GMHC 2024

Appointed by IMB in 1973 to serve in India as a surgeon. After retirement in 2009, she assumed leadership of global health strategies for IMB from 2010 to 2023.

Rebekah Ann Naylor, graduate of Baylor University and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, completed a general surgery residency at Parkland Hospital, Dallas. 

Rebekah was appointed by the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board as a missionary to Bangalore Baptist Hospital, India, in 1973.  Her missionary career included clinical practice, administrative responsibility, and teaching.  In the 1990’s she organized training programs in allied health disciplines, set up accredited residency training programs for doctors, initiated a chaplaincy training program, and established the Rebekah Ann Naylor School of Nursing.  Throughout, Rebekah was involved in church development ministry.  After 36 years of field service, she became the Director of Global Health Strategies for the IMB, retiring in 2023. 

Awards include Surgical Humanitarian Award from the American College of Surgeons, honorary doctorate of missiology from Oklahoma Baptist University and the 2022 Pro Ecclesia Medal of Service from Baylor University. A biography is available entitled Rebekah Ann Naylor, M.D.: Missionary Surgeon in Changing Times.