Ralph C. Ciampa, STM, Director of the Department
of Pastoral Care and Education, University of Pennsylvania
Ralph C. Ciampa, S.T.M., Director of the Department of Pastoral Care and Education
at Penn, has been integral to the development of multidisciplinary programs
at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He established an interdisciplinary
Research Committee, consisting of persons from both inside and outside the
Department, and several from other hospitals and universities, including representatives
from nursing, pulmonary medicine, radiology, family care, and rehabilitation
medicine. He also helped establish the Spirituality and Health Interest Group
which meets monthly to discuss topics relevant to spirituality and health.
In 1998, the Department of Pastoral Care and Education won the prestigious
Award for Research Center of the Year, from The Association for Clinical Pastoral
Education. He has co-authored papers in both the Archives of Internal
Medicine and the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Ram A. Cnaan, PhD, Professor and Chair of the
Doctoral Program in Social Welfare, University of Pennsylvania
Ram A. Cnaan, Ph.D., is a professor and chair of the Doctoral Program in Social
Welfare. His areas of interest and research include volunteerism and social
work and religion. He established the School's Program for the Study of Religion
and Social Work. Dr. Cnaan has published numerous articles in scientific journals
on a variety of social issues. He is the author of: The Newer Deal: Social
Work and Religion in Partnership and The Invisible Caring Hand: American
Congregations and the Provision of Welfare. Currently, Dr.Cnaan is working
on a new book dealing with congregations in our society, provisionally titled:
The Other Philadelphia Story: How Local Congregations Support Quality
of Life in Urban America.
Paul Crits-Christoph, PhD, Professor
of Psychology in Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Psychotherapy Research,
University of Pennsylvania
Paul Crits-Christoph, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and
is the Director of the Center for Psychotherapy Research. He received his
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Yale University. He has been involved in
extensive research studying the effects of psychotherapy in the treatment
of depression, addictions, and anxiety disorders. He has received numerous
federal grants to support this research and has published over 100 research
articles. He has also participated in several research projects designed to
explore the effects of psychotherapy integrated with religious elements.
Stephen Dunning, PhD, Professor of Modern Western
Religious Thought, former Chairman of the Department of Religious Studies,
University of Pennsylvania
Stephen Dunning, Ph.D., is Professor of Modern Western Religious Thought and
former Chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of
Pennsylvania. His publications include The Tongues of Men: Hegel and Hamann
on Religious Language and History, Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Inwardness:
A Structural Analysis of the Theory of Stages, and Dialectical Readings:
Three Types of Interpretation. He initiated the creation of a master's
program at Penn dealing with Religion in Public Life, and won a Templeton
Course Award for a course on debates over Evolution and Creation.
Martha J. Farah, PhD, Director of
the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania
Martha J. Farah, Ph.D., is a professor of Psychology at the Universty of Pennsylvania
and Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She graduated from
college at MIT and obtained her doctorate at Harvard University. She is the
author of over 100 articles and two books, and has conducted research on a
variety of topics in cognitive neuroscience. Her current interests center
around the effects of childhood poverty on neurocognitive development and
"neuroethics" (ethical issues emerging from advances in the neurosciences).
John T. Farrar, MD, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor
of Epidemiology and Anesthesia, Clinical Associate of Neurology, and Senior
Scholar at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University
of Pennsylvania
John T. Farrar, M.D., Ph.D., is a Board Certified Neurologist who graduated
from medical school at the University of Rochester, completed his neurology
residency at the New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center, a Pain
Fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City, and
has a Masters and Doctorate in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of
Pennsylvania. He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
and Anesthesia, Clinical Associate of Neurology and Senior Scholar at the
Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania,
School of Medicine. At the University of Pennsylvania, he also serves as the
Director of the Masters program in Clinical Epidemiology and Co-Director of
the Biostatistics Analysis Center/Biostatistical and Epidemiology Consulting
Center. His current research is in the study of complementary and alternative
therapies.
Steven Gross, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
and Affiliate Faculty, Institute for Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania
Steven Gross, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Affiliate
Faculty at the Institute for Cognitive Science. Previously he was on the faculty
of University College London. He received his A.B. and Ph.D. in philosophy
from Harvard University. Dr. Gross specializes in philosophy of language,
philosophy of mind, and metaphysics. Recent publications have discussed vagueness,
linguistic context-sensitivity, the nature of semantic competence, and the
intelligibility of ontological questions. Dr. Gross regularly teaches courses
on the philosophy of religion, covering arguments for and against the existence
of god, the relation of faith and reason, and the cognitive science of religious
belief.
Ruben Gur, PhD, Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry
and Director of the Brain Behavior Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania
Ruben Gur, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and is
Director of the Brain Behavior Laboratory. Dr. Gur received his B.A. in Psychology
and Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, in 1970 and
his M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology (Clinical) from Michigan State University
in 1971 and 1973, respectively. He did Postdoctoral training with E.R. Hilgard
at Stanford University and came to Penn as Assistant Professor in 1974. His
research has been in the study of brain and behavior in healthy people and
patients with brain disorders, with a special emphasis on exploiting neuroimaging
as experimental probes. His work has documented sex differences, aging effects,
and abnormalities in regional brain function associated with schizophrenia,
affective disorders, stroke, epilepsy, movement disorders and dementia. His
work has been supported by both federal and private foundation grants.
David Hufford, PhD, is Professor of Medical
Humanities, Behavioral Science, and Family medicine, Penn State College of
Medicine
David Hufford, Ph.D., is Professor of Medical Humanities, with joint
appointments in Behavioral Science and Family medicine, at the Penn State
College of Medicine, where he is also Director of the Doctors Kienle Center
for Humanistic Medicine. At University of Pennsylvania he is Adjunct Professor
of religious Studies and a faculty member of the Master in Bioethics Program.
Dr. Hufford has taught about religion, spirituality and health at the College
of medicine since 1974. He won a Templeton Foundation Faith & Medicine
Award in 1995 and at Penn he has taught courses in spiritual belief and in
alternative medicine since 1979. Dr. Hufford's research is centered on the
ethnographic and phenomenological study of the beliefs of ordinary people,
especially as those beliefs that are in competition with the positions of
official institutions.
Solomon Katz, PhD, Director, Krogman Center for
Childhood Growth and Development, University of Pennsylvania
Solomon Katz, Ph.D., is director of the Krogman Center for Childhood
Growth and Development at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Katz is also
a leading expert on the anthropology of food. His work in the field of science
and religion spans 30 years with leadership in the Institute for Religion
in an Age of Science (IRAS), in which he served as president from 1981 to
1984, and as associate editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science.
Katz is immediate past president of the Metanexus Institute Board of Directors
and also serves on the board of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS) and serves on several committees including "The Dialogue
Between Science and Religion." He is editor-in-chief of the award winning
Encyclopedia of Food, published by Scribners.
Ann Matter, PhD, Professor and current Chair
of the Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Ann Matter, Ph.D., is a Professor and the current Chair of the Department
of Religious Studies. She earned her A.B. in Religion at Oberlin College in
1971, and her Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Yale University in 1976. She has
been at Penn since 1976. Dr. Matter teaches and writes about the history of
Christianity, especially the medieval and early modern periods, focusing on
traditions of spirituality, mysticism, biblical study and the role of women.
She has taught a Freshman Seminar in "Religion, Health and Healing"
and has been an organizer and active member of the Provost's Interdisciplinary
Seminar on Spirituality, and Healing.
Robert M. Nelson, MD, PhD, Associate Professor
of Anesthesia and Pediatrics, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Robert M. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., is currently Associate Professor of Anesthesia
and Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After receiving his MD degree from Yale
University in 1980, Dr. Nelson trained in pediatrics (Massachusetts General
Hospital), neonatology and pediatric critical care (University of California,
San Francisco). He has received formal training in theology, religious and
medical ethics, receiving a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School
in 1980 and a Ph.D. in The Study of Religion from Harvard University in 1993.
Dr. Nelson has lectured and published widely on ethical and regulatory issues
in pediatric research and clinical care. Dr. Nelson is a member of the Pediatric
Advisory Committee (PAC) of the Food and Drug Administration, and Chair of
the PAC Pediatric Ethics Subcommittee. Dr. Nelson has been a member of the
Committee on Clinical Research Involving Children of the Institute of Medicine
(through March 2004), and former Chair of the Committee on Bioethics of the
American Academy of Pediatrics (through 2001). Currently he is Director of
the Center for Research Integrity, established at CHOP to further the responsible
conduct of pediatric research.
Martin Seligman, PhD, Fox Leadership Professor
of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Martin Seligman, Ph.D., is currently Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology
in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is well
known in academic and clinical circles and is a best-selling author of over
twenty books and 200 articles on motivation and personality including Learned
Optimism, What You Can Change & What You Can't, and The Optimistic
Child. His most recent book is the best-selling Authentic Happiness.
He is the recipient of two Distinguished Scientific Contribution awards from
the American Psychological Association, the Laurel Award of the American Association
for Applied Psychology and Prevention, and the Lifetime Achievement Award
of the Society for Research in Psychopathology. He holds an honorary Ph.D.
from Uppsala, Sweden and Doctor of Humane Letters from the Massachusetts School
of Professional Psychology. In 1996 Dr. Seligman was elected President of
the American Psychological Association. Since 2000 his main mission has been
the promotion of the field of Positive Psychology.
Albert Stunkard, MD, Professor of Psychiatry,
and Emeritus Director and Founder of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program,
University of Pennsylvania
Albert Stunkard, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry, and Emeritus Director and
Founder of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program. He graduated from Columbia
University Medical School in 1945. He is currently conducting a large-scale
prospective longitudinal study of the growth and development of children at
high risk of obesity. He also studies deviant eating patterns, having been
the first to describe binge eating and having developed treatment for binge
eating disorder. He is currently investigating a new eating disorder –
the night eating syndrome. He is the author of nearly 400 publications, mostly
in the field of obesity and his research has been supported for 40 years by
the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Stunkard has served as Past President
of the American Association of Chairmen of Departments of Psychiatry, the
Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases, the American Psychosomatic
Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Academy of Behavioral
Medicine Research and he serves on the editorial boards of seven journals
in the fields of nutrition and behavioral medicine. In addition, he has been
practicing Zen Buddhist meditation since the age of 25, at times with some
of the leading Zen Masters of our time. He has worked on a number of issues
pertaining to the relationship between psychiatry and religious and spiritual
experiences.
Guy Welbon, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious
Studies and South Asia Studies and Chairman of the Graduate Group in Religious
Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Guy Welbon, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and of South
Asia Studies and Chairman of the Graduate Group in Religious Studies at the
University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. from the Committee on Social
Thought at The University of Chicago with a specialization in Sanskrit and
Indic Studies. Before going to Penn, he taught at the University of Rochester
and the University of Minnesota. His teaching and research concentrate on
continuity and change in the religions of Southern Asia and on methodological
issues in the study of religion. He was awarded a Templeton Science and Religion
course grant in 1997-98 for the development of a course examining attitudes
toward science and scientific investigation in the major non-Christian religious
traditions. His current research focuses on the roles of the Buddhist culture
of Andhra Pradesh in the earliest spread of Buddhism into Southeast Asia and
on the earliest evidence for Buddhism in Burma.
Paul Root Wolpe, PhD, Senior Fellow of the Center
of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow of the Center of Bioethics at the
University of Pennsylvania, where he holds appointments in the Department
of Psychiatry and the Department of Sociology. He is the Director of the Program
in Psychiatry and Ethics at Penn, and is a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis
Institute for Health Economics. Dr. Wolpe also serves as the first Chief of
Bioethics for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The
office is responsible for safeguarding the protections of research subjects
and astronauts both within NASA and among our international space partners.
Dr. Wolpe is the author of numerous articles and book chapters in sociology,
medicine, and bioethics, and has contributed to a variety of encyclopedias
on bioethical issues. His research examines the role of ideology and culture
in medical thought, encompassing such diverse fields as genetics and biotechnology,
mental health and illness, sexuality and reproduction, health care reform,
religion and its role in bioethical debate, human subjects research, and death
and dying. He serves as bioethics advisor to the Philadelphia Department of
Human Services, Children and Youth Division. Dr. Wolpe is a regular columnist
on biotechnology for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and appears frequently in
the broadcast media, including MSNBC, CBS and ABC Evening News, Dateline,
and The Jim Lehrer Show, and has recently been cited in news sources such
as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago
Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and U.S. News and World Report.