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ST. LOUIS, Mo.-Her smile is sweet, her manner demure and her voice soft. Yet standing among the throngs at the 48th quadrennial conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was one of the loudest voices in the fight to end crises in Darfur and Southern Sudan.
The Rev. Gloria White-Hammond, in the past six years, has become an outspoken leader in advocacy efforts for the oppressed-mostly women and children-and will be even more so as the newly-elected chair of the board of the Save Darfur Coalition, a network of religious and humanitarian organizations.
The Boston pediatrician said her work is directly tied to her calling as an A.M.E. minister.
"I certainly wouldn't get out there if I didn't have a sense of [God] calling me," she told the AFRO. "It's really out of a recognition of this is why I was put on the planet-not only to serve God, but to serve God's people."
In her work with the coalition, White-Hammond met with President Bush to push for his intervention in the Darfur crisis and also helped secure the assurances of the presidential candidate^ that they would address the situation when they claim the helm of the White House. She was there to see the organization develop a mailing list of more than a million people, organize a march on Washington that numbered in the thousands and become the leading voice on this issue. But there is more to do, she said.
"My goal in the year I serve as the board chair is to think through how to more efficiently share...