Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) has named Rev. Carolyn A. Landry the 2026 recipient of the Frankie Huff Granger Distinguished Mentor Award, honoring her decades of ministry, pastoral leadership, and intentional investment in women called to ministry.
Landry serves as church administrator and staff minister for pastoral care and congregational life at First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama, where she serves a congregation of more than 1,500 members. She was also recently appointed Executive Secretary of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.’s Home Missions Board.
Her path into vocational ministry followed more than 25 years of leadership with the United States government, including a senior leadership role at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Landry ultimately left that career to answer a call to full-time ministry.
During more than 30 years at First Missionary Baptist Church, Landry has become a trusted pastoral presence within the congregation. Her ministry includes administration, pastoral care, prayer, missions, and mentoring, and those who nominated her repeatedly describe a leader whose influence is often exercised quietly and personally rather than through public recognition.
That influence is especially evident in Landry’s relationships with women discerning and living into calls to ministry.
Landry intentionally supports the church’s women serving as associate ministers, helping them discern their callings and creating opportunities for them to participate in worsh
ip and other areas of congregational life. Her mentoring extends beyond formal programs into conversations, prayer gatherings, hospital rooms, and the ordinary moments in which ministers need someone willing to listen, encourage, counsel, and remind them of their calling.
Sister Minister Bridgitt Bradley-Brown, who nominated Landry for the award, describes having personally experienced that ministry of encouragement.
“She has encouraged me and many other women to trust God’s call, lead with humility, remain faithful through disappointment, value prayer, and serve Christ before seeking recognition,” Bradley-Brown wrote.
Prayer has been a defining thread throughout Landry’s ministry. In 2005, she founded A Call to Prayer, a weekly intercessory prayer ministry that continues today. Her ministry has also extended beyond the United States through more than 25 mission trips to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas.
Her nominators describe Landry as a leader marked by service, integrity, spiritual maturity, professionalism, and a consistent willingness to make herself available to others.
“The greatest mentors are remembered for who others became because of their investment,” Bradley-Brown wrote. “Reverend Carolyn Landry’s legacy is written in the women she has encouraged to preach, the ministers she has strengthened, and the congregations she has served with excellence.”
For BWIM, Landry’s ministry embodies the purpose of the Frankie Huff Granger Distinguished Mentor Award: recognizing those whose personal investment helps women discern their callings, develop their gifts, navigate ministry challenges, and find the courage and support needed to lead.
“Mentoring can change the trajectory of a woman’s ministry,” said Rev. Nikki Hardeman, Director of Advocating for Women in Ministry at BWIM. “Rev. Carolyn Landry has spent decades making that kind of investment—not simply telling women that their callings matter, but walking alongside them as they learn to trust those callings and live fully into them. BWIM is honored to celebrate the ministry she has offered so faithfully to women, congregations, and Baptist life.”
Landry received the 2026 Frankie Huff Granger Distinguished Mentor Award during a celebration at First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama, on Sunday, October 25, 2026.
Established in 2013, the award honors the legacy of Frankie Huff Granger, whose ministry included decades of service in Baptist life and a particular commitment to mentoring young women discerning calls to ministry. The award recognizes seasoned ministers and laypeople who nurture Baptist women’s callings and gifts through their time, energy, advocacy, encouragement, and personal investment.
About Baptist Women in Ministry
Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) supports women who pursue ministry and leadership with resources and community and advocates for the full affirmation of women in ministry in Baptist life. BWIM envisions a Baptist world where women in ministry thrive, are celebrated, and are fully affirmed in their callings and leadership.