Long Bio

An Engineer

I have had three careers. Motivated by an old-school pursuit of personal excellence as a polymath, these were intended as stepping stones for developing into a top multidisciplinary professional later in life. I enjoy thinking and have always aimed to develop and use my intellectual gifts and talents for the greater good.

I started early in a high school engineering co-op program where I worked in manufacturing and environmental engineering at a General Motors plant. Over a total of 11 years, I worked in manufacturing engineering at five companies, obtaining a degree in mechanical engineering along the way. Those adventures included working on the defense contractor team for the Space Shuttle and having the full responsibilities of a manufacturing engineer beginning in year three of my undergraduate program. I worked in facilities where I was responsible for knowing all aspects of the management of a manufacturing plant, and functioning as a “jack-of-all-trades.” My specialty was plastic film extrusion and coating processes and systems. However, I have a much broader set of interests than manufacturing, and so, as planned from high school, I moved on to add to my professional background.

An Epidemiologist and Statistician

Career number two was in epidemiology and statistics. After obtaining a degree in nutrition at Cornell where I learned science, statistics, and SAS programming, I worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for eight years. My specialty there was physical activity epidemiology, focusing on measurement methods, interdisciplinary environmental research, national statistics, and Healthy People national health objectives. I was there during the time when global culture changed to promote sidewalks, crosswalks, and mixed-use neighborhoods to re-engineer physical activity back into everyday life. We at the CDC made it happen.

My process engineering background was valuable for providing the thinking skills for success at the CDC. After only three years, I was promoted from providing statistical support to the Physical Activity and Health Branch to doing independent research as an epidemiologist. They hired a statistician to replace me. The CDC trained me to do research with scientific excellence. I was successful in research using national survey data and in providing technical service to state health departments and the WHO. Along with this, I went as far as participating in the strategic planning on the Federal Interagency Workgroup for planning Healthy People 2020‘s vision, mission, goals, and structure.

A Multidisciplinary Theologian

Career number three began with my return to graduate school for another unrelated degree in my late 30s. My personal life began to interrupt and merge with my professional life—in interesting ways. I was raised as an Episcopalian and continued to attend church weekly even when there was no one else within 15 years of my age at church. While I was at the CDC, God called me to a conversion to a close, personal relationship with Him. He called me to work for Him for the rest of my career, not for my own ambition but to help the Roman Catholic Church. This adventure began with a conversion from Canterbury to Rome, followed soon after by enrolling in the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. When I left the CDC, I expected to someday return to the same level of institutional and disciplinary activities—but for the Church rather than for government and the field of public health.

At Chicago, I indulged in the “Life of the Mind.” It began in courses for biblical studies and ministry students. Soon I discovered that this university had library collections that included millions of old and rare books, rivaled only by Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, and Cambridge. Further, most of the courses throughout campus included theory and philosophy undergirding whatever the course topic was. The Lumen Christi Institute was actively enriching students’ secular educations with courses, master classes, and lectures in the Catholic intellectual tradition. I was also a member of a salon for ecumenical discussions about science and religion. To top it off, the university brought in the top scientists and scholars in every field to give lectures. I spent 12 years on campus with a weekly routine that included all of these.

I arrived at Chicago with a driving question that was perfectly suited to this environment: Did God ever tell us how we ought to design our societies, and if so, how? Following on my experience at the CDC, I wanted to understand how high-level change comes about. And so, it was inevitable that I would study historical theology in the context of philosophy, the history and philosophy of science, health sciences, evolutionary biology, sociology of technology and science, political science, and world modeling, among many other disciplines and sub-disciplines on campus. My early goal had been to become a well-rounded, polymathic intellectual—mission accomplished.

A Consultant

Since I started providing technical service as an engineering student, then as a statistician at the CDC, I returned to consulting while at Chicago. After getting my degree, I wanted to remain on campus so that I could study broadly at my own pace. I became a “contemplative with a day job.” To pay the bills, I established Sandra Ham Consulting in 2011, and in 2012, joined the Center for Health and the Social Sciences in the Pritzker School of Medicine on campus. I stopped doing first-authored research in health in order to invest in developing in other fields related to religion. And so I humbly returned to work like my initial job at the CDC. In 2024, I finally retired from statistical consulting.

Today, Sandra Ham Consulting offers a variety of services to various parts of the Church. Everything I do uses my original thinking and multidisciplinary perspective and tools. In the near term, I want to work at the local, parish level (primary), while participating in higher-level discussions about the future of the field of theology (secondary).

For parishes in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, I offer high-quality freelance web design services. I am a convert from Anglicanism who cares about the future success and growth of this young branch of the Roman Catholic Church. My approach to parish websites is to go far beyond being a bulletin board that shows Mass times, ministries, and photo albums. Instead, I imagine that websites can be like the highly decorated and storied portals of French Gothic cathedrals. We live at a time when three generations have been gradually separated from their essential humanity—with serious consequences for individual mental health and the future of civilization. Increasingly, young people are asking questions about ultimate reality and Truth. The Ordinariate parishes—homes to reverent, beautiful liturgies that extend valuable traditions—are excellent locations for evangelizing the Gen Z seekers who were raised without any religious background (the “Nones”). Therefore, I believe that Ordinariate parish websites can function like those cathedral portals, teaching basic 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.