Jimmy carter health care reform

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free Atlanta newsletter here.

Former President Jimmy Carter’s public health legacy – at home and abroad – was driven by empathy and an enduring faith in people and science.

His approach shows how listening, building trust, and showing empathy can achieve big improvements in public health – and how faith and science need not be divided.

Jimmy Carter believed “that science is part of God’s gift, and they’re not in opposition,” said Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman, who is a member of The Carter Center board.

“His faith was one of theology, but it was also one of action. And so science, conflict resolution, peace building, those are all acts of almost civic faith, but they were rooted in his religious faith.”

As the former president is honored with memorial services in Georgia and Washington this week after his death Dec.

29 at age 100, Shipman and others who worked closely with the Carters in Atlanta sha