A native of Annapolis, Maryland, Ward received his education at Hampden-Sydney College (B.A.), Clemson University (M.A.), and the University of Southern Mississippi (Ph.D.). Before coming to Spring Hill College in 2007, Ward taught at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri. He held previous teaching positions at the Alabama School of Math and Science, and at University College Cork, in Ireland. Ward has written a number of articles on African-American history and the history of medicine, and is the author of Black Physicians in the Jim Crow South (2003). He was the project historian for the award-winning public radio series, Mississippi Voices, A Trip Through the Twentieth Century and is currently doing research for a book on African-American prisoners of war. He lives in Spanish Fort with his wife and three sons.