The Rev. Dr. Mashaun D. Simon (he/him/they) is a preacher, public speaker, award-winning journalist, author, lecturer, and thought leader. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, his preaching, teaching, and public ministry seek to curate authentic spaces of belonging for people often relegated to the margins of church and society. This commitment is shaped by both personal experience and his doctoral research exploring the relationship between Black church culture, church hurt, and Black LGBTQ+ grief.
Mashaun is the author of Faith Deconstruction For Dummies (Wiley Publishing) and a survivor of neuroendocrine carcinoma, a rare cancer that accounts for roughly 0.5% of all cancer diagnoses.
Deeply rooted in the Black church and the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) tradition, Mashaun was licensed to preach in the AME’s Atlanta North Georgia Conference in 2012. After disassociating from the AME Church the following year, the late Rev. Pierre D. Cox, founder of House of Mercy Everlasting (HOME) Church in College Park, Georgia, ordained him an Elder in the spring of 2016. Following Cox’s passing, Mashaun served as senior pastor of HOME from 2020 until 2022 when he stepped away from full-time pulpit ministry. Today, he continues his ministry beyond the pulpit, including serving as board chair and chief executive officer of HOME Outreach, Inc., a community-based non-profit initiative. In 2025, he was publicly affirmed and accepted into The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries as a Privilege of Call inductee.
A product of the Black press, Mashaun began his journalism career at the Atlanta Daily World, where he earned four Excellence in Newspaper Reporting awards from the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists (AABJ). His work has since appeared in NBC News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Black Enterprise, Bloomberg News, Ebony, ESSENCE. He has also written for the Counter Narrative Project’s The Reckoning and GLAAD. He previously served as co-associate editor of Geez Magazine, a seasonal, nonprofit print publication focused on social justice, art, and activism for people on the fringes of faith in the U.S. and Canada. And in 2025, he received the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists’ Excellence in Online Journalism Award for his work with Q.Digital’s LGBTQ Nation.
Alongside his writing and ministry, Mashaun has led cultural competency and affirming-practice initiatives, directed regional and national media relations campaigns, and developed strategic communications and recruitment messaging for nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education in metro Atlanta and beyond.
He has participated in several national leadership and fellowship programs, including the DO GOOD X Startup Accelerator (2022), the Collegeville Institute Emerging Writers Fellowship (2022–2023), the Sojourners Rising Leaders Fellowship (2021–2022), and the Counter Narrative Project Narrative Justice Fellowship (2021–2022). He has also served on the Counter Narrative Project Leadership Council, the AID Atlanta Advisory Board, and the inaugural PRISM board of Teach For America Metro Atlanta. Mashaun is a co-founder of the LGBTQ Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and, in 2005, became the first openly LGBTQ student representative on the organization’s national board of directors. He is also believed to be the first out, Black and gay male president of the Candler Coordinating Council (C3) at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.
His honors include the Peter Gomes Award for Transformational Leadership and Service in Church, Community, and Academy; the Community Service Award; and the John W. Rustin Award in Preaching all from the Candler School of Theology. He was also named to Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges in 2013.
Mashaun holds a professional writing degree from Georgia Perimeter College, a Bachelor of Science in Communications from Kennesaw State University, and a Master of Divinity from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. In December 2025, he completed all academic requirements for the Doctor of Ministry degree at Columbia Theological Seminary.
