About Matthew L. Watley
Rev. Dr. Matthew L. Watley is the Senior Pastor and Chief Executive Officer of Kingdom Fellowship AME Church in Calverton, Maryland. A third-generation preacher, businessman, lecturer, and author, he is nationally and globally recognized as an innovative leader who explores new ways to reach the unsaved through spiritual, political, and economic empowerment. He is known for strategic vision, principled leadership, and the ability to guide organizations through seasons of growth and change.
Kingdom Fellowship AME Church, recently named one of America’s fastest-growing churches, reaches 8,000+ people weekly across two campuses, including Calverton and Kingdom 270 in Rockville, as well as a growing global online community. The church’s motto is: Kingdom Disciples Making a Kingdom Difference. Kingdom Fellowship hosts four worship services and continues to expand its ministry footprint through excellence in discipleship, worship, and community engagement.
Beyond the church, Rev. Dr. Watley leads Kingdom Global’s broader ecosystem of ministry and community impact, including Kingdom Global Community Development Corporation (KGCDC), which operates the Kingdom Care Center, a six-story, 90,000-square-foot regional resource hub delivering wraparound services that empower vulnerable neighbors toward economic stability. Through this integrated platform, Rev. Dr. Watley’s leadership helps connect faith, service, and measurable community transformation.
Rev. Dr. Watley has been invited by the Ford Foundation to participate on a special commission charged with evaluating Non-Governmental Organizations in the Republic of South Africa. In 2009, IMPACT, a professional organization committed to political and civic engagement, honored him as IMPACT Person of the Year. He has addressed and lectured to a host of organizations including Ch2Mhill, Prudential, Industrial Bank, the American Institute of CPAs, the National Association of Black Accountants, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, the National Society of Black Engineers, and Blacks in Government, among others. He has also lectured at both public and private institutions including Georgetown University, Howard University, Wiley College, Paul Quinn College, Alabama State University, Wilberforce University, and Wesley Theological Seminary.
An accomplished writer, Rev. Dr. Watley co-authored Poems of a Son, Prayers of a Father with his father, Rev. Dr. William D. Watley, and has contributed to other publications including James Washington’s Conversations with God, Beyond the Frontier by E. Ethelbert Miller, and Doing Church by William Watley. He is also the author of Ignite — 50 Days of Prayer That Will Change Your Life.
Rev. Dr. Watley holds a B.A. in Political Science and a Master of Divinity from Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he served on the university’s Board of Trustees as a graduate student. He also earned an Executive Master’s in Leadership from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and a Master of Arts in Education and Human Development from The George Washington University. He has pursued doctoral studies in Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Rev. Dr. Watley is married to Shawna Francis Watley, Senior Policy Advisor with Holland & Knight LLP, and they are the proud parents of their daughter, Alexandra Elisabeth. Along his journey, he has received numerous ecclesiastical, academic, civic, and literary awards. Concerning these and other accomplishments, he submits that the challenge of servant-leadership is not to win acclaim or to amass honor, “but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)