About Me

A native of Buffalo, New York, I left a promising career in public health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to devote myself to interdisciplinary work to strengthen the Catholic Church and address social problems. Although I am a good scientific methodologist, I prefer the more adventurous challenges of a jack-of-all-trades architect who builds for the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Recently moved on from biostatistical consulting, I am an independent scholar scientist–theologian, consultant, and freelance web designer. I use a variety of multidisciplinary problem-solving tools to strengthen the Catholic Church and address high-level social and civilizational problems. The parts of the Church that are like start-up organizations are particularly attractive places to build. I aim to occupy a niche among the most dynamic and gifted interdisciplinary Catholic problem-solvers today, bringing historical insights to bear on contemporary problems in new ways.

Consulting

My business, Sandra Ham Consulting, offers a variety of multidisciplinary services to various parts of the Church: web design for parishes, strategic planning for theology, new ways of teaching Christian theology using system dynamics, and recovery of rejected and forgotten historical traditions in Christian psychology and philosophy.

For parishes, I am a convert from Anglicanism who cares about the future success and growth of the strongest branches of the Catholic Church. My approach to designing and developing parish websites is to go far beyond being a bulletin board that shows Mass times, ministries, and photo albums. Instead, I imagine that parish websites can be like the highly decorated and storied portals of Gothic cathedrals, teaching basic Christian theology and inviting visitors to come inside.

For the field of theology, I offer consulting services with the perspective of an independent scholar theologian and convert. I use my transferable skills and experience from the CDC in strategic planning for scientific fields and policy in public health.

For future projects, I also offer insightful perspectives on mental health ministries, studies of trends in Catholic sentiment, a system dynamics perspective on Christian theology and tradition, and visioning and world modeling for the next 50+ years of the Church and human civilization.

Experience and Educational Background

Prior to this work for the Church, I have been a biostatistical consultant, statistician, epidemiologist, and manufacturing engineer. My work has included public health research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), medical research at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, and in manufacturing at five companies. I hold degrees in mechanical engineering, nutrition, and divinity from Kettering University, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago, respectively.

Learn more about my career path from my long bio.