Jerry Blassingame is the Executive Director of Soteria Community Development Corporation and Senior Pastor of Soteria Christian Fellowship in Greenville, South Carolina.  He endeavors to empower individuals and the community through education, affordable housing, financial literacy, community and economic development, and entrepreneurship. His passion is assisting individuals who have been incarcerated through reentry and helping them to become productive citizens.

He is also a social entrepreneur who believes in social enterprise for the non- profit sector.  Jerry attended Columbia International University and studied architectural engineering at Greenville Technical College.  He received a 20 year prison sentence in 1995 and served only 3 ½ years after being paroled in 1999.  Jerry has continued to fight for criminal justice reform since he was granted a pardon in 2004. One of his greatest accomplishments was to receive the Chuck W. Colson Scholarship from Institute for Prison Ministries to attend the Wheaton College Correctional Ministries Program in 2014.