Interfaith America hosted an event in Charlotte, NC, in early January, to celebrate the start of the advisory and research fellows.
This selected group of leaders and doctors will inform and learn from the campus-based projects funded through our Faith in Health Professions program.
The three-year initiative, made possible by the John Templeton Foundation, is designed to promote religious pluralism across the health landscape through curricular and co-curricular learning, research, and robust community partnerships.
The fellowship engages key thought leaders from an array of settings in the faith and health landscape. The group will be led by Dr. Gary Gunderson, whom Jimmy Carter tapped to lead an interfaith health initiative at The Carter Center in the 1990s.
Gunderson’s subsequent journey led him to leadership roles in two health systems committed to the fruitful engagement of religious health assets.
Other members of the group include: Harvard’s Dr. Katelyn Long, lead author on a recent Health Affairs publication, “Religion as a Social Determinant of Health”; Dr. Sana Syed, President of American Muslim Health Professionals; and Dr. Linda Alexander, Chief Academic Officer of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health.
The group will provide key thought leadership to the overarching, three-year project, ensuring that our campus partners build on, rather than replicating, existing research about the positive engagement of diverse religious communities and identities in healthcare. In addition, they will help shape and pursue research questions that explore the impact of these campus-based efforts.
The completed list of our fellows:
- Dr. Teresa Cutts, Hold Health
- Ben O’Dell, Department of Health and Human Service (HHS’s) Partnership Center
- Dr. Carla Park, AdventHealth
- Dr. David Tillman, Campbell University
- Dr. Jim Cochrane, University of Cape Town
- Dr. Lavjay Butani, University of California, Davis
- Dr. Matthew Bersagel Braley, Viterbo University
- Dr. Shaunesse’ Jacobs Plaisimond, University of South Florida
- Dr. Eboni Haynes, Emory University
