The changing landscape of trust in public health systems and science—shaped by misinformation, historical injustices, and institutional challenges—reflects a broader decline in confidence in traditional institutions and expertise. To address these challenges, it is crucial to engage with trusted sources like faith communities, which provide guidance, connection, and leadership, especially for marginalized populations. The Georgetown Commission on Faith, Trust, and Health, housed within Georgetown University’s Global Health Institute, seeks to explore the intersection of trust, faith, and health. The commission will convene a multidisciplinary group of experts, practitioners, policymakers, media influencers, and community advocates to identify evidence-based strategies for fostering trust in health systems and building equitable partnerships between faith and health actors.
This closed-door consultative session of the Global Public Health Seminars exclusively for the Georgetown community offers a unique opportunity to provide initial input into the commission’s work. During this interactive and consultative session, attendees will hear about the preliminary planning strategies and research design of the commission and have the chance to share ideas, provide feedback, and help shape this groundbreaking initiative before its official launch and announcement in The Lancet.
Featured
Amna Qayyum, Ph.D., serves as research program director at Georgetown University’s Global Health Institute. Trained as a historian, her research focuses on how gender, health, and religion shape political economy and global governance. Her current book project focuses on how the politics of reproductive health in Pakistan and Bangladesh has historically shaped reproductive governance globally. Her research has been awarded with the 2021 Pirzada Prize in Pakistan Studies by the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining Georgetown, Qayyum was a fellow at the Brookings Institution, directing a research portfolio and fellowship program on gender and global development. She has also held a postdoctoral appointment at the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University; she served as an expert advisor to Pakistan’s National Security Division and the New America Foundation on gender, health, and human security. Her writing and commentary have appeared in Diplomatic History, the Washington Post, and the Brookings platform. She holds a doctoral degree from Princeton University.
Olivia Wilkinson, Ph.D., is a senior fellow with the Faith and Global Health Initiative at the Georgetown University Global Health Institute, particularly working on the Georgetown Commission on Faith, Trust, and Health and collaborating with the World Faiths Development Dialogue, a non-for-profit organization housed at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Wilkinson is a researcher and adviser specializing in the roles of religions in the humanitarian and development sectors. She has led research around the world and developed research, strategies, and guidance for some of the most well-known humanitarian and development actors (such as the United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, World Bank Group, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). She published her book, Secular and Religious Dynamics in Humanitarian Response, with Routledge in early 2020. She has a Ph.D. in humanitarian action from Trinity College Dublin.