About Jennie

Jennie is a pediatrician, writer, and public health expert with particular interests in child development, culture, bioethics, and theology. She graduated from Salem College with a degree in chemistry and then received an MD from Wake Forest University, an MPH from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MA in theology and ethics from Regent College (Vancouver, BC). She has worked with marginalized and underserved communities in the US for over 35 years, caring for migrant, homeless, indigenous, and special needs populations. Nationally, she worked as a consultant for the Health Resources and Services Administration, as a Senior Fellow for Public Health Integration and Innovation at the National Association of Community Health Centers, and as a specialist at the Migrants Clinicians Network. She collaborated in programs to advance food security, reduce childhood obesity, improve immunization access, and reduce health disparities. As a federal consultant, she provided technical assistance and training to many of the nation's 1,400 community health centers. Her work has taken her to all 50 states, several territories, and a number of countries. 

She serves as a mentor and teacher of health professions students as well as graduate students, with past faculty appointments at medical schools and at Regent College, where she was Dean of Students and Associate Professor of Bioethics. Clinically, Jennie is currently leading a developmental disabilities initiative at a tribal health center and is the medical director of an early intervention center providing multidisciplinary services to 0- to 3-year-olds with special needs. 

Writing has always been a part of Jennie's life, whether academically or creatively. She describes herself as a wonderer and wanderer, always interested in the relationship of the spiritual to the everyday. She aspires to integrate life so that the yearnings of the heart, the needs of the world and the callings of the spirit are holistically attended. Jennie finds herself most fully known in a Trinitarian Christian expression, but she welcomes the wisdom and friendship of all who journey in faith. Jennie’s first book, Designed to Heal: What the body shows us about healing wounds, repairing relationships and restoring community, was released in August 2021. 

Lastly, not everything is weighty. Laughter and humor are core values in Jennie’s life, as is beauty and delight. Tennis and hiking are favorite activities. Jennie lives in Northwest WA state with her incredible husband Andrew and a changing assortment of her five young adult children. 

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