Dr. Betty C. Whitehurst
Leader for "Food and Faith"
Betty Whitehurst, a former missionary in Cuba and Chile, is a retired Professor of Spanish, having taught in several colleges in Virginia after receiving her Ph.D. degree from the University of Virginia. She was Associate Director of United Methodist Volunteers In Mission, Southeastern Jurisdiction, 1995-99, and a Consultant for Individual Volunteers with the Mission Volunteers unit of the General Board of Global Ministries, 1999-2004.
Dr. Whitehurst is the author of Vital Ministry in the Small Membership Church: Mission (Abingdon, 1999), and she and her husband, Rev. Walter Whitehurst, have recently written a book, Following God's Call. Individual Volunteers In Mission, published by Abingdon Press in November 2008. She is listed in the Marquis Who's Who in America and Who's Who of American Women.
She has been a delegate to five General Conferences and six Jurisdictional Conferences, and to three World Methodist Conferences. She has served as Dean of the Virginia Conference School of Christian Mission, and as Virginia Conference Secretary of Global Ministries. She has served on the Virginia Conference Board of Global Ministries and is currently a member of the Conference Board of Discipleship. She chaired the Southeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Hispanic Ministries, and was a director of the General Board of Discipleship for eight years. She has served as a local, district, and conference officer of United Methodist Women, including a term as conference president. In her local church she is a member of United Methodist Women, co-director of Hispanic ministry, and is a mentor for M.O.P.S. (Mothers of Pre- Schoolers). Her husband is a retired clergy member of the Virginia Conference. She has three children and five grandchildren.