The chairman of the American Red Cross—the humanitarian organization founded by Clara Barton in 1881—is, actually, not a chairman. Bonnie McElveen-Hunter was appointed the first woman to the position by President George W. Bush in June 2004. Before that, the North Carolina native served two years as the Ambassador to the Republic of Finland, where she was knighted for starting a women business leader's summit and an anti-trafficking campaign. In all her spare time, she is the founder-CEO of Pace Communications, and served as finance chairman of Elizabeth Dole's bid for the U.S. presidency. (Dole became the first female president of the American Red Cross in 1996.)

But the work McElveen-Hunter believes God has called her to is with the American Red Cross, which deploys over 1 million volunteers annually to people devastated by natural disasters and political conflicts. McElveen-Hunter, who recently began her third term as Red Cross chairman, spoke with Her.meneutics editor Katelyn Beaty about women in business, Haiti's cholera outbreak, and why she is handing the John M. Templeton Biblical Values Award, recently awarded her by the National Bible Association, over to her mother.

While in Finland, you established the Women Business Leaders Summit in Helsinki. Then you founded the United Way Women's Leadership Initiative and a women's initiative in Greensboro. Why are women so invaluable in today's economic sectors?

I believe commerce is the most important force in the world today. It's what ushers in the social, economic, and political change. And if you can create opportunity for women, guess what they do? They help each other. They help their families, and it creates dignity of purpose. The money that's generated goes to improve people's lives as opposed to sometimes, with the other gender in some nations, you find that it's pretty much squandered. So women are really good investments.

I also think women are … focused on nurturing and are focused on others. We're focused on common goals, so we unite and work together. All of those are traits that are so appropriate in the world today, whether it's business, Wall Street, [or] philanthropy—[they require] the ability to build relationships to do anything in this world, to be successful in business. In the publishing business, you have to build relationships with your readers, with advertisers, with colleagues. And women are uniquely gifted in this arena, for this time.

If you want to look at nations that succeed in this world, they are nations that recognize that destiny requires 100 percent of their resources, both male and female. The nations that are not succeeding, in many cases they are utilizing only 50 percent of their resources. You can't compete in a global market today without the full utilization of your citizens.

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You have said, "The Red Cross helps me define the why in my life." So you come to your work with a sense of calling. When did you realize God was calling you to it?

God actually called me through the White House. I got a call when I got back to the U.S. I said, "I loved my experience as ambassador. I'm thrilled to have been knighted by Finland. But I need to come back to North Carolina." Then I got a call a few months later saying, "We are looking for a chairman of the American Red Cross, and we think this is a role you would do well." I thought, Oh my gosh, this is God's work. How do I say no to that?

I spoke to a lot of people about it and certainly prayed about it. I felt like this was an opportunity to meet people at their greatest hour of need, and that is certainly where and when the Red Cross is there. There is no way we as mere mortals [in the Red Cross] would be able to accomplish all the things that are necessary, but there seems to be divine intervention. It's amazing to see what happens with people who are largely volunteers. You sense you have blessings in the work you are doing.

Have you had a chance to visit Haiti? If so, what principles have you found most helpful in addressing crises like the cholera outbreak there?

I have been down there twice. I have not been there since the outbreak. We have 200 people on the ground that are engaged in emergency response, handing out water tablets. We've provided enough chlorine for 75,000 thousand gallons of water. So we're doing all the preventive things we can to make sure this doesn't spread.

One of the great benefits of the Red Cross is, first, that we are able, through a great and giving and generous nation, to generate resources. If someone had told me prior to the Haiti earthquake that we were going to generate almost a half-billion dollars for Haiti, I'm not sure I would have believed that was possible, because in most responses that we do, we lose money.

Second, the fact that we have 700 chapters all over the U.S. We have the ability to collectively do more within individual communities. The power of the local chapters and the network that exists—there is capacity and scale that are very difficult to replicate with an organization that has this many boots on the ground.

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And the fact that we [the international federation of the Red Cross] have 97 million volunteers around the world. Can you imagine what that would cost if you had to pay people even minimum wage? It's a trillion-dollar gift to nations and to the world.

What are the challenges that you and other female leaders face? Or would you say a lot of those challenges have largely been removed?

If you go to a women's museum, you learn that in many cases, the people who opposed women's right to vote were other women. Our biggest issue is sometimes we hold each other to a higher standard then we hold men. At some point, we have to figure out that we need to help one another. I think that is happening. I am seeing that women are working more to help support and promote each other, and I think that that period [of competition] is diminishing.

For [American] women, there are no barriers. What are the barriers in this country? [A feminist] spoke when I was in college and said the only restriction that you have on your potential is self-inflicted. Certainly there have been barriers, but those have been greatly diminished. You can sit around and talk about what you don't have as opposed to what you do have. But I've never been one to accept that any of those barriers were meant for me.

Your mother, Madeline, has obviously influenced your life's work enormously.

Enormously. One of the most wonderful gifts that anyone can ever receive is the gift of a godly mother. It makes everything possible. Seeing my mother at the end of the hall with her white Bible with large print propped up on her knees, as she's propped up in the bed reading and memorizing—and I think, honestly, before she had the stroke [10 years ago], she may have memorized the first 50 or 60 Psalms. She was in the process of memorizing all the Psalms, and she could quote them to you. Honestly, there's no way that I come anywhere close to deserving a Bible award. I feel like I'm a work in progress, and she has arrived.