our pastor

Rev. Dr. Melva J. Hayden is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She is a product of  the City University of New York (CUNY) System. She received both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from CUNY’s Hunter College (1986-Baccalaureate) and CUNY’s Law School (1989-Juris Doctor). Dr. Hayden is also a graduate of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary (NBTS). She holds a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree from NBTS (1995) and graduated cum laude. Dr. Hayden earned her Doctor of Ministry (D. Min.) degree (2011), in the Metro Urban Ministry Doctor of Ministry Degree Program at NBTS. Her dissertation focused on “the Synergy of Biblical Storying in Narrative Theology and Leadership Development to Re-Story Unity in the Bell AME Zion Congregation of Center Moriches, NY.”

Dr. Hayden has been employed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – Region 2 (EPA-Region 2) since 1989. Currently, she is an Assistant Regional Counsel in the Office of Regional Counsel’s (ORC) Water and General Law Branch (2000-Present), where she handles SDWA, CCR, OPA, Pretreatment, Bio-solids, MS4, and other stormwater discharge matters under the CWA. Dr. Hayden also currently serves as the Title VI Coordinator in the ORC. In addition, she does a workshare in the ORC’s Waste and Toxic Substances Branch (2002-Present), where she handlessuch TSCA Lead-Based Paint matters as: Lead Disclosure, RRP, Lead Abatement, Lead Training, AHERA Asbestos in Schools, RCRA, EPCRA, and UST cases.

Dr. Hayden was selected to serve as EPA Region 2’s first Environmental Justice Coordinator in the Office of the Regional Administrator, where she helped to establish the Region’s Environmental Justice (EJ) Program in the early years of the Agency’s EJ program (1994-2000). Dr. Hayden began her career in EPA Region 2 as an Assistant Regional Counsel in the ORC’s New Jersey Superfund Branch (1989 – 1994), where she handled CERCLA and Superfund Removals and Remediation enforcement cases.

In addition to her career at EPA, Dr. Hayden  is also an ordained minister and pastor. She has served as the pastor for the Brownsville AME Zion Church congregation (1995-2009)in Brooklyn, NY (1995-2009), and the Bell AME Zion Church congregation in Center Moriches, LI, NY (2009- 2011). Currently Dr. Hayden  serves as the pastor of the Church of the Master Reformed Church in the Bronx, NY (2015-present). Dr. Hayden’s motto is: “she is on a mission to save souls, communities and the environment!”