Sandra A. Ham
Web Designer, Consultant, Multidisciplinary Theologian, Independent Scholar
Strengthening the Roman Catholic Church by using a unique set of integrated multidisciplinary skills
My Background
I’m Sandra, an engineer-epidemiologist-statistician-theologian-turned-web designer at Sandra Ham Consulting LLC. I make beautiful, educational websites for Roman Catholic parishes.
I have over 30 years of education and experience as an engineer, epidemiologist, statistician, and theologian. I started in mechanical engineering with a degree from Kettering University and worked in industry as a manufacturing engineer.
Career #2 was in nutrition and physical activity epidemiology and statistics. It began with a degree in nutrition from Cornell University. I worked in public health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and in medicine as a biostatistical consultant doing medical research at the University of Chicago. For 25 years I conducted and published scientific research in public health, social sciences, and medicine. I also taught epidemiology and statistics.
In response to a mid-life religious conversion and calling, I began career #3 by leaving a good job at the CDC. I felt called to return to graduate school for a degree from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. Today I am no longer in government or academia, but a consultant and an independent scholar in theology, philosophy, and the history of Christianity, and a peer reviewer for health journals.
This unusual career path has been shaped in particular ways by my insistence upon always developing several God-given gifts and talents towards old-fashioned wisdom and expertise—no matter what forks show up in the road. It is better to follow the path led by God’s calling rather than my own “passion.” My gifts include being a lifelong learner who has indulged in the pursuit of the “life of the mind”—Chicago style. My inspirational role models include insightful, generalist scholars such as C. S. Lewis from nearly a century ago. I love Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions, including the old social norms and values that disappeared and are being recovered today within some Catholic parishes and book publishers. And like a typical engineer, I’ve always been a creative problem solver, finding problems to solve in every field and job.
The bird’s-eye views of society that are inherent in epidemiology and public health—and theology, philosophy, and system dynamics—are also natural fits for my intellectual gifts. With these habits of mind, I seek clients that love my old-school, creative approach.
Web Design for Roman Catholic Parishes
Having moved on from the health sector, I am currently applying my broad knowledge and skills to making custom, enhanced websites for Roman Catholic parishes. I want to beautify and enhance the quality of online homes of Roman Catholic parishes.
Sandra Ham Consulting LLC offers two kinds of web design services. The first is to build a new website. My custom website redesigns come with enhanced content to help parishes educate and strengthen the next generation of Roman Catholics. The other service is the Finishing Touches, which is web design consultation to help parishes bring their recently new, in-house websites up to professional quality.
My redesigned websites are distinctive in several ways. They do more than just show Mass times, ministries, and the parish calendar—their content is meaty. I integrate my unique combination of tools from my previous careers in science and engineering, and theological education, underutilized artistic gifts, and experience as a convert. Putting it all together, my websites are enhanced with out-of-the-box original content. This turns them into effective tools for evangelization, education, and making converts.
Since I have a long history of working in the health sector using best practices for improving population health, I add another dimension. My websites also incorporate mental health interventions in the form of educational content. This is guided by my proprietary adaptation of a conceptual model that is commonly used in the health sector. My aims are to help parishes improve the spiritual and mental health of their parishioners while also developing organizations.
Professional Life
Today my professional life is oriented around present and planned future needs for designing custom, enhanced parish websites. This integrates multiple areas of knowledge, skills, and networks. I have been obtaining web design certifications at Codecademy and frequently attend in-person WP Buffalo WordPress Users meetups. To stay current on important issues of religion, politics, and the public square, I lead the discussion group, Readers of First Things, in Buffalo, New York.
I am also involved in:
