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Frustrated by what happens when people cannot afford to see their doctors, or when they cannot pay for the treatment their doctor prescribes, Professor Fran Quigley, '87, began searching for a way to fix the problem, framing his arguments with the stories of the people who are suffering. He wrote a book about it, and now Professor Quigley is editing a newsletter aimed at spreading the word about the work that people from all religious traditions are doing as part of their desire to care for the sick.

Together with Jessie Wise, '17, Professor Quigley launched the Faith in Healthcare newsletter in January 2019. Wise is a staff attorney at Indiana Legal Services, where she works for the Medical Legal Partnership team with the Indiana Medicaid Medical Legal Partnership. In the photo from left are Professor Quigley and Jessie Wise.

"There are all kinds of people who are on the front lines of healthcare or healthcare advocacy, doing work based on what their faith tells them is the right thing to do," Professor Quigley said. "For the most part, they don't know each other and are not in conversation. What we're doing is lifting them up so that they are at least virtually meeting each other."

For example, early issues of the newsletter told stories about a doctor in Southern Indiana whose Christian faith led him to work on the front lines of the opioid crisis, a Muslim woman working to promote sexual health and sexual violence awareness in Muslim communities, and a lobbyist whose Jewish faith led him to fight in Congress to defend healthcare programs.

"It's largely the same conversation if you talk to folks from other faith traditions," Professor Quigley said. "This is already happening. There's already an amazing amount of faith-based advocacy going on and we're just shining the spotlight on it."

Wise's work as a board member to Faith in Healthcare helps to keep that spotlight focused. She took two classes with Professor Quigley while in law school, and worked as his research assistant during the time he began writing the 2017 book, Prescription for the People: An Activists Guide to Making Medicine Affordable for All, published by Cornell University Press. She reviewed initial drafts of the text and helped with the citations during that process.

Once the book was completed, Professor Quigley proposed forming People of Faith for Access to Medicines, which was the predecessor to Faith in Healthcare. Wise said she was immediately interested, and helped create the first webpage, manage social media, and helped to incorporate the nonprofit. As she began her legal career at Indiana Legal Services, her role in the nonprofit became more passive, she said. "All throughout law school, I had intended to work in a legal aid firm," Wise said. "I am fortunate to have my dream job at Indiana Legal Services, Inc."

"Jessie has always demonstrated deep empathy for persons in our community who are struggling to access healthcare, and then she acts by doing all she can to help," Professor Quigley said of Wise. "The fact that she is inspired to service and advocacy by her Jewish faith tradition, and that our Christian and Muslim sisters and brothers find the same inspiration in their faith traditions, helped lead us to create Faith in Healthcare."

The work of the faith community comes up a lot in his teaching, Professor Quigley said. Throughout the movements toward abolishing slavery in the United States, the Civil Rights movement, and the labor movement, a common thread is the work of the faith community, providing a moral voice for the movements. "I think this can happen in the healthcare movement," Professor Quigley said. "The faith community has provided direct healthcare for generations, so it has the moral authority to talk about what needs to change within the system."