People working across diverse fields of health care gather each fall at Duke Divinity School to begin a year of study in the Theology, Medicine, and Culture (TMC) Initiative’s hybrid Certificate in Theology and Health Care (CTHC). When they do, new learning, stories, and ventures unfold. Friendships form and grow, interests are realized and pursued, ways of being and thinking are challenged and mature, and unexpected doors open. These are the stories of six Hybrid CTHC alumni, how they were changed by studying with TMC, and what led them to continue their studies at Duke in degree-seeking programs.
Bill Buxton, M.D.
Hybrid CTHC to Hybrid Master of Divinity (M.Div.)
“The thought of theological education and ministry didn’t enter my mind for years,” Bill Buxton says, “because my path into medicine was all-consuming for two decades.” It wasn’t until Buxton, a neurologist in California, entered his mid-career years that he began searching for ways to add dimension to his clinical practice.
“I began researching online, and when I found TMC I began reading what TMC faculty had written and watching lectures TMC offered online. They all resonated with me, so I applied,” Buxton says. His year in the hybrid CTHC was "a wonderful experience that reignited my passion for medicine and also led me to learn more about theology and ministry—not so much as a new path or two vocations starting mid-career, but finding a way to integrate them as one shared vocation with a shared manifestation.”
More than this, Buxton says that the hybrid CTHC gave him a vocabulary and a confidence to engage in faith-based and ethical discussions with people of different faith backgrounds—something he had shied away from earlier. "I saw how deep study of scripture can help us tackle modern problems, and I wanted to learn more to support my vocations to medicine and to ministry. I simply wanted more.”
While completing the hybrid CTHC, Buxton was accepted into the hybrid M.Div., which he expects to complete May 2027. “The Hybrid M.Div. faculty are eager to maintain theological, spiritual, and academic rigor while giving us the flexibility to take [our work] in directions applicable to our own contexts.” Buxton notes how his continued theological studies have directly informed his clinical practice, observing that “as I learn more about scripture, I’m finding more and more ways to bring its wisdom into conversations not only with patients in the office but also in a support group I lead.”
Kathryn Price, J.D., M.Div.
Hybrid CTHC to Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.)
Kathryn Price had just moved to Chapel Hill when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. “My husband had gone back to Chicago for work,” Price says. “I was mothering my last child through her final year in high school in Chapel Hill, was alone, and feeling spiritually depleted.” In the midst of her dramatically altered life, Price began leaning on God in ways she never had to prior to her diagnosis.
“TMC and the Hybrid CTHC came into my life at the perfect time,” Price says through tears. Being accepted into the program was a dream come true; Price had longed to study at Duke for more than twenty years. “I met the most wonderful, faithful people at Duke Divinity in the hybrid CTHC. I sometimes [questioned if I belonged] because I wasn’t a physician or because I didn’t have a deep enough faith, but it was a magical time of growth.”
Price felt like she was coming back to life in unexpected ways while studying at Duke Divinity and knew that one year of study wouldn’t be enough. She applied and was accepted into the hybrid D.Min., where her current studies focus on church leadership. “It’s amazing how I've grown into believing and accepting my strengths as a Christian leader—a Black, woman, Christian leader," Price says. “I’m learning to apply my faith to all aspects of my life as a pastor and hospital chaplain. Faith must speak into everything we do—the decisions we make, the relationships we have. During my time at Duke Divinity School I’ve found a different spiritual grammar and new relationship with Jesus, all while studying with the most inspiring people.”
Rachel Jandera, BSN, R.N., M.A.
Hybrid CTHC to Hybrid Master of Arts in Christian Practice (M.A.)
Rachel Jandera has always loved people and loved healing, so becoming a nurse early in adulthood was a natural fit. Twenty years into her career, Jandera started following Jesus, an unexpected turn in her path that opened opportunities to care for others through healing prayer and facilitating mental health groups at her church. Jandera thought the hybrid CTHC was “the perfect opportunity because it offered theological education focused on ministry through health care.”
In the hybrid CHTC, Jandera formed friendships that remain strong to this day. She loved studying Christian mystics like Julian of Norwich and learning how to exegete scripture. While not without its challenges, Jandera found her grounding in graduate study and by the beginning of spring term, her husband and a few classmates-turned-friends encouraged her to consider furthering her training at Duke. “They recognized in me academic potential that I didn’t know I had,” Jandera says. She risked applying to the Master of Arts in Christian Practice, was accepted, and the summer after graduating from the hybrid CTHC continued on as a degree-seeking student.
“I loved my studies at Duke Divinity School,” Jandera says, “but I also learned that what I was seeking—the education I needed for the ministry God has for me—does not exist. The better question to ask is, ‘Who in the body of Christ can come alongside me as I journey into Kingdom-minded things?’” Jandera realized that there is no pre-qualification for the work God had for her. Her love for people and for healing were woven into her life. Spending four extra semesters completing the M.A. allowed Jandera to dig deep into Christendom at Duke and to remain present to the Kingdom work at hand now.
“Studying at Duke gave me the chance to engage the theology of early church fathers. That theology helps me take great care of the patients God gives me today.”
Hima Bindu Thota, M.D., M.T.S.
Hybrid CTHC to Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.)
Bindu Thota began noticing concerning changes in her experience as a surgeon during her third year of residency at Rutgers. She started growing numb to the individual lives of her patients and would awake in the morning feeling despair, which led to a particularly stark moment signaling that something deeper was wrong. “After a trauma call, I experienced [a sense of] relief after one of my patients passed—relief that the patient was not going to suffer through a prolonged ICU course, which was inevitably heading toward a traumatic death, but also relief that there was one less person to take care of,” Bindu remembers. These feelings prompted her to seek renewal and support through the hybrid CTHC.
Thota continued her fourth year of residency while studying with TMC, waking up at 3 a.m. to complete reading assignments. “It wasn’t a burden,” Thota recalls, “because I wasn’t storing what I was learning for a future time. I would read and then go to work. In the evenings, I would process the material and my praxis with other practitioners in my hybrid CTHC cohort who understood the challenges of residency. I had the distinct feeling that I wasn’t alone.”
While Thota completed the hybrid CTHC, she also became a resource to other residents, discussing with them what it means for surgical practice not to become an all-consuming identity and acknowledging the numbness that many experience. “What I was able to see and evaluate through the lens of our learning in the hybrid CTHC is that there is a deep malformation happening to surgeons after intern year,” Thota states. “I was aware of it and did something about it, but other residents either weren’t aware of it or didn’t do anything about it.”
Thota offered the final project she created for one hybrid CTHC course as a seminar hour for surgical residents at Rutgers. Acknowledging grief and the need to lament allowed for unexpected and vulnerable conversations among fellow residents. That experience solidified Thota’s hope to return to Duke to complete a Master of Theological Studies.
“In coming back to Duke for the M.T.S., I wanted to rest after many long years of residency. I also hoped to gain tools with which I could return to residency and offer relief from the chronic feelings I experienced during my third year,” Thota says. “I hope for a culture shift in the world of surgery, and I knew I needed to step away for a bit in order to contribute to that shift when I returned.”
Doug Morgan, M.D., M.P.H.
Hybrid CTHC to Hybrid Master of Divinity (M.Div.)
Doug Morgan’s journey to Duke Divinity School began after a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in 2019 and the space created by the COVID19 pandemic brought a dream from earlier in life back to the surface. “Pursuing theological training is a seed that was planted in my life after returning from service as a Peace Corps engineer in Central America, in parallel with thoughts about attending medical school,” Morgan says. “Working in medicine and global health has been an enriching career. However, the ‘theology seed’ germinated during the Camino and ‘pandemic pause’, and Duke Divinity’s hybrid program offered a pathway for me to help it grow and flourish.”
Morgan matriculated into the hybrid M.Div. program before learning about the hybrid CTHC. He’s grateful to have studied with TMC his first year because “the hybrid CTHC is a very practical way to transition into further study at Duke Divinity.” He says that “the coursework is inspiring and evening classes make for a do-able rhythm alongside full-time employment. The hybrid CTHC rejuvenated for me the vocational ‘why' of medicine and helped me refocus life and work demands. Our hybrid CTHC cohort has been inspiring, and two years later, we continue together in both serious and less-serious WhatsApp conversations and a monthly journal club.”
Taking part in different centers and initiatives at Duke Divinity School has added dimensions to Morgan’s learning experience. “For the most part, whatever your vocational interests are, you’ll be able to align with specific expertise at Duke Divinity, given the breadth of its accomplished faculty,” Morgan says. “My work is focused on cancer prevention in Hispanic and Latino populations, so finding community within the Hispanic House has been an amazing opportunity.” Morgan has also participated in the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies, about which he says, “Duke Divinity is founded in the Methodist tradition, however, the students and faculty are multi-denominational, which provides a rich culture of diverse traditions and experiences” to learn from.
Robin Liles, Ph.D., LCMHC-S
Hybrid CTHC to Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.)
Robin Liles has always had a keen desire to know more about God. However, the decades during which she raised three children, became a clinical mental health counselor, and was as a professor in counseling and counselor education at NC A&T held no space or time to pursue theological education. When rhythms and routines of life were upended during the COVID19 pandemic, Liles reconnected with her lifelong desire and began searching online for opportunities to study the Bible. That’s when she found the hybrid CTHC. In short order, she submitted her application and, in the fall of 2022, began the program.
During her time in the hybrid CTHC, Liles experienced “an environment encouraging me that it is okay to just go chase God.” Studying works by Athansius and Augustine provided her with “a level of deep thinking that was gratifying,” Liles says, and her professors always grounded the theology they taught in practical work outside the school.
In 2018, the lead pastor of Liles’s church, First United Methodist Church (FUMC) Asheboro, N.C., approached Liles with a proposal: If FUMC began offering counseling to those in need in the Asheboro community, would Liles be willing to take the lead? “I didn’t want to do that,” Liles says, “not because I didn’t like the idea, but because I was aware of the risk and responsibility related to clinical mental health counseling’s scope of practice.”
Studying Christian history led Liles to reconsider her pastor’s proposal. “I saw that what these great thinkers had to say was applicable to [my pastor’s] vision of offering counseling through our church,” Liles states. “I loved studying scripture and Christian history, and I only wanted more.”
During her second semester in the hybrid CTHC, Liles was accepted to the D.Min. program. After graduating from the hybrid CTHC, Liles and her pastor together opened Wellness & Restoration, which continues to grow in service to the people of Asheboro. Liles will study the history of her church and the evolution of Wellness & Restoration as she completes her thesis.