A biography of Rev. Fred Hammond. I was born in New York State where the Delaware River runs along the Pennsylvania and New Jersey border outside a small town called Port Jervis. My mother still lives in the home where I was raised. I have two older sisters, one is an artist in New Mexico and the other works with developmentally disabled children in upstate New York State near the Canadian border. I graduated Western CT State University with a BA in English Writing and a Masters in Counselor Education. I worked for about a dozen years as a Clinical Specialist with developmentally disabled adults. I co-founded and ran the Interfaith AIDS Ministry of Greater Danbury for fifteen years before deciding to go into seminary at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, IL. I served the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego for my internship. In my final year of seminary, I served the Community Unitarian Universalists of Brighton, MI as a student minister. I was ordained in May of 2007 at my home congregation in Danbury, CT. In 2007 - 2008 I served the congregations of Jackson and Ellisville, MS. I began serving the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tuscaloosa in 2008.