SPIRITUAL HEALTH - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Director
• Director of Spiritual Health at Emory Decatur Hospital

Beth Jackson-Jordan is Director of Spiritual Health at Emory Decatur Hospital, Emory Hillandale Hospital and Emory Long-term Acute Care Hospital. Previously she was Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education at Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to joining Emory Spiritual Health, she served as Director of Spiritual Care and Education at Carolinas Healthcare System Northeast in Concord, North Carolina. She joined Carolinas Healthcare System as a member of the Clinical Pastoral Education faculty member in 2002. Previously Beth served as chaplain and an ACPE Certified Educator in Southern Pines, NC and Washington, D.C.

Job Titles:

• Director of Education With All Items CPE
• Education Senior Program Coordinator
• Senior Program Coordinator

Brenda Lopez provides support to the Director of Education with all items CPE program related, including ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care and Education accreditation management, bursar, file manager, registrar, admissions processor, orientation, event coordinator, and human resources representative. Also, she is the point of contact for Spiritual Health Online Program contracts and Webmaster. Brenda assists with admin related projects associated with Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health (CCSH™).

Job Titles:

• Director of Spiritual Health, EUHM

Bridget L. Piggue, ThD. is a leader and educator in the field of Pastoral Theology, Care & Counseling. Her focus and passion in ministry have been to accompany spiritual leaders in the development of greater self-awareness and mental health. Through the disciplines of psychology, theology, spirituality and the sciences she has devoted her vocational call to educating and empowering those committed to growth, healing and transformation. Dr. Piggue earned her Bachelor of Science in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin, her Master of Divinity in Pastoral Care & Counseling from the Interdenominational Theological Center and her Doctor of Theology in Pastoral Care and Counseling from Emory University's Candler School of Theology. She serves as adjunct professor in both theological institutions. Dr. Piggue is an ACPE Certified Educator and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. With over twenty years of tenure at Emory she serves as the Director of Spiritual Health at Emory University Hospital Midtown.

Job Titles:

• Director

Byron Bell is a Spiritual Health Staff Support Chaplain at Emory University Hospital Midtown. He graduated from McAfee in December 2015. He has served as a community chaplain and organizer in the Norcross/ Tucker community. As a former collegiate athlete, he enjoys kick boxing, running with his dog Marley, named after the musician, not the movie, and partnering with his wife (Courtney) in their holistic wellness business. He, Courtney and Marley currently live in Tucker, GA. Education M.Div. from McAfee School of Theology at Mercer of Atlanta

Job Titles:

• Director of Spiritual Health, Winship Cancer Institute Vice Chair of Wellness, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology

Caroline Peacock is an ACPE Certified Educator, Board Certified Chaplain, and Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She received her training in social work at City University of New York, Hunter College School of Social Work. She attended seminary at General Theological Seminary in New York and is an Episcopal priest. Caroline engaged in spiritual health training (residency and ACPE certified educator training) at Emory Healthcare and was certified in 2018. She is a CBCT instructor, CCSH Registered Clinician, and co-developer of the CCSH-Team Interventions for use with healthcare professionals. Caroline is co-convener of the Transforming Chaplaincy Psychedelic Care Network and is a DMin Candidate at Candler School of Theology with a research focus on the role of spiritual health professionals in psychedelic assisted therapy.

Job Titles:

• Director of Research
• Professor of Human Ecology

Charles Raison, MD, is a Professor of Human Ecology and Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, WI. Dr. Raison also serves as Director of Clinical and Translational Research for Usona Institute and as Director of Research on Spiritual Health for Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Raison also serves as Director of the Vail Health Behavioral Health Innovation Center. Raison, C.L. Lin, J.S., Reeves, W.C. Association of peripheral inflammatory markers with chronic fatigue in a population-based sample. Brain, Behavior and Immunity 2009; 23(3):327-37. Miller, A.H., Maletic, V., Raison, C.L. Inflammation and its discontents:the role of cytokines in the pathophysiology of major depression. Biological Psychiatry 2009; 65(9):732-41. Raison, C.L., Haroon, E., Woolwine, B.J., Shuo, C., Haber, M. Rutherford, R., Miller, A.H. A randomized controlled trial of the tumor necrosis factor antagonist infliximab for treatment-resistant depression: the role of baseline inflammatory biomarkers. Archives of General Psychiatry 2012; 70: 31-41. Desbordes, G., Negi, L.T., Pace, T.W., Wallace, B.A., Raison, C.L., Schwartz, E.L. Effects of mindful-attention and compassion meditation training on amygdala response to emotional stimuli in an ordinary, non-meditative state. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2012; 6: 292. Hanusch, K., Janssen, C.H., Billheimer, D, Jenkins, I., Spurgeon, E., Lowry, C.A., Raison, C.L. Whole Body Hyperthermia (WBH) for the Treatment of Major Depression: Associations with Thermoregulatory Cooling. American Journal of Psychiatry 2013; 170: 802-4. Raison, C.L., Hale, M.W., Williams, L.E., Wager, T.D., Lowry, C.A. Somatic influences on subjective well-being and affective disorders: the convergence of thermosensory and central serotonergic systems. Frontiers in Psychology, Section Cognition 2015; Jan 13; 5: 1580 Pruimboom, L., Raison, C.L., Muskiet, F.A.J.Physical activity protects the human brain against metabolic stress induced by a postprandial and chronic inflammation. Behavioural Neurology 2015; 2015:569869 Raison, C.L. The promise and limitations of anti-inflammatory agents for the treatment of major depressive disorder. Current Topics in Behavior Neurosciences 2016; epub Hale, M.W., Lukkes, J.L., Dady, K.F., Kelly, K.J., Paul, E.D., Smith, D.G.,Raison, C.L., Lowry, C.A. Whole-body hyperthermia and a subthreshold dose of citalopram act synergistically to induce antidepressant-like behavioral responses in adolescent rats. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 2017; 79(Pt B): 162-8 Quinn, A.M., Williams, A.R., Sivilli, T.I., Raison, C.L., and Pace, T.W.W. The plasma interleukin-6 response to acute psychosocial stress in humans is detected by a magnetic multiplex assay: Comparison to high-sensitivity ELISA. Stress 2018; epub Raison, C.L., Siu, C., Pikalov, A., Tocco, M., Loebel, A. C-reactive protein and response to lurasidone treatment in children and adolescents with bipolar I depression: Results from a placebo-controlled trial. Brain, Behavior and Immunity 2019, Epub

Job Titles:

• Administrative Staff Member
• Administrative Assistant, Spiritual Health, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory University

Job Titles:

• Administrative Staff Member
• Secretary Emory University Hospital Midtown
• Secretary, EUHM

Job Titles:

• Campus Director EUOSH, Associate Director, of EUH Operating Unit

Darrell Robinson is from the steel town of Gary, Indiana. He is married to his college sweetheart for over 34 years. Within this union, there are two adult daughters and one granddaughter. He has served as a hospital chaplain since 2006 and was recognized as a Southern Regional Legend in 2011. He is a board-certified chaplain of the Association of Professional Chaplains. He served twenty years in the United States Army and twelve of those years as a military chaplain. As the chaplain, he served as the counselor and advisor to combat soldiers. He serves as Campus Director EUOSH, Associate Director EUH Operating Unit. He has worked extensively in crisis counseling and support. He is part of the critical incident stress debriefing team, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee (DEI) and serve on the EUH Ethics Committee.

Job Titles:

• Assistant Professor
• Developer
• Director of Health Technologies, Emory

Deanna Kaplan, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and Research Psychologist for Emory Spiritual Health. Dr. Kaplan's research integrates a variety of ambulatory assessment methods, including ecological momentary assessment, accelerometry, GPS trajectories, ambulatory cardiovascular monitoring, voice diaries, and the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR). She leads a program of research focused on the optimization of ambulatory assessment methods for clinical science and behavioral medicine. She also frequently collaborates as a research methodologist on projects that use ambulatory assessment to advance treatment research for populations with co-occurring psychological and physical health concerns. Dr. Kaplan is a developer of the EAR, a research method for naturalistically assessing social interactions and language use in daily life. In partnership with Emory Spiritual Health, several current projects apply this method to investigating social-ecological mechanisms of spiritually-integrated and contemplative interventions. Other current interests include implementation concerns in digital health, including identifying adverse implementation outcomes of digital assessment and intervention technologies. Dr. Kaplan received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona, completed her predoctoral residency in Behavioral Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and completed an NHLBI-funded F32 postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University. Prior to this, she worked as research specialist in public health policy evaluation, conducting community health needs assessments in the southwestern United States. Education Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Arizona M.A., Educational Psychology, University of Arizona

Rev. Drew Bongiovanni is an ACPE Certified Educator Candidate at Emory University Hospital. She joined Emory as part of the inaugural class of CCSH Fellows. Drew is an ordained minister in the Alliance of Baptists tradition. She has a BA in Art History from Furman University and an MDiv from Vanderbilt Divinity School. She completed her CPE residency at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, TN. In addition to her work as a chaplain, she has also served as a community organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Job Titles:

• Business Manager for the Department

Eloise is the Business Manager for the department of Spiritual Health at Emory Healthcare. She has a bachelor's degree in Media Arts & Communications from Long Island University, New York and a JurisMaster (JM) degree from Emory University School of Law. Eloise is skilled in budget management, administrative management, customer relationship management, contracts, and financial management.

Job Titles:

• Chaplain

Chaplain Erica DeLoney is an ACPE Certified Educator Candidate and has served within the Emory Healthcare system for the past five years at Emory University Hospital Midtown providing a supportive presence to patients, families, and staff.

Job Titles:

• Director of Spiritual Health Wesley Woods
• Director Spiritual Health Wesley Woods Associate Director EUH Operating Unit
• Marriage and Family Therapist

Eugene Robinson is the Director of Spiritual Health Wesley Woods, Associate Director EUH Operating Unit. He is a Pastoral Therapist licensed in the State of Georgia as a Marriage and Family Therapist. He is a Baptist minister. Before coming to Emory, Gene served as the Executive Director of the Georgia Association for Pastoral Care, now the Care and Counseling Center of Georgia. He served as the Director of Pastoral Care and Clinical Pastoral Education at Grady Health System for fifteen years. Gene's career also includes serving as Director of Clinical Pastoral Education at the First Unitarian Church in Chicago, Illinois. He later served as Executive Director of The Depot: A Center for Family Studies where he developed a CPE program with a focus on child abuse and child neglect. Gene served on the teaching faculty at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and Union Theological Seminary in Dalton, Ohio. He served as adjunct faculty at Emory's Candler School of Theology and Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago. Illinois.

Job Titles:

• Administrative Staff Member
• Executive Director for Spiritual Health, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory University

Dr. Grant, a psychologist and theologian, is the Executive Director for Spiritual Health in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University. He is responsible for the education of spiritual health clinicians, the service of spiritual health to patients and staff across Emory Healthcare and a scientific research arm driving evidence-based outcomes. Podcast: Health is Everything™ - Dr. Boadie Dunlop & Dr. George Grant: Part 1 - Transcendent Experience and the Psychedelic Renaissance Podcast: Health is Everything™ - Dr. Boadie Dunlop & Dr. George Grant: Part 2 - Transcendent Experience and the Psychedelic Renaissance

Janet joined Emory Spiritual Health in 2011, bringing with her over 25 years of ministry experience in denominational leadership. As part of the interdisciplinary team for Emory's Supportive Care Clinic, her focus is Palliative Care. Janet is ordained, and endorsed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Her passion for ministry is helping others integrate their faith into all aspects of life. She shares a deep love of faith and family with her husband of over 40 years. She enjoys walking, yoga, speaking and writing.

Job Titles:

• Secretary

Katie Dean is a Certified Educator Candidate and Chaplain for Critical and Palliative Care and Staff Support at Emory Decatur Hospital. She is from Fruitland, Iowa, and moved to Atlanta in 2019 to pursue her Master of Divinity. She is an ordained reverend within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship through First Baptist Church of Decatur. She received a BA in Religion with minors in Music and Theatre Arts from Simpson College, and a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology. She also completed her CPE internship and residency at Emory Decatur Hospital. Katie experiences fulfillment serving as a chaplain within her clinical context. She understands chaplaincy as a ministry of presence; a deep calling to companion with care-seekers in a moment of great suffering and guide them to live more fully in their own authentic self. In addition to chaplaincy, Katie enjoys spending time at home with her two cats, her fiancé, cooking, and sipping tea on her patio.

Job Titles:

• Co - Developer

Maureen also serves as a co-developer/author, along with Tim Harrison (Associate Director of CBCT®), Dr. George Grant and Dr. Lobsang Tenzin Negi (Executive Director of Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics), of the CCSH™ Intervention Model and CCSH™ Manual as well as the supporting Curriculum for the training in CCSH™. We are excited that the CCSH Intervention Model is also being researched through funds received by a Peace Grant from the Mind and Life Institute. We are hopeful that the CCSH™ Intervention will be a helpful and supportive tool as we deepen our efforts in bringing compassionate care to our care seekers. Please see the CCSH™ section of our website for more information about this collaborative program as well as viewing ccsh.

As Manager of the Spiritual Health Online Program, Maurice is responsible for overseeing the online CPE program. Trainees who are unable to enroll in a traditional CPE unit can attain an accredited ACPE unit while fulfilling their clinical hours at a facility convenient for them. Maurice's vision for CPE includes cultivating an environment of learning that promotes self-awareness, curiosity, relationality and honest engagement. He believes in the power and potential of spiritual health and, by extension, the pastoral authority and formation inherent in the transformative educational training that is CPE. Compassion and flexibility mixed with passion and authenticity invite students to lean into growth opportunities, explore their blind spots and learn practical skills for ministering to people who are in spiritual or emotional distress.

Job Titles:

• Administrative Staff Member
• Project Coordinator
• Project Coordinator Spiritual Health, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory University

In 2018 Melese Crozier, MPH received a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Arizona State University. Shortly after she graduated, she began work as a scribe in the HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center emergency department in Phoenix, AZ. Her time in the emergency department inspired her to pursue a graduate degree in public health. In the years between her undergraduate and graduate studies Melese also worked as a College Ministry Intern at Antioch Community Church in Chandler, AZ and served as an AmeriCorps volunteer. In May 2023 Melese graduated from Emory's Rollins School of Public Health with a Master of Public Health in Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences. Following graduation Melese worked for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta in their department of Child Advocacy before stepping into her role as Project Coordinator for Emory Spiritual Health. She brings with her a passion for health equity, and skills in evidence-based program development, program evaluation and public health research.

Job Titles:

• Manager, Spiritual Health Online Program

Rabbi Maurice Appelbaum is an ACPE Certified Educator. He attended Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in New York to become an ordained Modern Orthodox rabbi. Maurice was ordained as a rabbi 2009 and served as head rabbi at a synagogue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY until 2019. He took his first CPE unit in 2011 and became an ACPE Certified Educator in 2015. He was also board certified as a chaplain in 2015. Maurice was one of the first educators to teach CPE online when the standards were changed in 2016 and continues to be consulted with online CPE matters. He is an avid sports fan, enjoys board games and is enjoying suburban living with grass and shrubs after many years of living in small Brooklyn apartments.

Job Titles:

• Director of Research Projects
• Director of Research Projects in Spiritual Health, Emory University School of Medicine Research Psychologist, Emory School of Medicine

Roman Palitsky, MDiv, Ph.D. is Director of Research Projects for Emory Spiritual Health and a Research Psychologist for Emory University School of Medicine. His research program investigates the pathways through which culture and health interact by examining the biological, psychological, and social processes that constitute these pathways. His areas of interest include biopsychosocial determinants in cardiovascular health, chronic pain, and grief. In collaboration with Emory Spiritual Health, his research addresses cultural and existential topics in healthcare such as religion, spirituality, and the way people find meaning in suffering, as they relate to health and illness. His work has also focused on the role of religious and existential worldviews in mindfulness-based interventions, as well as implementation and cultural responsiveness of these interventions. Dr. Palitsky's ongoing projects include implementation research in mindfulness-based interventions, addressing provider facilitators and barriers, religious and existential determinants of response and uptake, and cultural adaptations. These projects interact with an ongoing interest in identifying and investigating spiritual and existential components within established and novel evidence-based treatments. Dr. Palitsky frequently mentors research projects by students and fellows who have interests at the intersection of culture, spirituality, and behavioral medicine.

Job Titles:

• Secretary Emory University Hospital
• Secretary EUH

Rev. Sarah P. Perkins grew up here in Decatur, GA. She attended Georgia Southern University where she received a Bachelor's of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. She attended Columbia Theological Seminary where she earned her Master of Divinity with Honors and Master of Arts in Practical Theology. After graduating, Sarah worked as a Chaplain Resident at Emory University Hospital Clifton. She also started working part-time at Fellowship of Love Church as the Children's Pastor. Post residency, Sarah taught at a preschool and then found herself led back to working in the Spiritual Health office at EUH in a different role. Sarah brings with her both an understanding of chaplaincy and of the administrative needs of the Spiritual Health office at Emory.