Senior Pastor/Teacher
New Hope Baptist Church of Hackensack, N.J. 

     Rev. Manning - Fontaine grew up in New York City where she received Christian nurture at the Convent Avenue Baptist Church, Harlem USA under the Pastorate of the late Rev. Dr. M. L. Wilson and Rev. Clarence P. Grant. Thoroughly prepared for ministry, she graduated from the College of New Rochelle B.A., New York Theological Seminary with the Masters of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry Degrees. Her doctoral thesis was entitled Training and Equipping Laypersons for Prophetic Ministry which is a hallmark of her Pastorate .She has also done additional study at Princeton Theological Seminary, and has a certificate from the Harvard University Divinity School Leadership Institute. She is a graduate of the Institute of Church Administration and Management (ICAM) at Interdenominational Theological Seminary (ITC) in Atlanta, Georgia.  

     She has been an invited panelist at the Governor of New Jersey’s State of the Black Church Forum  A featured panelist at the  prestigious Hampton University Minister’s conference, she presented Spiritual Disciplines for Women in Ministry. A newly minted publication SAGE SISTERS. Wisdom for African American women in ministry, Pilgrim Press Cleveland O., 2007.leads off with her article Wrestling with Ordination.   Along with her association with NJDMBA and GBCNJ, Dr. Fontaine has also emerged as a leader in the American Baptist Churches of N.J. regional fellowship as a spiritual director to ABCNJ. Through their pastor to pastor Healthy Pastor/Healthy Church program, she mentors other pastors under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Lee B. Spitzer Regional Executive Minister.

     A woman of firsts to the Glory of God, Dr. Manning - Fontaine has the distinction of being the first woman Moderator elected in the State of New Jersey through NJDMBA where she serves as 2nd Vice Moderator under the leadership of Moderator Lester W. Taylor, Jr. She has also served in Elected positions at the 100 year old Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater NY and Vicinity as well as in the Baptist Ministers Conference of Newark. Ordained on October 27, 1985, in the Convent Avenue Baptist Church, the then Rev. Manning , a pioneer, had the distinction of being the first woman to be both licensed and ordained into the Christian ministry by that body. Called to the New Hope Baptist Church, a dynamic leading congregation in Hackensack, New Jersey, on May 7, 1993, she is the seventh Pastor and the first woman to lead that congregation. They will celebrate her 17th anniversary God will in May 2010 during the Church's 90 year anniversary.

     Under her leadership, New Hope Community and Economic Development Corp. Inc., the Church Not-for-profit- Corporation was birthed. Some of their programs include Camp Hope a state approved Summer Day Camp for children 5 – 12, an HIV/AIDS Ministry, Diabetic and Weight Loss support groups,  Parish Nursing Program and other pertinent ministries..  Under her visionary leadership New Hope is host to a Theological certificate program in partnership with New York Theological Seminary where they  graduated their first students in May 2008. In connection with Not-for-Profit Community Development, she has lectured for the Chase Foundation both in New York and at the Chase Headquarters in Houston Texas.

     She has traveled to S. Africa as part of a networking venture with not for profit organizations. A woman with local roots; but a global reach, she recently returned from a preaching trip that carried her to Guadeloupe and Martinique. two islands in the French Caribbean. as well as a Mission trip to Ghana W. Africa.  

     She is the mother of one son and two grandchildren. Dr. Manning -Fontaine recently celebrated  25 years of preaching....Her favorite saying is Press on Regardless and Her Favorite biblical saying is “nothing can separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus.”Her latest “mantra” as she moves into a new season is " Live life to the fullest and make no excuses for it " John 10:10..  Pastor was married on July 20, 2009 to Mr. Joseph H. Fontaine, Sr. of Baltimore Md. in a private beach wedding in Bermuda.