David Craig, Ph.D., the 2020 Bantz Community Fellow, is community-engaged ethicist who works with and for Indiana Hoosiers who want to deliver better health care and support healthier communities for poor people and minoritized populations. He is a Professor of Religious Studies in the School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University Indianapolis. He is also an Associate Director of Community Health Partnerships at the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. Dr. Craig is part of Team Indiana in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leader program. His books include Health Care as a Social Good: Religious Values and American Democracy(Georgetown) and John Ruskin and the Ethics of Consumption (Virginia). In his free time, Professor Craig enjoys gardening, cycling, cooking, and spending time with his wife and daughters.
Meet Pamela Napier
Pamela Napier is both a design educator and practitioner of design thinking, design research, and design facilitation with over a decade of experience in the field. As co-founding partner of Collabo XD (formerly Collabo Creative)—a people-centered service design company based in Indianapolis, Indiana—she has managed design research and strategy projects for a diverse range of organizations including non-profits, start-ups and fortune 500 companies. As an associate professor in the visual communication design department at IU Indianapolis Herron School of Art and Design—with over 14 years of experience teaching across graduate and undergraduate curricula—Professor Napier has been invited to give presentations, facilitate workshops, and co-design events both nationally and internationally. Her research focuses on developing methods, frameworks and curriculum for people-centered design, skills and processes for design facilitation, and the integration of sustainable values into the design process. In her free time, Professor Napier enjoys spending time outdoors with her family.
Top Photo - Professor Craig (far right, wearing red shirt) talking with community partners about A New HIP Public. Bottom Photos - College students learning about A New HIP Public project.
Top Photo - A New HIP Public brochures. Bottom Photos - Professor Craig and Professor Napier virtually brainstorming marketing ideas for the New HIP Public project.
Q and A with Professor Craig and Professor Napier
Craig: I conducted interviews at Catholic and Jewish health care organizations where I asked people to explain their organizational mission and values and use this moral framework to evaluate how we organize, deliver, and finance health care in the U.S. I learned about the complexity and inadequacy of health policy in the U.S.
Napier: In 2010, I taught my first course that incorporated community engagement into student project work, collaborating with members of the Near Westside and their community garden. This instilled a joy and commitment in my work to facilitate people-centered design processes that enable and empower people to solve problems and make positive change in and with their communities.
Craig: In the United States, we don't invest adequately in supporting health and wellness for people living in low-income neighborhoods and rural areas. My research seeks to help build a new public committed to disrupting and addressing health inequities.
Napier: My research aims to enable people to engage in creative, collaborative problem-solving that can help empower them to make positive change in their lives.
Through a people-centered, participatory design approach and process, we have engaged with students, community members, and organizational and institutional partners in order to strengthen public interest in HIP and the shared responsibility of supporting continuous health coverage for better wellness and care for all.
From 2019 - 2024 we have:
- Engaged over 50 low-income Hoosiers
- Engaged over 60 students, including: 2 undergraduate cohorts of Craig’s Religion, Ethics, and Health course; 2 undergraduate cohorts of Napier’s Designing in Context course; 2 graduate cohorts of Napier’s Design Facilitation course
- Engaged with organizations and congregational partners, including: members of the Interfaith Enrichment Corps and the Center for Interfaith Cooperation; representatives from Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA); representatives of 7 congregations in the #HealthyMe Learning Community; outreach representatives from MDwise and Anthem; the director of Covering Kids and Families of Indiana; research partners at First Baptist Church North Indianapolis and Shepherd Community Center; and members of 8 other congregations and communities of practice, including: Englewood Christian Church, Hindu Temple of Central Indiana, Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, Masjid al-Fajr, Indy Community Yoga, St. Monica Catholic Church, Masjid al Mumineen, and Crossroads AME.
- Presented our research in venues such as: E. C. Moore Symposium on Excellence in Teaching; the national UCDA Design Education Summit; AIGA Indy Design Week; Bringle & Hatcher Civic Engagement Showcase; Medical Humanities Seminar Series; IU School of Medicine Program in Research and Scholarship
Craig: When people invite our team into their sacred spaces or share their lived experiences, I feel awe in receiving their trust and hearing their wisdom, helping me see the world and human dignity with new eyes.
Napier: Hearing testimonials and comments from participants in various aspects of our project, expressing their excitement, feeling valued, listened to, and empowered.
Our student collaborators have facilitated both remote and in-person participatory design sessions and group interviews; analyzed and synthesized collected information from community members and organizational partners; conceptualized and produced visual materials, including campaign identities, brochures, slide deck presentations, comprehensive reports, and research posters.
Our community partners have participated in both remote and in-person participatory design sessions and group interviews, sharing their expertise, insights, ideas, and feedback; they have connected us to others and strengthened our relationships; and they have openly shared their community spaces and practices. We have also partnered on community events to connect attendees to education and services.
We aim to continue our work in strengthening public interest in HIP and the shared responsibility of supporting continuous health coverage for better wellness and care for all through future engagements with community partners, dissemination of our processes and results with community members, legislators, policymakers, stakeholders, and academic audiences.
Conversation with Professor Craig and Professor Napier
On Friday, July 26, 2024, from 12 noon to 1 p.m., Professor David Craig and Professor Pamela Napier talked about “A New HIP Public: 2019 - 2024.”
Indiana’s Medicaid expansion, the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), has seen significant change since Professors David Craig and Pamela Napier partnered with First Baptist Church North Indianapolis and Shepherd Community Center on a community-engaged participatory study with HIP members and community partners in 2019. Personal responsibility is central to HIP’s program rules, which created barriers to coverage and care for many study participants. During COVID, these rules were suspended, and enrollment doubled. Some of HIP's old rules have returned, and in June, a federal judge struck down other program requirements. At this time of change, there is a renewed need to communicate HIP program benefits and rules clearly and expand public investment in supporting wellness for low-income neighbors. Their 2020 Bantz Community Fellowship team of visual designers and community partners co-produced public messages and images for a suite of materials including brochures and slide-decks to assist communities in connecting people to health coverage. Learn how our 2020 Bantz Community Fellows and their partners are working to support health and wellness for all.
Interested in Becoming an IU Indianapolis TRIP Scholar?
Eligibility
IU Indianapolis faculty member conducting translational community-based research
Benefits
- Valued member of an extensive network of researchers/collaborators
- Opportunities to showcase work
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