Sandra A. Ham
Multidisciplinary Theologian, Independent Scholar, Web Designer, Consultant
Continuing Benedict XVI’s Strengthening of the Roman Catholic Church
Early Training: Engineer and Epidemiologist
I came to be a multidisciplinary theologian who designs websites and offers consulting services to organizations in the Roman Catholic Church by an unusual path. I am a mechanical engineer with over 30 years of experience using a unique combination of secular skills in engineering, statistics, and epidemiology to work in élite organizations in government, industry, and academia—mainly in the health sector.
In the 2000s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) managed the field of physical activity and the built environment like a tech startup. I was part of the public health initiative to change culture by re-engineering physical activity into daily life. Secular modernity had effectively engineered it out via social norms and labor-saving devices—with the growing obesity epidemic as its most significant consequence.
At the CDC I applied my creative, jack-of-all trades skills from industry, and life-long interest in high-level societal perspectives. My niche was to analyze national survey data about physical activity and publish scientific reports. In addition, new data sources and measurement tools were needed for the new approach that involved urban planning, parks and recreation, transportation, education, occupations, and pedometers.
My government work also included strategic planning for the field of physical activity and public health, for the Physical Activity and Health Branch at the CDC, and for the program of Healthy People 2020 national health objectives.
A religious conversion motivated me to leave that successful career. I added theology by returning to graduate school at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
A Quest
Inspired by my conversion and intellectual toolkit, I wanted to attempt to solve big problems that threaten the future of human civilization and the planet. I’m interested in problems related to religion, the environment, economy, technology, psychology, and culture change. Since these problems did not exist before the modern era, history may hold the keys to their solutions.
Filtering theological ideas through my CDC lens, I approached graduate school with a set of questions about how God designed nature, including human nature:
- Did God design us to fare better with particular designs of our societies?
- Have our Christian ancestors been shown models that can be framed as systems of ideas that influence culture?
- How did we get from those good ideas into the pickle in which we find ourselves today—with consumerism, environmental crises, and other woes—all permitted by Christianity Lite?
Surely the current, secular design for our human societies is not our evolutionary end—or even an acceptable stop on this journey. There must be a better way. I believe Divine Wisdom already gave us answers that need to be recovered and adapted.
The Life of the Mind
Like many engineers and statisticians, I am curious about the driving questions and methods of many academic disciplines. As generalists, we expect to be able to read and interpret the literature of any discipline.
The University of Chicago offers a classical education that includes the driving questions, philosophy, and methods of its academic disciplines. Going far beyond my background in engineering and public health, it has deep resources in classical liberal arts, including theology, philosophy, history, and literature, as well as cutting-edge interdisciplinary sciences. Therefore, the place is known for its fertile ground for cultivating the “life of the mind.”
I spent 12 years at Chicago, searching in countless lectures, courses, wine and cheese receptions, salons, and libraries across the entire university for evidence of old answers to my questions. Everything I did there contributed in at least a small way towards this overarching project.
A Multidisciplinary Theologian
In Chicago I wandered far beyond theology and biblical studies. For 10 years, I was a “contemplative with a day job” and an independent scholar. Holding an easy job doing statistical consulting on campus in the medical school allowed me to listen to talks by top scientists and scholars in every department and at several seminaries in Hyde Park.
And so, I played in my “sandbox” that included classical philosophy, history of Christianity, medieval history, the history and philosophy of science, anthropology, culture change, ethics, economics, medicine, policy, political science, sociology, science and religion, religion and ecology, evolutionary sciences, and world modeling, among others.
The Lumen Christi Institute offered complementary resources for the Catholic intellectual tradition and the Zygon Center and Chicago Group Salon immersed me in modern Protestant theology and science.
Continuing Benedict XVI's Strengthening of the Roman Catholic Church
Today my quest runs on the same path as that of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. In general, I found that our big problems have solutions that involve, among other things, strengthening the Roman Catholic Church for a better future, and facilitating the growth of the Church in the world.
The Council Fathers intended for the Christian faith to grow by extending and perfecting tradition. Catholicism was imagined as flowing out of the Church’s windows to re-inhabit the world, significantly influencing all sectors of society over the long run, eventually becoming the leading influence upon civilization. In such a future scenario, social and political leaders might recover, adapt, and implement those parts of Divine Wisdom which I found might solve contemporary problems.
And so, I believe that the growth of orthodox Catholic faith and practice today moves in the right direction towards long-term solutions down the road. Therefore, I apply my multidisciplinary theologian’s skills and knowledge to the good cause of continuing John Paul II’s and Benedict XVI’s long-term evangelical and ecumenical projects from Vatican II.
Engineering a Microcosm of the World
Although I am a good scientist, I prefer the creative challenges of a jack-of-all-trades engineer. My knowledge and skills are useful to the Church in many ways, especially with projects befitting a startup organization that require rare multidisciplinary thinking.
My long and winding career path has been preparation for addressing interconnected problems together across most sectors of civilization. Using the metaphor of the Gothic cathedral as a microcosm of the universe, I am like a medieval engineer of these grand edifices. I can design and build a beautiful cathedral, creatively solving problems of its many levels and functional parts from the foundation to the spire, and its relationship with the outside world. In this way, all of my diverse—secular and sacred—knowledge and skills belong together under the one roof of God’s house.
Since my perspective on familiar questions is informed by unfamiliar influences, I’ve collected a small sample of my thinking style in a few pages in this website.
Consulting and Research
Today I am an Independent Consultant at Sandra Ham Consulting LLC. Recently pivoted from biostatistical consulting to services for the Church, my new company logo reflects the metaphor of medieval or Renaissance engineer combining sacred and secular under one roof.
I offer a variety of creative, multidisciplinary services to parishes and other organizations within the Church. I favor clients who are like tech startups with abundant vision, vitality, and resources, and interesting and important niches to be filled. I am a good person to include on teams, especially when brainstorming or avoiding groupthink.
My services and clients will change over time as needs develop. I still engage in lifelong learning related to my quest: system dynamics and psychology of religion. This research prepares me to tackle more complex sets of problems and solutions via consulting services and independent scholarship in future years.
Web Design for Parishes and Strategy Consulting For Theology
Freelance web design is my main endeavor in 2025. My consulting services bring art, music, theology, psychology, strategic planning, and beauty into the center of my work.
I aim to show the spiritual–but–not–religious “Nones” a beautiful “cathedral portal” online for a parish where they might find a true home. And I evangelize, embedding introductions to the faith in parish websites along with practical reasons to become Catholic.
- WEB DESIGNER. Designing beautiful, engaging websites for parishes in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
- A convert nurtured in the Episcopal Church who loves to share the traditions, marketing the Ordinariate,
- A theologian who interprets tradition, doctrine, and Vatican II documents for the laity,
- An epidemiologist theologian recovering rejected traditional Christian anthropology and psychology for mental health,
- A systems scientist developing new ways to teach the doctrines and traditions of the Roman Catholic faith to minds trained in modern sciences,
- CONSULTANT on high-level planning for new directions for theologians, and
- ENGINEER SCHOLAR making progress on a long-term project to solve problems of civilizational design for the future.
My Catholic solutions for Gen Z’s problems are included in the original content that I write for the websites. My theology, epidemiology, engineering, and religious background are used for boutique Web Design.