|
Vivian Berryhill
|
Mrs. Vivian Berryhill is president and founder of the National Coalition of Pastors’ Spouses (NCPS), a nonprofit, nonpartisan network of more than 2,500+ clergy spouses from varying denominations across the country. She is committed to her organization’s mission to raise awareness through health education, by working through churches and religious institutions to empower women to take action to improve health.
In April 2006, she received the prestigious Presidential Service Award from President George W. Bush for her dedicated service to national and international healthcare initiatives. Her organization co-hosted World AIDS Day 2006 in Memphis, TN. December 1st.
Mrs. Berryhill devotes countless hours, both domestically and internationally, in her quest to encourage pastors’ spouses to use faith institutions as "health hubs” in the fight to reverse the effects of the debilitating diseases that are disproportionately impacting families and communities. On the front-line to enlighten people of color on the scourge of HIV/AIDS, Mrs. Berryhill accompanied U.S. Health and Human Service Secretary Tommy Thompson on an HIV/AIDS fact-finding mission to four countries in sub-Sahara Africa in 2003. She also represented the United States as a private sector delegate at the 57th International World Health Organization in Geneva Switzerland in May 2004; toured faith-based sites in Peru, Bolivia and Chile in June 2005, expanding the network of pastors’ spouses and touting her organization’s innovative approach to HIV/AIDS to pastors’ spouses in that region; and led a delegation of pastors’ spouses to the 2004 International HIV/AIDS Conference in Bangkok Thailand to a present the abstract entitled: “Faith Leaders’ Spouses Are Integral to Faith-Based HIV/AIDS Outreach in Communities of Color” It was one of 2,000 selected from a field of 10,000 entries for presentation. Mrs. Berryhill recently returned from a trip to Honduras where she trained faith leaders using the HIV/AIDS: A Manual For Faith Communities, which her organization developed in conjunction with the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She was the World AIDS Day 2007 keynote speaker at the Global Summit on HIV/AIDS and the Church at Saddleback, and the keynote speaker for the 2008 International HIV/AIDS Conference in Lagos, Nigeria. Her speech: Women Leading the World… Through Care, was the impetus that sparked the global “keys2care” movement.
Mrs. Berryhill was honored in Washington, DC, along with Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Congresswoman Nancy Johnson (R-CT) for her organization’s development of the widely circulated “Faith Matters: How Faith Leaders Can Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy” guide–– a collaborative effort with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
True to her pioneering spirit, recently spearheaded a team of pastors’ spouses, and medical and governmental experts to draft a national faith-focused diabetes curriculum: “Faith In Action: Exposing the Disease––Diabetes”. This program is designed to strengthen the capacity of African- American churches by educating and empowering pastors’ spouses to develop culturally-appropriate and sustainable diabetes ministries and programs.
In 2007, she was selected as one of the premier partners for Walden Media’s internationally acclaimed movie: Amazing Grace, and the worldwide movement Amazing Change, lending her voice and talent along with other notable world leaders to end modern day slavery.
Mrs. Berryhill, a 2007 Jefferson Public Service Award winner, was recently appointed to serve on the Advisory Council to the Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention through June 2010. She and her husband, Rev. Chester L. Berryhill, Jr., reside in Olive Branch, MS. She is First Lady of New Philadelphia Baptist Church in Memphis, TN.