Cesiah Pimentel-Melendez

Dissertation Defense

Her chair was Duane Covrig, PhD. Her methodologist for her qualitative study was Tevni Grajales, PhD. Her content expert on health care was Elizabeth Muhlenbeck, PhD. Her external reviewer/elevator was a local physician and healthcare leader Ernest Buck, MD.

Cesiah systematically identified 12 principles from Ellen White's early visions for Adventist health care. She then reviewed them with Adventist scholars and health experts. She the used focus groups with Adventist healthcare leaders from the global Adventist health care system to see how these principles applied to various Adventist health work today. Her chair noted, " it was a great joy to be a part of this journey."  "I was fascinated with the goal Cesiah had to identify the founding guiding principles of Adventist healthcare in the 1800s and see how they were playing out in today's Adventist healthcare practices. Her principles included not only ideas of healthful living and preventative health care for which Adventists have become famous for but concerns about care for the poor, structural sustainability, and even implications for hiring. I learned so much about my faith and about healthcare." Congratulations Cesiah.