Rev. Dr. William Terry Ladd, III serves as pastor of the First Baptist Church East 8th Street Chattanooga, TN. He is the 13th pastor in the 152-year history of the church and is known as a gifted preacher, teacher, and leader for the cause of Christ, social justice, and equality. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Pastor Ladd is a graduate of Morehouse College, where he received the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mathematics, and Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology, where he received the Master of Divinity Degree and was awarded the William Ollie and Nell Ray Key Award for Excellence in Leadership. In 2018, Pastor Ladd earned a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Preaching from the Associated Chicago Theological Schools, McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.

Since his early youth, Pastor Ladd has been actively involved in the work of the Church. He was licensed to preach the gospel and ordained into the gospel ministry at the Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, Georgia, where Rev. Dr. Cameron M. Alexander serves as pastor. It was under Dr. Alexander's tutelage that Pastor Ladd's keen church administrative skills and emphasis on teaching and preaching the prophetic message of the gospel were developed.

In 2012, Pastor Ladd was inducted into the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel Board of Preachers, and in 2015, he was selected in the Inaugural Class of the College of Pastoral Leadership, Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel. While participating in the Morehouse College of Pastoral Leadership, Pastor Ladd, along with other national recognized early career pastors, traveled on a 10-day international interfaith immersion tour of Turkey and reflected for 12 months on the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s aspiration for an academic and theological approach to developing pastoral leaders for a cosmopolitan world.

Pastor Ladd formerly served as member of the Board of Visitors of the McAfee School of Theology; Vice President, Congress of Christian Education and Vice-President of the Pastors and Ministers Division of the Tennessee Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention, and Dean of the Congress of Christian Education for the Chattanooga – Hamilton County Baptist Missionary and Education Association.

Pastor Ladd currently serves as a peer group facilitator for the Styberg Preaching Institute's A Partnership in Effective Proclamation located at Garrett Theological Seminary. The partnership is a peer group of local church pastors gathering monthly with intentional focus on preaching. He also serves as Big Brother in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chattanooga and is a member of the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

He is married to the former Terrilyn Hollings of Mobile, AL and has one son Aaron.