Pastor of St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church from 1980 to 1996, Rev. Elmo Bean also served as vice chair of the Cleveland chapter of Partners in Ecumenism, a national coalition of black churchpersons who are concerned with social, economic and political change. He was a member of Ministers’ Action Program, a coalition of local ministers organized to deal with issues and problems in the Greater Cleveland community; a counselor for Cleveland Counseling Service; and past president and vice president of local branches of the NAACP in Delaware. He also chaired the board of directors of Harambee: Services to Black Families, an agency that arranged the adoption of black children who were wards of the county and state. Bean is a graduate of Wilberforce University and Payne Theological Seminary.