In 2007, McNeil received the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for contributions to his community and in 2012, received the Village Gatekeeper Award from the Nia Cultural Center for his work on issues of HIV/AIDS and substance abuse.
He has been a volunteer in the Texas Prison System for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and has been a guest lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Clinical Trials, the Webster University Counseling/University of Minnesota Divinity School in San Antonio, Texas.