Ethel K. Millar Award for Religion and Social Awareness —
Mary Lewis Dassinger and Dr. Sara Tariq
Mary Lewis Dassinger is the Project Coordinator for 200,000 More Reasons to fight childhood hunger and poverty, a special initiative of the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church. She graduated from Memphis Theological Seminary with a Master of Arts in Religion soon after moving to Little Rock with
her family. Before taking this position, she served for three years as coordinator of missions at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church. Dassinger currently serves as Chair of the Faith Relations Committee for the Arkansas Food Bank. She also is a board member for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and is on several
committees for the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church.
After graduating from Birmingham-Southern College, Dassinger worked on the family farm in Mississippi before returning to Birmingham, where she began a focus on nonprofit work, first teaching high school students about philanthropy and volunteerism, then working on AmeriCorps and service-learning programming before
being called to seminary. She joined the Arkansas Annual Conference staff in 2016 as the Program Coordinator for 200,000 Reasons. In 2020, the initiative broadened its focus beyond childhood hunger to include poverty alleviation strategies for under-resourced children, specifically literacy for children ages third grade and
younger, and ministries that help promote a healthy, stable family. This initiative, now 200,000 More Reasons, invites local churches and followers of Christ to do more—to be in relationship with the food insecure and poor in their community and to create opportunities for long-term stability for the
children and families they serve.
Dassinger believes the Holy Spirit led her to this work. She grew up alongside people she loved in generational poverty. After leaving her home, she acknowledged her privilege and her complicity in systems that oppressed them and others. She then began a journey of coming to greater understanding, a
deeper faith and a desire to offer hope—to those like her growing in discipleship and those like her childhood neighbors, who deserve every opportunity she had.
Sara Tariq, M.D., serves as Associate Dean, Student Affairs, at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). After graduating from UAMS, she completed her residency at Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital, then returned to UAMS, where she has served in various faculty roles. Her clinical work is
in general medicine, with a focus on women’s health and trauma-informed care. She currently serves as a contributing member on the National Collaboration for Education to Address the Social Determinants of Health (NCEAS) through Northwestern University. As the Medical Director for UAMS’s Clinical Skills Center,
she helped students build clinical skills during years M2 through M4. In her 16 years as Practice of Medicine II course director, she played a major role in leading UAMS through curricular reform in undergraduate medical education to an integrated organ-systems model; and created and led the Bias in
Healthcare Committee, which analyzed pre-clinical content for unconscious bias. She now ensures that all UAMS students are supported as they progress through medical school, focusing on wellness, transitions, and preparation for the residency match. She also directs the COM Academic House Program, which
provides students with faculty and peer mentorship. Her primary research interest is bias in healthcare, and professionalism and the learning environment. She led a committee in the planning and implementation for a new post-baccalaureate program for socio-economically disadvantaged students in Arkansas; the inaugural
class started in June 2021.
Empowering the community is important to Tariq. She has served as board president of Harmony Health Clinic, a free medical/dental clinic that offers comprehensive healthcare for the uninsured of central Arkansas, where she oversaw the expansion of clinical programs and helped raise over $800,000 for the clinic. She currently
serves as co-chair of Just Communities of Arkansas, a non-profit that works at the organizational level to promote social justice and inclusion through culture change, and as facilitator for healing spaces and difficult conversations within that organization. Tariq also serves on the board of the Interfaith Center,
an organization promoting interfaith understanding through educational programs and dialogue. Her civic involvement includes serving on Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott’s Transition Team, chairing the Inclusion Committee and helping to create the infrastructure for inclusive practices in city government.