Jeff Baker has lived for most of his adult life in Durham, N.C., where he has attended Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church. A general pediatrician, he practiced primary care for over 30 years, with a particular focus on children with autism and special needs. He’s also a medical historian whose most recent work addresses how teaching hospitals engage with their communities, through the example of Duke and Durham.
A job in public health led Kayla Craddock to Richmond, Va., but the community, friends, and family she found were unexpected and life-giving. She has been active in her faith journey while in Richmond from getting baptized as an adult, completing a fellowship in the Richmond Christian Leadership Initiative (2018), participating and leading mission trips to Vietnam, and leading/participating in numerous small groups. Her work in public health has spanned community to national perspectives, with relationship building foundational to her efforts. Craddock is excited to more intentionally connect her faith and work through the hybrid CTHC program.
Joshua Duensing is a fourth-year medical student at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. He has a strong interest in the ways that faith communities of all kinds influence, and are influenced by, health policy. After graduation, he intends to pursue a career in family medicine with an emphasis on care for those with intellectual disabilities.
Dr. Crystal Fuller grew up in Macon, Ga. She earned her bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology and visual arts/photography at Duke University and her Doctor of Dental Surgery and Certificate in Health Policy at Meharry Medical College. As a Christian provider, Fuller is committed to breaking down barriers to healthcare while contributing to the intersection of theology and health care, specifically in the field of dentistry. In addition to making bright smiles, one of her main goals is to provide care that addresses both physical and spiritual needs.
Melissa Grimes is a registered nurse with years of experience in the OR with ophthalmic surgery. Assisting in sight-saving surgeries as well as developing and administering continuing education courses for ophthalmic nurses has taken Grimes to more than 40 developing countries. Learning about blindness evolved into Grimes' own “learning to see.” She is passionate about helping others see and receive God’s grace, claim their belovedness, and participate in their own sense of well-being and wholeness.
Maglin Halsey-Nichols is an emergency medicine physician at University of North Carolina, working clinically at the medical center and Hillsborough hospitals. She also serves in administrative roles including assistant program director for the residency and co-division director for the department’s Division of Global Health and Health Equity. Halsey-Nichols completed her undergraduate degree at Clemson University, medical school at University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, and her emergency medicine residency at Vanderbilt.
Jennifer (Jen) Herbst is the Carmen Tortora Professor of Law & Medical Sciences at Quinnipiac University's School of Law and Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine. She currently serves as a community member on the adult and pediatric ethics committees for Yale-New Haven Hospital. She has also served as the 2019-2020 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa and one of ten national fellows in the Future of Public Health Law Teaching program underwritten by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is currently taking a deep dive into the historical origins and evolution of the ethical and legal framework for those making health care decisions for patients lacking decision-making capacity.
Jamie is a physician doing accession medicine for the military in Portland, Oregon, which she came to after 15 years of general surgery practice.
Andrew Kim is a current medical student at Chicago Medical School in Rosalind Franklin University. He is interested in pursuing a career in family medicine, with emphases in palliative care and clinical informatics. Kim is passionate about learning how medicine can be better practiced alongside faith integration and clinical quality.
Louis Kim is currently vice president at Hewlett-Packard working in AI. He serves on the boards of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC. He is a contributing editor at the public theology magazine, Comment. Kim volunteers for hospice and is further exploring the palliative/hospice field. Louis has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Brown University and an M.B.A. from Yale.
Taehee Kim is originally from South Korea. She is a national certified counselor and licensed clinical mental health counselor-associate, holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology, and teaches in the department of counseling at North Carolina A&T State University.
Sharyn Kurtz is a physician assistant who has worked in various hematology/oncology clinical settings for the past 20 years, including previously at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and most recently at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She currently works on the inpatient Dana-Farber hematologic malignancy team, where she cares for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and for those patients undergoing CAR-T cell therapy and bone marrow transplant therapy. She also serves as adjunct faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Professions and as faculty for the Harvard Center for Bioethics Consultation Skills course. She earned a graduate degree in theological studies in 2012 from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and she completed a post-graduate fellowship in medical ethics from the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics in 2014. She has served as a member of the Dana-Farber Ethics advisory committee and as a clinical ethics consultant for Dana-Farber since 2017.
Randy Laine's first academic loves were physics and mathematics. His life trajectory changed during a sabbatical to pursue an M.Div., which led him to medicine. Laine now practices and teaches hospital medicine and internal medicine at Barnes Jewish Hospital and Washington University. Laine desires to see John 10:10 and Psalm 133 become a reality in people's lives and in local communities, such that they strive and achieve their potential.
Bryan is a biblical counselor based in Raleigh, N.C. He enjoys walking with others through the joys and sorrows of life, encountering the living God with them. Launer serves as the executive director of Hope Counseling Services, a non-profit biblical counseling center based in the Triangle.
Deborah Park is originally from Chicago, Ill. and is currently a psychiatry resident at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Park's professional interests include the intersection between psychiatry and theology, eating disorders, and the development of trauma.
Dr. Suzie Park is an internal medicine physician at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. For the last fourteen years, her specialty has been primary care for women. She finds chronic care management and helping patients aim for whole health rewarding. Her areas of service include the Virginia ACP and her local church.
Kim Ramsey-White is currently employed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, where she leads the Office of Inclusive Excellence. She is a diversity strategic planner, and most of her work has taken place in higher education. However, she has also made a personal commitment to share guidance and best practices regarding how to create work and school environments that facilitate a welcoming safe place for all. Ramsey-White considers herself a servant leader and gets excited about all opportunities to prepare the next generation of public health leaders.
Dr. Rick Rapp is a family physician living and working in rural northern Wisconsin. Rapp was raised in a non-denominational evangelical church, currently attends a Wesleyan church, but theologically is finding his place in a Reformed Covenental Baptist theology. God has blessed him with the opportunity to incorporate faith into the practice of medicine, but he has always lacked for role models and kindred spirits integrating faith and medicine and is excited to participate in Duke's Theology, Medicine, and Culture program.
Rev. Dr. Lisa Robinson is the pastor of Christ Church-United Methodist in Paterson, N.J. An M.Div. graduate from Princeton Theological Seminary, she originally hails from Teaneck, N.J. and has ancestral roots in Charleston, S.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Over the years, she has traveled locally, nationally, and globally, preaching, teaching, training, and consulting. Pastor Robinson is also a licensed social worker, spiritual writer, business consultant, and community activist.
Stephanie Toney is an ambitious and confident leader at CHW Strength. For over 13 years, she has been innovatively motivating and empowering community health workers (CHWs). She successfully fosters relationships with community partners and collaborates with local and statewide task forces to address the social determinants of health. Enthusiastically, Toney continues towards 23 years of experience as a nurse and 13 years in public health. With her genuine, compassionate leadership, she continues to motivate her team to learn and grow in their public health careers.
Shannon Young is a fourth-year medical student living in Portland, Ore., applying to residency in psychiatry this fall. Before medical school, Young had a career in immunology research in St. Louis, and during medical school, she completed a Master of Clinical Research. Young hopes to pursue a research career that lies at the intersection of psychiatry, social sciences, and the humanities. As a psychiatrist, she also aspires to dedicate her career to providing compassionate care for individuals with mental illness, with a focus on the vulnerable and suffering.