dark hair and is wearing a grey fleece vest over a white button-down shirt with small blue dots, jeans and brown shoes.
George Yeadon
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WXXI News
Sahiyra Dillard and Jerrard Brown with host Evan Dawson on "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Wednesday, February 25, 2026
WXXI News

We continue our spotlight on Black community members whose work may be under the radar but is making a big difference.

This hour, we sit down with Pastor Jerrard Brown. Brown is the youngest-ever senior pastor at Holy Trinity Baptist Church on North Street. He's also the office and facilities manager for Teen Empowerment.

Through both roles, Brown has built community and served as a role model, especially for young people. As he told WXXI's Racquel Stephen, "I think the pastor should be the homie."

We talk with Brown and his Teen Empowerment colleagues about the impact of his work.

Our guests:

Evan Dawson is the host of "Connections with Evan Dawson." He joined WXXI in January 2014 after working at 13WHAM-TV, where he served as morning news anchor. He was hired as a reporter for 13WHAM-TV in 2003 before being promoted to anchor in 2007.
Megan Mack is the executive producer of "Connections with Evan Dawson" and live/televised engagement programming.
Julie Williams is an associate producer for "Connections with Evan Dawson." She started at WXXI in 2019 and has been working on Connections since 2022.