Debra Morris Smith
Debra Morris Smith has been interested in Sudan since 2000, when she began teaching English to a group of Sudanese refugee women in Des Moines. After moving to St. Louis, she was on the first mission (in 2003) from the Diocese of Missouri to the Diocese of Lui. She is currently Missouri's mission coordinator and liaison to the Diocese of Lui, and brings to the work not only a passion for the people of Sudan, but also a lifetime of experience in the church as first a priest's and now a bishop's wife, a Ph.D. in English and many years' experience as a teacher at various levels and now an administrator in adult education, and a knowledge of the Arabic language that sometimes comes in handy on the ground in Sudan.