President Emeritus Jerry Prevo

Jerry Prevo

Liberty University President Emeritus

An entrepreneur and Baptist minister, Jerry Prevo has been a member of the Liberty University Board of Trustees since 1996 and served as Board Chairman from 2003 to 2020. He retired as the senior pastor of Anchorage Baptist Temple in Anchorage, Alaska, where he served for 47 years. Most recently, he became interim president of Liberty in 2020 and served in this position through Summer 2023. He is now a president emeritus of Liberty University.

Raised in Tennessee, Prevo graduated from the Baptist Bible College and completed other work at various universities, including the University of Tennessee, Belmont College, and Tennessee Temple. He moved to Alaska in 1971 to take over a small mission work, where he put his entrepreneurial skills into action. Over time, he expanded the church congregation, including the implementation of a bus service to pick up children for Sunday services and, by extension, their parents. In the mid-1970s, the mission work purchased 20 acres and built a white-steeple building to hold services, and in 1992, a 43,000-square-foot auditorium was completed.

Prevo has witnessed Anchorage Baptist Temple become one of the largest churches in Alaska. The services have drawn an average of more than 2,000 people per week. The church also offers education for preschool through senior high at Anchorage Christian Schools — the largest Christian school in Alaska — and ministers through its television station. Additionally, Prevo is the CEO and chairman of Christian Broadcasting Inc., which he started and now has three stations and two broadcasting towers in Anchorage, Alaska.

When Prevo took on the role of interim president of Liberty University in 2020, he stepped down as Board Chairman and officially began his new duties. He led the university with a renewed focus on Liberty’s foundational Christian mission. He provided stable leadership — supported by Liberty’s ongoing enrollment growth, excellence in academics and intercollegiate athletics, and thriving spiritual life — and strove to make Liberty an employer of choice through multiple initiatives, as well as helped lead the university through its 50th Anniversary celebration in Fall 2021. In Summer 2023, he passed the presidential position to Dondi E. Costin, Ph.D., and was given the title of president emeritus.