We are pleased to announce that the Project on Lived Theology (PLT) has awarded an Undergraduate Summer Fellowship to Elizabeth Rambo, a rising fourth year from Columbia, South Carolina, majoring in Global Public Health.
Alongside an academic and theological mentorship with Dr. Susan Holman, Elizabeth will be interning in the health outreach arm of Catholic Charities of Washington, D.C and the food department of Bread for the City. Elizabeth and Dr. Holman will focus their studies on faith-based approaches to public health.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington (CCADW), among other services, provides extensive physical and mental healthcare through free and low-cost dental care, general medicine, medications, and behavioral and psychiatric aid. Serving the community for nearly a century, they provide care to the entirety of Washington, D.C. as well as eastern and southern Maryland. Bread for the City gives comprehensive social services as well, to a smaller area in downtown D.C. Their food bank serves hundreds daily facing short or long-term food insecurity.
With Dr. Holman, Elizabeth will study and reflect upon the intersection of faith, human rights, and global public health. This study will complement her roles at organizations who deal extensively with the public health crises of poverty, mental health, and food insecurity. She plans to research and discuss how race and racism, public health policy, and culture have impacted the diverse D.C. community and the health issues it faces – and how faith-based organizations can begin the healing process.
At UVA, Elizabeth is on the leadership team for Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), mentors for the Young Women Leaders Program, and enjoys hiking, reading, and being with friends.
Reading List:
- Ellen L. Idler, ed., Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
- Helen Rhee, Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022).
- Arthur Simon, Bread for the World. (1975)
- Jennie Weiss Block, M. Therese Lysaught, and Alexandre A. Martins, eds., A Prophet to the People: Paul Farmer’s Witness and Theological Ethics (Journal of Moral Theology’s Global Theological Ethics Series; Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2023).
- “Toward a Theology of Medicine,” chapter 9 in Michael J. Balboni and Tracy A. Balboni, Hostility to Hospitality: Spirituality and Professional Socialization within Medicine(New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), pp. 138-163. Holman, Susan. (2014).
- Beholden: Religion, global health, and human rights. Oxford University Press.
- Katelyn N.G. Long et al., “Boundary Crossing: Meaningfully Engaging Religious Traditions and Religious Institutions in Public Health,” Religions 2019; 10 (412), doi: 10.3390/rel10070412.
- Clydette L Powell, “Working together for global health: The United States Agency for International Development and faith-based organizations,” Christian Journal for Global Health [Nov. 2014]; 1(2): 63-70. https://cjgh.org/articles/10.15566/cjgh.v1i2.36.
The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.