Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship

Lyubov Slashcheva is a Student Assistant for Annual Gathering 2015. Raised in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley upon emigrating with her family from Kazakhstan, Lyubov graduated from Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) at the end of 2011 with a BA in Biology. Interning with a dental/medical missions organization for four months in Honduras and Peru, she then settled in Richmond, Virginia to pursue dental education at Virginia Commonwealth University as a National Health Service Corps Scholar. She plans to complete her dental degree in 2016.

Lyubov continues to be involved in tutoring/mentoring, local community service, and domestic/foreign mission efforts and has special interest in global climate change and public health as well as geriatric and special needs populations. Lyubov participated in a panel discussion at Annual Gathering 2014 on the topic “Our Faith Guides Us,” as a number of persons shared stories of how their Christian faith guided their choice of profession and their integrity as Christian healthcare professionals as well as ways in which their faith is lived out in dealing with patients/clients, with institutions, with difficult ethical decisions, and with areas of conflict.

Lyubov has been writing a series of articles on “Climate Change and Global Health” for Mennonite Health Journal leading up to Annual Gathering 2015.  She will help coordinate a roundtable discussion on Tuesday morning on how MHF and its members can work more effectively on this topic, putting into practice the ideas offered by Monday workshop leader, Dr. Catherine Thomasson, in her workshop, “Climate Change: Solutions to Global Health Threats.”  Prior to the Annual Gathering, Lyubov will participate in the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Global Youth Summit in workshops entitled “Service en Route: the gift of alternative transportation” and “The Gift of Vocation: receiving and sharing your calling.” She will also participate in an MWC Assembly workshop entitled, “The Effects of Climate Change on Human Health: where do justice, missions, and discipleship fit?”

Lyubov is an active Student Member of Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship and passionately seeks to integrate her faith into the development of her career as an oral healthcare professional.