Kaye Miller of Little Rock, Ark., was elected June 20 as the new president of the national Woman's Missionary Union.
Miller, who has served as president of Arkansas WMU since 2002, succeeds Janet Hoffman of Farmerville, La., national WMU's president since 2000.
She was elected during the WMU Missions Celebration and annual meeting at First Baptist Church in Nashville and is eligible for annual re-election for up to five years.
Miller, 51, brings a lifetime of missions experiences to her new role as the 21st president of national WMU. She grew up as an MK (“missionary kid”) in Thailand where her parents, Harlan and Jo Willis, served as medical missionaries for more than 20 years.
She is believed to be the first former MK to serve as WMU president.
The oldest of three sisters, Miller was home schooled until the seventh grade. She then attended a boarding school in Bangkok, Thailand, to finish high school. She continued her education at Baylor University where she earned a bachelor's degree in nursing.
She and her husband, Mark, have three daughters and a son.
As a state WMU president, one of Miller's responsibilities has been to serve on the executive board for national WMU. In that capacity, she has served on the finance committee and the Vision 2010 Task Force, which was a group appointed in 2003 by Hoffman to help paint the broad strokes of what the organization should look like by the year 2010.
She is a member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock.
“Kay is stepping into leadership at an important time in the life of WMU,” said Earlene Jessee, executive director of Virginia WMU. “Her global perspective as a former MK and ability to embrace life's struggles are positive qualities. It is my prayer as she assumes her role with Wanda Lee, executive director of national WMU, that together through the power of the Holy Spirit they will lead us to face the challenges necessary to unleash WMU's mission potential throughout the world.”
A record 1,354 people, including 115 international and North American missionaries, attended the meeting.
Executive director Lee interviewed WMU staff members Jean Cullin who shared about WMU's Volunteer Connection partnerships in France, Croatia and Moldova, and Kristy Carr, who shared about Angel Tree Camps for children of incarcerated parents and Pure Water, Pure Love projects in Mexico, Indonesia and Sudan.
Featured missionary speakers from the International Mission Board included Tom and Anna King, who serve university students in Paris, France; Rebekah Naylor, who has been a surgeon in India at the Bangalore Baptist Hospital for 30-plus years; and the Fort family, led by Giles and Wana Ann Fort, with their sons Gordon, David and Gregg, who all have ties to mission service in Africa.
Baptist Press