September 30, 2008

Community Leadership Award Ambassador Profile - Carolyn Rebecca Risinger, M.D.
The Luke Society, Inc - Galveston Awarded $10K from
St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities

Dr. Risinger has been a volunteer at the Luke Society, Inc. for nearly 25 years, and continues to serve the homeless at this free clinic on Saturdays. As president of the organization, she supervises other physicians, medical students and volunteers. In addition to her work with The Luke Society, Inc., Dr. Risinger has traveled to Africa and Central America to work with children in medically underserved areas, such as refugee camps and rural areas.

For the first time, five additional grant recipients have been selected this year as “Ambassadors” and received $10,000 for the non-profit agency of their choice, bringing the total award amount to $100,000.

“This year we faced the insurmountable task of choosing one winner among many exceptional nominees,” said The Rt. Rev. Dena A. Harrison, Bishop Suffragan for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and board chair for St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities. “In order to better serve the needs of the community, we decided to award five more community leaders as Ambassadors because of their personal accomplishments and extraordinary community health leadership.”

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St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities, the largest Houston charity devoted solely to healthcare, was created in 1997 as a separate component of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System. St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities melds together the healing ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and the healing mission of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System to promote community health across the Episcopal Diocese. Since its inception, it has awarded more than 1200 grants totaling more than $70 million to nonprofit service organizations in the Houston area and 32 Texas counties, targeting disease prevention and health promotion among the underserved.