The Rev. Dr. Maria L. Hubbard

Dr. Maria Hubbard has been a minister and advocate for the economically disadvantaged in Queens, New York for nearly 30 years. She is currently the CEO of Agape Community Development Corporation, formerly GBCDC. Agape’s mission is inspired by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty and Dr. Martin L. King’s Poor Man’s Campaign. The goal is to close the budget gap between the “haves” and “have-nots.”

Agape provides new retail donations, educational-vocational classes, community outreach programs, and referrals. Their retail partners include the Gap, Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Harmon Face Values, Disney, Aramark Clothing, Uggs, and other seasonal companies. Over the years, Agape/GBCDC has worked with a number of organizations to meet community needs, partnering with the New York State Workforce, ACS, Arbor, Goodwill, SQPA, New York Police Department, NOBLE, NAN, senior centers, police councils, elected officials, houses of worship and other nonprofits. Agape also provides emergency and disaster relief.

Dr. Hubbard is the product of strict parenting from a financially struggling yet loving mother (Barbara Murphy) and a supportive grandmother (Margaret Douglas). She is also the great grandniece of Mary McLeod Bethune. The lives of these women shaped her mission to help disadvantaged families.

Dr. Hubbard is a graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science Degree. She has also earned degrees in Sacred Theology from United Christian College. Her educational background includes attending the Master’s Psychology programs at Rutgers University, Hunter College and Queens College. She is a member of the National Council of Negro Women, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, NAACP and the Interfaith Council for Community Development.

For 40 years, Dr. Hubbard has served in several large ministries and is known for her straightforward delivery of the Word of God. In 2017, she started Agape Faith Ministries, an evangelistic outreach to minister the word and provide for the needs in poor communities. Dr. Hubbard concurs with the Apostle Paul that she too was “made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power” - Ephesians 3:7.