An Elyria native made a name for himself in that city.
Now, the Rev. Thomas L. Bowen, 56, is making a name for himself in the nation’s capitol.
Bowen, a graduate of Elyria High School, is being honored from the Elyria Black Legacy Project.
He is one of the youngest persons ever to be elected to a school board in the state of Ohio when he won a seat on the Elyria City Schools Board of Education in 1992, and was overwhelmingly re-elected for a second four-year term in 1996.
Bowen said being honored by the Elyria Black Legacy Project is special.
“There are so many local legends, and to think that I’ve gotten to the point that someone would dare say there is something I’ve done, or am doing, that is worthy of honor is special,” he said. “It seems as if this puts me in the light of those that I looked up to growing up in Elyria.
“I hope people can see what’s possible, just like I saw in folks.”
Bowen is director of African American Strategic Engagement in the Executive Office of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, where he serves as both the director of the Mayor’s Office on African American Affairs and the Mayor’s Office of Religious Affairs.
He is considered the chief advocate and voice of both the African American community and the faith community in the District of Columbia.
Quite often, the Elyria Black Legacy Project said, Bowen is called “DC’s Pastor.”
Bowen is the Earl L. Harrison minister of Social Justice at the historic Shiloh Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., and has faithfully served that congregation as a member of the ministerial team in various capacities since July 2002.
A graduate of Morehouse College where he was a Ford Foundation scholar, Bowen received his ministerial and theological training from The Divinity School at the University of Chicago.
He was ordained to preach the gospel at the Mount Zion Baptist Church of Oberlin.
Bowen has been a contributing panelist for the Washington Post’s On Faith/Local Section and a contributor to the Huffington Post’s Black Voices.
He has served as the religion editor for the Washington Informer newspaper, and once was a national correspondent for PoliticallyBlack.Com, where he had the pleasure to interview then Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
Bowen was a founding member of the Jamestown Project, an action-oriented think tank, and a member of the African American Ministers Leadership Council of People for the American Way.
“I never imagined I would be where I am now, but in the back of my mind, I hoped so,” he said. “I grew up looking at people who were on the move, whether locally or in magazines, and always knew I wanted something more for myself.”
He also has served on the Board of Trustees for the Lorain County Urban League, the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and the Centennial Celebration Task Force for the American Baptist Churches Inc.
Bowen has held several positions in the advocacy and nonprofit communities, including senior religious advocate for the Children’s Defense Fund and senior field organizer for its Black Community Crusade for Children; executive director of the Midnight Basketball Leagues of Lorain County Inc.; project coordinator for the Urban Child Research Center at Cleveland State University and assistant director of the Upward Bound Program at Oberlin College.
He said he has always been centered around community.
“One thing about growing up in Lorain County is that you can’t escape community,” Bowen said. “I’m very fortunate that I always had my friends and family’s support; they always rooted for me.”
He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a Proclamation for Outstanding Achievement from the Ohio House of Representatives.
Bowen said he encourages anyone who wishes to achieve, to see themselves differently.
“It’s all about having that belief and seeing yourself differently,” he said. “This belief in myself kept me from going down alternate paths because I knew my end goal; and then you put in the work.”
Ebony Magazine once named Bowen one of the 50 Leaders of Tomorrow.
He has participated in group study exchange trips to Cuba, France, Guatemala, Japan and Israel.
Bowen has called Washington, D.C., home for nearly 20 years and currently resides in the historic Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast.
