Dr. Paul Akin serves as Team Leader for New Missionary Sending at the International Mission Board (IMB). Paul possesses a rare combination of missionary field experience, elder and pastoral experience, and missions recruiting and sending in a local church setting. He has lived and worked among Muslims in Africa and the Middle East, trained and equipped missionaries in both local church and seminary contexts, and served alongside missionary teams in a variety of global cities. Over the last decade, Paul has helped mobilize scores of people to go serve Christ among the nations and has been actively engaged with the persecuted church around the world.

Paul earned a PhD in Applied Theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, writing on missionary teams in global cities. Paul is married to Kari, and father of four children.