Our Leadership

Reverend Jeffrey Haggray

The Reverend Jeffrey Haggray is Senior Pastor of The First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, DC.  A native of Savannah, Georgia, Haggray earned the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia, A Master of Divinity degree from Yale University, and the Doctor of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary.  He was awarded the Doctor of Divinity Degree (Honoris Causa) from Alderson Broaddus College.

Haggray’s ministry service includes the following pastorates, The Black Church at Yale, New Haven; Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Pleasantville, NJ; Mount Gilead Baptist Church and Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, both of Washington, DC.  Additionally, Haggray served as Executive Director/Minister of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention for eight years.  An ordained minister within the American Baptist Churches USA, Haggray also associates with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Alliance of Baptists, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

Haggray has served in numerous denominational and community capacities, among them Past Chairman of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, and of Samaritan Inns.  Currently, he serves as Chairman of the Commission on Social and Environmental Justice for The Baptist World Alliance, and is Secretary for that agency’s Human Resources Committee.  Haggray also serves on the boards of Church World Service (Alliance of Baptists Representative); the Baptist Center for Ethics; and the Racial Justice Working Group for the National Council of Churches. He is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Dr. Haggray is married to the Reverend Shelby Martin Haggray.  They are the parents of three children, and reside in the District of Columbia.

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Rev. Deborah Cochran

Rev. Deborah Cochran, the Associate Pastor, has been on the FBC staff since 1998  and holds a bachelor degree in Elementary Education from Appalachian State University and a Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She has an extensive background in education and mission work. She served for 11 years as a missionary from the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in the Dominican Republic and Belgium.

Deborah's dream and prayer for children is for them to begin early to love God and develop a trust relationship with Him that will sustain them throughout life. Her desire is to create a nurturing environment at First Baptist that will enable families to be strengthened by God's love and care to a mature relationship evidenced by witness and service. Rev. Cochran coordinates all of First Baptist's ministries to children and their families and also works with the Director of First Baptist's Child Development Center and staff to nurture our CDC children's spiritual development.She has also taught special education in Wilkes County, North Carolina, second grade in Amelia, Virginia, and taught as an elementary school substitute in West Palm Beach, Florida and Montgomery County, Maryland.

Deborah's husband, Dr. Robert Cochran, is Associate Executive Director of the DC Baptist Convention and has contributed to the starting of many new churches. They have married children Natalie and Craig Stapert, and Kenneth and Julianne Cochran, who live in the area.

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Dr. Lon Schreiber

As Organist-Choirmaster at First Baptist, Dr. Lon Schreiber draws from his enormous knowledge of church music to plan and prepare music for worship and direct the church choir. A gifted arranger and composer his last name means "writer" in German and his organ compositions have been published by H.W. Gray, an affiliate of Warner Bros. Lon served National City Christian Church as Minister of Music for 40 years before being coaxed out of retirement to assume his current position.

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