Our Pastor
Pastor William Terry Ladd III
Rev. Dr. William Terry Ladd, III serves as Pastor of First Baptist Church East 8thStreet in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and President of its non-profit arm, First Baptist Cares. He is the 13th pastor in the church’s 159-year history and is widely respected as a gifted preacher, teacher, and leader with a deep commitment to Christ, social justice, and equality.
A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Dr. Ladd is a graduate of More house College(B.A. in Mathematics) and Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology (Master of Divinity),where he received the William Ollie and Nell Ray Key Award for Excellence in Leadership. He earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from McCormick Theological Seminary, through the Association of Chicago Theological Schools.
Dr. Ladd was inducted into the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel Board of Preachers in 2012 and was later selected for the inaugural class of the College of Pastoral Leadership. His interfaith immersion experience in Turkey and year-long reflection on the teachings of Dr. King shaped his global and theological vision for pastoral leadership. In 2018, Dr. Ladd was awarded the Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Grant, which allowed him to study apartheid in South Africa and explore the legacy of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. In 2024, Dr. Ladd received the Oikos Institute Fishing Differently Social Impact Award for initiating the First Baptist Cares Mental Health Outreach Initiative. This initiative aims to address equity gaps by providing education and mental health services to underserved and marginalized communities.
An active community leader, Dr. Ladd is East Region Vice President of the Tennessee Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention. He serves on several boards, including the McAfee School of Theology Board of Visitors, Greater Chattanooga Urban League, LeMoyne-Owen College Board of Trustees, Signal Centers, and the Chattanooga Public Library.
Dr. Ladd has made significant civic contributions, including appointments by former Mayor Andy Berke and the current Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp to the Hamilton County Board of Equalization, as well as an appointment by current Mayor Tim Kelly to the Chattanooga City Transition Team. He is a member of the NAACP, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and serves as a Big Brother with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chattanooga.
He is married to Terrilyn Hollings Ladd of Mobile, Alabama. They have one son, Aaron.
Terrilyn Hollings Ladd
Terrilyn Hollings Ladd, wife of Rev. Dr. William Terry Ladd, III, is a native of Mobile, Alabama. She currently serves as the Director of Related Services for Exceptional Education in Hamilton County Schools, where she has worked since 2009. In this role, she oversees services in speech and language, audiology, deaf education, visual disabilities, assistive technology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and TennCare reimbursements.
From 2011 to 2019, she served as Exceptional Education Lead Teacher after previously working as a Speech-Language Pathologist for two years. Before moving to Chattanooga, she dedicated 10 years to serving students in an Atlanta-area school system.
She earned a Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of South Alabama (1996) and a Master of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences from Tennessee State University (1998). She became a licensed and nationally certified speech-language pathologist in 1999, with extensive experience diagnosing and treating speech and language disorders in both children and adults. In 2014, she earned an Educational Specialist degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Alongside her professional work, Sis. Ladd is active in ministry at First Baptist Church, where she sings in the choir and serves as a member of the Welcome Ministry.
Aaron Ladd
Aaron Ladd is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and returned to Mizzou in 2026 as Sports Director at KMOU. Previously, he served as Weekend Sports Anchor at Atlanta News First/WANF-TV and spent four years as Weekend Sports Anchor at KSHB 41 in Kansas City, Missouri, where he covered the Kansas City Chiefs’ back-to-back Super Bowl championship run and more. His viral interview with Patrick Mahomes Sr. following the 2023 AFC Championship Game has generated more than 70 million views across platforms. He is also a proud member of the National Association of Black Journalists, describing himself as an “NABJ baby” who grew up in the organization and earned a national scholarship in 2014.
