2011 Plenary Speakers

Robert Wicks, Psy.D.

Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Loyola University Maryland

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Dr. Robert Wicks, who received his doctorate in Psychology from Hahnemann Medical College, has taught in universities and professional schools of psychology, medicine, social work, nursing and theology including Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2003 he was the Commencement Speaker for Wright State School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio and was also a Visiting Scholar and in 2005 the Commencement Speaker at Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago.

In the past several years he has spoken at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine on his two major areas of expertise: the prevention of secondary stress (the pressures encountered in reaching out to others) and the integration of psychology and spirituality from a world religion perspective. He has also addressed 10,000 professionals in the Air Canada Arena in Toronto, spoken at the FBI Academy, and led a weeklong course in Paris. In his clinical practice, Dr. Wicks focuses on working with psychotherapists, physicians, nurses, educators, relief workers and persons in full-time ministry.

In 1993, and again in 2001, he worked in Cambodia. During these visits, his work was with professionals from the English-speaking community who were present to help the Khmer people rebuild their nation following years of terror and torture. In 1994, he was also responsible for the psychological debriefing of relief workers evacuated from Rwanda during their bloody civil war.

Dr. Wicks has served as General Editor of three series of books, and published over 40 books for both professionals and the general public. One of his latest works is entitled “Riding the Dragon”. About it, Gandhi’s grandson, who is the founder of an institute on nonviolence, said: “With life offering so many more challenges as we pursue a culture of violence, Dr. Wicks’ book on how to ride the dragon instead of trying to slay it is not only timely but very effective.” His most recent books include a book for professionals, “Overcoming Secondary Stress in Medical and Nursing Practice,” by Oxford University Press, a book entitled “Prayerfulness: Awakening the Fullness of Life” by Sorin Books, and the soon to be released “Bounce: Living the Resilient Life” by Oxford University Press.

Christina M. Puchalski, M.D.

Founder and Executive Director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health (GWish)

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Christina Puchalski, MD, is the Executive Director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health, Washington, DC, and a Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences at The George Washington University School of Medicine, where she has pioneered novel and effective educational and clinical strategies to address the spiritual concerns common in patients facing illness.

Dr. Puchalski is an active clinician, board-certified in Internal Medicine and Palliative Care. Dr. Puchalski has demonstrated leadership in research and education in the integration of spiritual care across disciplines. She has received numerous awards including the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey’s Faculty Humanism in Medicine Award. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and was recently inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AΩA) medical honor society as well as awarded the 2009 George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Award.

Dr. Puchalski is on the editorial board of several Palliative Care journals and chair or coauthor of several major conferences and initiatives in spirituality and health. She co-leads an annual retreat for healthcare professionals; she also works with medical student education focused on how to support their call to a profession of service and compassion.

Dr. Puchalski has been principle investigator or co-principle investigator in several research projects in spirituality including evaluation of a spiritual assessment tool she developed which is currently used widely in a variety of clinical settings; an NIH funded study on spirituality and will to live in HIV-AIDS patients; and an innovative study to integrate spirituality into healthcare settings called INSPIR. Dr. Puchalski developed and was PI for an awards program in spirituality and health education since 1996 which resulted in a model curriculum in spirituality and health. In a collaborative project with City of Hope and GWish, Dr. Puchalski co-led an initiative to create national spiritual care guidelines for palliative care.

Dr. Puchalski has a background as a basic scientist at NIH, thus bridging the art and science of medicine in her work. She is widely published in journals with work ranging from basic research in biochemistry to issues in ethics, culture and spirituality and healthcare. She has authored numerous chapters in books and edited and authored a book published by Oxford University Press entitled Time for Listening and Caring: Spirituality and the Care of the Seriously Ill and Dying with a forward by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. Her most recent book, Making Health Care Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care, co-authored with Betty Ferrell, provides much-needed definitions and charts a common language for addressing spiritual care across the disciplines of medicine, nursing, social work, chaplaincy, psychology, and other groups

Her many publications and presentations have urged the development of a patient-centered perspective in healthcare, with specialization in the importance of integrating spirituality and compassion into one’s professional practice. Her work has been featured on numerous print and television media including Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Washington Times.

Dr. Puchalski, first and foremost is a clinician. She is also a member of a contemplative lay order, The Discalced Carmelites. Part of her clinical practice in internal medicine and geriatrics is integrating patients’ spiritual beliefs into their health care. With her expertise, she can knowledgeably address the sensitive medical issues surrounding palliative and end-of-life care and care of seriously ill patients. Dr. Puchalski’s work in the field of spirituality and medicine encompasses the clinical, the academic, and the pastoral application of her research and insights.

Marjorie Ryerson, M.F.A.

Executive Director of Water Music Inc. and award-winning professor, photographer, poet, editor, and journalist

Monday, May 23, 2011

Professor Marjorie Ryerson, the editorial director of Safer Society Press in Vermont, is also the executive director of the non-profit Water Music, Inc. (www.water-music.org). She is an award-winning professor, photographer, poet, editor and journalist. She teaches poetry for Middlebury College at its New England Young Writers’ Conference each year, and has done so for the past 20 years. She also is a First Wednesdays’ lecturer for the Vermont Council on the Humanities. Prof. Ryerson taught non-fiction writing and photography at Castleton State College from 1991 until 2005, and in that time, was selected as the Vermont State Colleges Faculty Fellow for the academic year 2000-2001, the highest honor awarded to a professor in the Vermont State College system.

Prof. Ryerson is the author of several books. Her book Companions for the Passage: Stories of the Intimate Privilege of Accompanying the Dying was released in 2005. Her far-reaching book,
Water Music, was published in 2003 and includes 100 art photographs of water by Ryerson accompanied by personal, creative writings about water (in poems, song lyrics, essays and stories) by sixty-six world-renown musicians, including Renee Fleming, Bobby McFerrin, Pete Seeger, Emanuel Ax, Sarah Chang, Randy Newman, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dave Brubeck, Paul Winter, and others. Ryerson donates all her profits from the sale of
Water Music to the Water Music Fund at the United Nations Foundation, a fund created by the U.N. in response to her book. That money is in turn supported by matching grants from other institutions and individuals and the collected revenue is then used to help provide safe drinking water for families around the world. As part of her work for Water Music, Inc., Ryerson assists schools in the creation of academic curriculums about water. Those curriculums are in turn used to support school-wide, year-long educational programs about water across all the disciplines. Ryerson also gives concerts with individual musicians, musical groups, and symphonies across the United States and Europe—with water as the theme. Her photographs of water have been featured in numerous art shows.

Prof. Ryerson was chosen as the 2005 recipient of the international Harry E. Schlenz Medal for public education about water quality, because of
Water Music and the larger Water Music non profit she created and directs. She also was the recipient of the 2003 Paul Keough Award for leadership in the water environment, also for her Water Music work.

She has been in all editions of the Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World since 2008, all editions of the Marquis’
Who’s Who in America since 2000, and numerous other Who’s Who volumes for Media, Communication, Teaching, and American Women. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry and creative writing from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She may be reached at water05060@gmail.com.

Rev. Bryan N. Massingale, S.T.D.

Associate Professor of Theology at Marquette University

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Fr. Bryan N. Massingale (S.T.D., Accademia Alphonsianum, 1991) specializes in social ethics with a focus on Catholic Social Teaching, liberation theologies, African American religious ethics, and racial justice. His recent work applies Catholic social thought to the issues of affirmative action, racial reconciliation, environmental justice, HIV/AIDS stigma, racism post-Katrina (and now, post-Obama), and the challenge of peacemaking in an age of terrorism.

He has authored over sixty articles, book chapters, and book reviews. These have been published in journals such as Theological Studies, New Theology Review, Philosophy and Theology, Origins, U.S. Catholic, The National Catholic Reporter, Signs of the Times in the Americas, and Catholic Peace Voice. His most recent work was a major document for Catholic Charities USA, entitled Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Threats to the Common Good, which was released in January of 2008. His next book project explores the contribution of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s social ethics to Catholic social thought, answering the question, “Why Catholic Social Teaching Needs Martin Luther King., Jr.”

Fr. Massingale is a leader in U.S. Catholic theology. He is Past President of the Catholic Theological Society of America and Convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium. He is a noted lecturer and commentator on issues of social and racial justice, having addressed numerous national Catholic conferences and gatherings, as well as many colleges and universities. He has served as a consultant to the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, providing theological assistance on issues such as criminal justice, capital punishment, environmental justice, and affirmative action. He has also been a theological consultant to the National Black Catholic Congress, Catholic Charities USA, the Catholic Health Association, and the National Catholic AIDS Network. In addition to being Associate Professor at Marquette University, Fr. Massingale is a professor in the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Recent publications include: “HIV/AIDS and the Bodies of Black Peoples: The Spirituals and Resurrection Faith,” in M. Shawn Copeland, LaReine-Marie Mosely, and Robert J. Raboteau, eds.,
Uncommon Faithfulness: The Black Catholic Experience (Maryknoll: Orbis Press, 2009);
Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Threats to the Common Good (Washington, DC: Catholic Charities USA, 2008); “The Scandal of Poverty: ‘Cultural Indifference’ and the Option for the Poor Post-Katrina,”
Journal of Religion and Society Supplement Series 4 (2008): 55-72; “Racial Reconciliation in Christian Ethics: Toward Starting a Conversation,”
Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium 2 (2008): 31-57; “How We Move Beyond Race,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (March 24, 2008): 11A; “Race, Racism Engage Us at Gut Level,” National Catholic Reporter 44 (April 4, 2008): 5-6.

Fr. Massingale has been honored on a number of occasions. He has been recognized by the Catholic Press Association for an award-winning opinion column examining contemporary social issues from a faith perspective. He has received an honorary doctorate from Saint John’s University in New York City, and is the recipient of Project Equality’s “Religious Momentum” Award for his efforts in promoting diversity in the Catholic Church. He has been honored by both Fairfield University and Cardinal Stritch University for his advocacy for social justice and his work for inclusion of the socially marginalized. Further recognitions include the “Young Alumnus of the Year” from Marquette University, and the “Annecy Award” from St. Francis Seminary for his contributions to the local church.