The Rev. Gloria Elaine White-Hammond, M.D.

[Biography | Honorary Degree]

The Rev. Gloria E. White-Hammond, M.D., has a long history of involvement in community and humanitarian efforts. She has been the co-pastor of Bethel AME Church in Boston, Mass., since 1997 and a pediatrician at the South End Community Health Center since 1981.

White-Hammond is the founder of and consultant to the church-based creative writing/mentoring ministry called “Do the Write Thing” for high-risk black adolescent females. The project, which began in 1994 with four girls, now serves more than 550 young women through small groups in two Boston public schools, two juvenile detention facilities in Boston and on site at Bethel AME Church. She is the co-convener of The Red Tent Group with Rabbi Elaine Zecher of Temple Israel, which brings together Christian and Jewish women for a small group Torah/Bible study.

Her work as a humanitarian has achieved global impact. She has worked as a medical missionary in several African countries, including Botswana, Cote D’Ivoire and South Africa. Since 2001, she has made six trips into war-torn southern Sudan where she has helped obtain the freedom of 10,000 women and children who were enslaved during the two decades long civil war. In 2002 she co-founded My Sister’s Keeper (MSK), a humanitarian women’s group that partners with women of Sudan in their efforts toward reconciliation and reconstruction of their communities.

In February 2005, White-Hammond traveled into Darfur to listen and learn from female victims of genocide. She currently serves as the co-chair of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur and is chairwoman of the national Million Voices for Darfur campaign.

White-Hammond also serves on the Board of Trustees of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Board of Overseers for the Tufts University College for Community and Public Service, as well as the boards of the American Anti-Slavery Group ( Boston) and Christian Solidarity International ( Zurich).

She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Boston University, a Doctorate of Medicine from Tufts Medical School and a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School.

White-Hammond is the recipient of numerous awards including the Humanitarian Award of the Boston Theological Institute (2004), the Liberating Vision Award of the Greater Boston Section of the National Council of Negro Women (2004) and the Impact Award from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) (2004).

Since 1973, she has been married to the Rev. Ray A. Hammond, M.D., who is the founding pastor of Bethel AME Church, the Chairman of the Boston Ten Point Coalition and the Chairman of the Boston Foundation. They are the blessed parents of two adult daughters, Mariama and Adiya, and a granddaughter, Ella.