Will Herzfeld was a pastor and first African American to serve as the national leader of a Lutheran church body and a leader in the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His first pastorate was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he was also active with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He became Associate Executive Director for the ELCA's global mission division in 1993.

He passed away in 2010 from cerebal malaria, which he contracted just a month before while traveling in Africa to attend the ordination of the first female Lutheran pastor in the Central African Republic.