Current About Page — Jewels In A Crown

About Us

The Heart Behind Jewels In A Crown

The name Jewels In A Crown comes from Zechariah 9:16, which describes God rescuing his people and them shining in the land like jewels in a crown.

We believe that women are not forgotten, overlooked, or defined by the circumstances they were born into. They have incredible worth, value, dignity, and they are precious to God.

We exist because we want this to be the reality in the world. We desire to help and equip communities to show love to women who need it the most- those who feel like they have been overlooked, mistreated, and denied opportunities.

We hope and pray that our work empowers women and communities to experience healthy, full, and dignified lives that remind them of their true identities and incredible value as daughters of God.

Every woman deserves the opportunity to flourish as God intended

Meet the Founder

Courtney Dorsey

Jewels In A Crown was born from Courtney’s desire to combine her experience in nursing, public health, community health, and international work to serve women and communities around the world.

Courtney’s Story

I have always been passionate about serving vulnerable populations and have desired to do overseas work. Over the past decade, God has opened doors for me to gain education and invaluable experience in nursing, public health, community health, and international settings—all of which have contributed to the work I am doing today.

My Background

I spent the last ten years working as a nurse in community care, primary care, and acute-care settings, with the majority of my career focused on pediatric home care, where I worked alongside chronically ill children and their families. Along the way, I had the opportunity to live in Northern Thailand for eight months while working as a nurse at a children's home, complete a one-month Community Health Evangelism internship in Ghana, and make multiple trips to Cape Verde to partner with local communities and missionaries in community health outreach.

During these experiences I spent time in settings that profoundly changed how I view health care and the needs of our world- from volunteering in a refugee hospital on the border of Myanmar and Thailand to organizing prison screenings in Cape Verde and teaching on maternal health in resource poor settings, I have seen the importance of long-term health development. While emergency and medical relief are incredibly important as they save lives and meet urgent needs, communities can remain dependent on outside organizations when the focus is only on providing immediate solutions.

My Education

These experiences led me back to university, where I completed my bachelor's degree in Public Health and Health Leadership, followed by a Master’s of Science in Public Health and Health Promotion. Throughout my education, I intentionally focused my research on low-resource settings, cultural contexts, and the systemic and social determinants that influence health. My master's thesis examined efforts to improve maternal health in Afghanistan—one of the most challenging places in the world to be a woman. Although learning about the realities women face there was difficult, my research also gave me hope.

I found that even in settings where resources are extremely limited and there are countless barriers for women, meaningful improvements in women's health are possible. For women in Afghanistan, sustainable change did not require foreign aid, thousands of dollars for projects, or doctors and nurses from North America. It began by equipping, teaching, and empowering local people to create and lead solutions within their own communities.

My Passion

My desire is to bring together my experiences in nursing, public health, community health, and international work to partner with women, families, missionaries, and church leaders around the world who want to see better health for women in their communities but simply don’t know where to begin. My role is to walk alongside communities through the process—from understanding the health concerns in a community, to identifying underlying causes, researching evidence-informed approaches, developing a culturally appropriate health-promotion program, and equipping women and local leaders to implement, evaluate, and sustain it.

The goal isn't for me to come in and run a program for communities, but for communities to be equipped to run it themselves. Because when solutions are created with communities, owned by communities, and led by communities, they have the opportunity to become part of the community and change the lives of women and families for generations to come.

Women's Microfinance Training - Cape Verde

Training Kids to Wash after Covid - Cape Verde