Kenneth R. Kemp, MD, is a native of Tucker, Arkansas.  The son of Otis and Aristine McDonnell, he grew up in rural Arkansas and excelled in academics.  After completing his junior year in high school, he enrolled on the early admissions program at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff where he continued to excel.  Upon graduation with a 4.0 GPA in 1984, he was accepted into several medical schools and he finally decided to attend the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).  In 1988, he graduated from the UAMS with honors in research and academics.  Having accepted an ROTC scholarship in college and the Army Health Professions Scholarship while in medical school, Dr. Kemp was appointed a captain in the US Army upon graduation from medical school and he began his internship in internal medicine at Brook Army Medical Center (BAMC), Fort Sam Houston, TX.  He completed residency at BAMC in 1991 and was subsequently selected to be the Chief of Medical Residents from 1991 to 1992.  After his year as Chief of Medical Residents, Dr. Kemp entered fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at BAMC, which he completed in 1995.  After serving three years as the Assistant Chief of the Pulmonary Service at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Dr. Kemp returned to BAMC in 1998 as a member of the teaching faculty in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship.  In June of 2005, he was selected as the Program Director for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Program at BAMC and later that same year, he was selected to be the Chairman of the Institutional Bioethics Committee.  He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the Army Medical Corps in June 2006. He is currently certified in the areas of Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, and Critical Care Medicine.  He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Chest Physicians.  Dr. Kemp retired from the Army in September 2009 after 21 years of active service and 25 years of total service in our nation’s military.  He continues to serve as an active pulmonologist and is an adjunct clinical professor of medicine of the Uniformed Services University.

In addition to his life in medicine, Dr. Kemp has a strong faith in Christ and is an ordained Baptist minister. He was initially ordained as a deacon in 1990 and later accepted his call into the gospel ministry in 1991 at the Antioch Baptist Church under the late Pastor John Joseph Rector, Sr. He was ordained in the gospel ministry in 1994 and served as the interim Pastor of the True Vision Baptist Church in San Antonio from 1994 to 1995.  He later served as Assistant to the Pastor for Pastoral Care at the Lewis Chapel Baptist Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina from 1995 to 1998. Upon his return to San Antonio in 1998, he resumed his duties as a member of the preaching ministry at Antioch under the pastorate of Rev. Dr. E. Thurman Walker.  In 2004, he was selected to be Assistant Pastor at Antioch, under his friend and mentor, Pastor Walker.  Dr. Kemp continued as Assistant Pastor at Antioch until September 27, 2009 when he was selected as Co-Pastor.  On October 26, 2009, upon the demise of Dr. Walker and the move of the Holy Spirit, he was called to be the Senior Pastor of Antioch.  Over more than 16 years, the Holy Spirit has continued to abide with the Antioch Church under the leadership of Pastor Kemp.  He has preached the Word of God with power and passion and he has sacrificially served the people of Antioch and the citizens of San Antonio.  As a result, souls have been saved, saints have been encouraged, and citizens have been empowered. 

Dr. Kemp is published in the areas of General Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and Biomedical Ethics. He also has interest in Education in general, and Christian Education in particular. He is the lead editor of Lessons for Life: A Devotional for the Disciple, a collection of church school lessons written by the church school curriculum team of Antioch, which was published in February 2014.  He is also the author of A Servant’s Heart: Tips for the Associate Minister, which was published in April 2014 and A Cry during Crisis, published in 2018. 

He is a member of the Baptist Ministers Union of San Antonio and Vicinity, the Community of Churches for Social Action, and the Guadalupe District Association.  He has previously served as a member of the Board of the Black Business Expo and the Antioch Community Transformation Network.  He is a former chairman of the Board of the Eastside Christian Action Group, now doing business as the Wheatley Heights Sports Conservancy, where he continues to serve as a board member.  He also serves on the board of the United Way of San Antonio, the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio, and BCFS Health and Human Services.  He is the National Director of the Health Awareness Team, National Baptist Convention of America Incorporated, a position he has held since 2014. 

In November 2014, he was honored by his Alma Mater as an inductee of the National Alumni Hall of Fame, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.   In 2015, he was inducted into the Black Worship Clergy Hall of Fame of San Antonio.  He is also the recipient of the 2020 San Antonio MLK Commission Community Service Award and the 2021 C.A. Whittier Medical Society Humanitarian Award.