Dr. Manikanta Sai Ankem was born and raised in a Hindu family in Vijayawada, India, where he and his family experienced a transformative event of God’s intervention, saving his father’s life. This event led his family to embrace Christianity over 25 years ago. With over a decade of dedicated full-time ministry experience, Dr. Ankem has served in various leadership roles within church ministries, notably as the Senior Pastor of a Telugu Church in Chicago. Additionally, he has contributed to theological education as a faculty member at an accredited Bible College affiliated with the Asian Theological Association (ATA) in India. He also published a book on “Developing First-Gen Pastors.”

Dr. Ankem holds four master’s degrees: Master of Science in Psychology, Master of Divinity, and Master of Theology in Pastoral Counseling, all the three earned in India. His academic journey continued in the United States, where he pursued doctoral studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS). He successfully earned his Doctor of Ministry in Strategic Leadership in 2020, and more recently, completed a Master of Arts in New Testament from TEDS in 2023. 

Driven by his mission to serve the Lord and His people fervently, Dr. Ankem is committed to passionately sharing the Word of God and nurturing spiritual growth. He is happily married to Kamala, and they have a one-year-old daughter named Alethya, with another child on the way.