What does it mean to love our neighbor? In this M3 Conference Plenary Session, Emily Smith, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine/Surgery at Duke University and Assistant Professor of Global Health at Duke Global Health Institute, tackles this question. Taking lessons from the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan and through her lens as an epidemiologist, this session focuses on the three “C’s” of loving our neighbor: Centering correctly, Cost, and Courage. When we ‘center’ correctly on our neighbors like Jesus showed us, our hearts and actions align correctly to love in word and deed. Often this comes with a ‘cost’ that is worth it since our eyes are on the Author and Perfector of our faith. That gives us ‘courage’ to live boldly for our neighbors, including our global neighbors. This courage needs wisdom too, and she concludes with the powerful example of Nehemiah reminding us to do ‘our good work and not come down’. Throughout the session, Dr. Smith scatters in data from her own work in Somaliland, Burundi, and Tanzania for children with cancer or surgical needs.
Dr. Emily Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine/Surgery at Duke University and an Assistant Professor of Global Health at the Duke Global Health Institute. Her research interests include pediatric global surgery, health economics, health systems strengthening in low-income countries, capacity building and surgical service scale-up modeling. Currently, her research takes place in Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Somaliland and Latin America. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she started a Facebook page called “Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist,” which grew to over 110,000 followers during 2020-2022. She has led workshops for pastors and lay persons with Facebook and national religious leaders during the pandemic, including Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregants her work was featured in Christianity Today, NPR, the Washington Post, and TIME Magazine as well as at the national conferences of National Religion Association and the Christian Medical and Dental Association and with Christians and the Vaccine. Dr. Smith also recently authored the book, The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger about Loving our Neighbors, which was released in 2023 (Zondervan, Harper Collins).