A trio of professors and leaders at Campbell University have earned a $60,000 Faith and Health Campus Grant through Interfaith America.
The prestigious grant builds on several years of connections through community health outreach and partnerships with faith, tribal and other communities. The grant runs through November 2026.
Drs. Amy Hinkelman, David Tillman and Adam English are the recipients.
The group’s proposal was named, “Integrating Interfaith Competency Training at Campbell University while Building Sustainable Community Partnerships to Address Health Issues.”
All three of the recipients continue to collaborate — and also are current participants of the Faith and Health Fellows Program — which also is funded by Interfaith America.
Their multi-pronged proposal, says Hinkelman, includes the interdisciplinary development of new curriculum, engagement of community partners with lived experience and scholarship to address health and wellness issues facing local communities by integrating faith and health through interfaith education and service.
“This is definitely a team effort,” says Hinkelman, director of the Academic Center for Excellence and associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Campbell University Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine.
English is chair of the Department of Christian Studies, Biomedical Humanities at Campbell; Tillman is an associate professor of Public Health in the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences and chair of the Department of Public Health.
Says Tillman, “The grant from Interfaith America will continue to build upon the foundations we’ve laid over the past few years in partnering with faith leaders to address the behavioral health crises in our communities.
“It will allow us to invest in sustainable curricular innovations that create future leaders in health that will be able to work with more attunement to the spiritual and moral priorities of patients and communities. We have become national leaders in this work, and the work of Campbell is being imitated by other universities.”
English, who also teaches Christian theology at the undergraduate level, says the grant is a testament to the great work of Tillman and Hinkelman and that he plays a supporting role.
“Our undergraduate students come with a deep passion for their faith,” English says. “WeI want to help them translate that passion into action, but not in the old-fashioned way of sending them out on a mission to do good work and then retreat back to home base. Rather, we want students to see their Christian mission as a way of life in community, not just as something they can offer to others.
“Our model is Christ’s own incarnation, as John 1:14 says, ‘the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.’ The Christian mission is embedded in community and comes alive in community. The most effective missional work results from investments in relationships of trust, respect, and mutual reciprocity, when we pitch our tents with others.”
Campbell’s Interfaith America campus grant will help students build relationships with faith leaders and faith communities, English says.
“I hope it helps our students see the value of relationship networks in public health efforts, especially when it comes to overdose prevention and dealing with substance use disorders.”
English and Tillman, Hinkelman says, bring decades of experience and expertise in their respective fields, including well-established partnerships that took many years to build — not only within the university but also with community partners, thus paving the way for opportunities to expand and build upon this work.
“We look forward to continuing to partner with faith, tribal, and other community leaders from diverse backgrounds and worldviews, building bridges to serve the needs of our communities both locally and throughout the state as we educate and provide students from across the university with experiential learning experiences — doing work that matters right here in our backyard,” Hinkelman says.
“We plan to engage learners across the university at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in all these endeavors. Through this proposal, we hope to better equip future religious and healthcare leaders to provide holistic care and/or education to a spiritually diverse population among a multitude of clinical and community settings by participating in community-based initiatives and practical, application-based educational opportunities.
In addition to supporting the development of three new courses, several community outreach initiatives are planned. That includes the Recovering Hope Conference to support overdose prevention and recovery advocacy. The Hope Conference empowers and engages faith leaders within the community. It also promotes a sustained interfaith network that fosters dialogue, collaboration and mutual support in addressing behavioral health issues within their communities.
The group, Hinkelman says, also plans to expand an ongoing collaboration with local tribal partners, including the Coharie Tribe, and to support their young people and church leaders in their goals. Those goals include strengthening youth leadership, fostering resilience and encouraging community-driven solutions to address behavioral health challenges, while also deepening the connection to their tribal culture.
“We also hope to expand our collaborations with the Alnoor Islamic Center and N.C. Council of Churches to address broader issues of wellness, behavioral health and overdose prevention among Muslim communities through various community education events,” she said.