https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org https://www.sankofacpe.org What does it mean to provide spiritual care to people who are unhoused and locally incarcerated? Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab for a conversation with Chaplain Charlotte Cramer, founder of Temple of the Forgotten. Chaplain Cramer provides spiritual care to those who are unhoused and locally incarcerated in Marin County, California. Temple of the Forgotten is a non-denominational spiritual community that equips local organizations to build professional and community-based spiritual care for those living in the institutions of poverty, homelessness and county-level incarceration. We thank Sankofa CPE for their support of this webinar. Accredited by ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education to offer Level I and Level II Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Units, Sankofa offers innovative, unique CPE programming that features online CPE groups, African-centered curriculums, LGBTQIA+ inclusivity, along with social justice-oriented and digital ministry clinical site placements. Learn more at sankofacpe.org. Charlotte Cramer is an ordained Interfaith Minister and Chaplain with her Master of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry, a Certificate in Chaplaincy from The Chaplaincy Institute, and four units of Clinical Pastoral Education from The Shaw Chaplaincy Institute. She works as a street minister with The Street Chaplaincy in San Rafael, Marin County, CA, providing spiritual care for the many unhoused folks currently living in the city. Rev. Charlotte also works in Marin County Jail, providing direct spiritual care to inmates (with a list of at least 10-16 clients) and leads weekly tarot card reading group sessions. Prior to this work, Rev. Charlotte worked in family ministries for a UU congregation, lived in and managed a retreat center in Costa Rica, and lived in a spiritual community in Nevada City, CA. Rev. Charlotte has been studying, both personally and academically, inter-spiritual mystical experience, deep listening, non-ordinary states of consciousness and death/dying for over 5 years. She has a deep passion for spirituality, caring for the human soul, and for her calling as a street minister. Rev. Charlotte lives in San Anselmo, CA, with her little puppy dog, Willie, and spends her free time in nature, practicing jiu jitsu, and going to ecstatic dance.

https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org https://www.fetzer.org The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab (CIL) is collaborating with the Fetzer Institute to support and build networks of spiritual care providers who do not identify with a religious tradition or identify as non-religious (sometimes referred to as “spiritual but not religious”). This work brings together chaplains and scholars from diverse spiritualities, racial and ethnic backgrounds, geographies, and sectors of chaplaincy. It will help identify the needs of this population, which are neither well defined in the literature nor adequately addressed in many settings. This webinar will present new research on unaffiliated chaplaincy, including a new working paper that will be made available for reading and comment. We thank Fetzer Institute for their support of this work. We are joined by: Melissa Bennett (she/her) is a storyteller, storylistener, writer, educator,spirit worker, and chaplain. She is a descendant of the Umatilla, Nez Perce, Sac & Fox, and Anishinaabe Nations. Melissahas been reading tarot cards, building altars, channeling spirit, and chatting with the ancestors for over 25 years. In 2012 she earned a Master of Divinity degree along with graduate certificatesin spiritual counselingand theological studies. The following year she completed her chaplain training in forensic mental health specializing in the care of Indigenous people. Melissa has a decade of experience providing spiritual care in higher education settings and approaches her workfrom atrauma informedhealing justicelens. Melissa is the founder of Nnoshé’s House (aka Auntie’s House) where she provides spiritual care tools and mentorship to a diverse client base. To learn more visit: https://www.nnosheshouse.com/. Jason Callahan, MDiv, MS, BCC, is chaplain at the Thomas Palliative Care Unit at VCU Massey Cancer Center​ and Instructor in the VCU Departments of Patient Counseling and Pastoral Care. Anthony Cruz Pantojas, MATS, MALS (they/he/elle/él) is a cuir/queer Afro-Boricua who is deeply informed by decolonial humanisms,Cultural Studies, Afro-Caribbean subjectivities, and Spirituality. Cruz Pantojasregularly presents at numerous conferences and facilitates workshops on humanistic orientations and sensibilities within this current sociopolitical climate. As a humanist chaplain at Tufts University, they collaborate with diverse stakeholders to promotehumanism and to encourage more expansive and reparative modes of thought and relationship. Cruz Pantojas earned master’s degrees in Theological Studies, and Leadership Studies from Andover Newton Theological School and Meadville Lombard Theological School, respectively. Additionally, they hold a Certificate in Humanist Studies from the American Humanist Association Center for Education. Anthony has also published in various scholarly and popular outlets.

Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and Kathy Fogg Berry, author of When Words Fail: Practical Ministry to People with Dementia and Their Caregivers (2018) and chaplain at Westminster Canterbury Richmond, for an introduction to spiritual care in memory care settings. We’ll discuss the unique needs of older adults with dementia diagnoses, how current chaplains can begin thinking about providing this care, and how prospective chaplains might consider training and education to pursue this work. 

https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org How does dorm chaplaincy redefine spiritual care in higher education residential settings? Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and chaplains from the University of the South to learn about a model of providing spiritual care in higher education residential settings. We’ll discuss how chaplaincy training can be incorporated into students’ own progress through academic programs, how residential chaplains impact the experience of residential students, and how this model differs from providing spiritual care through university-wide spiritual life or student services offices. We thank the Association for Chaplaincy and Spiritual Life in Higher Education (ACSLHE) for its support of this webinar. ACSLHE seeks to be the leading authority on religious and spiritual life in higher education. ACSLHE supports higher education chaplaincies and nurtures religious and spiritual life professionals through scholarship, education, and collaboration. Learn more at https://acslhe.org/. The Rev. Amanda Gott is the Interfaith Chaplain at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Amanda supervises the Chaplains-in-Residence program, supporting the Seminarians who live in undergraduate residence halls and serve as non-sectarian chaplains to the college students where they live. She continues to be amazed at the extent to which a dormitory laundry room is a liminal place of holy encounter, where sacred conversations often happen. Amanda came to Higher Education Chaplaincy after a long career in parish ministry, during which she moonlighted as a Chaplain in various educational contexts with children, teenagers, and young adults. Kelton Riley is a trans-man from rural Limestone County, Alabama, where he developed a heart for small-parish ministry and volunteered with LGBT+ youth. He currently serves in the Chaplains in Residence program at Sewanee, providing pastoral care to the young adults in the undergraduate program. Riley graduated with his M. Div. from the School of Theology at the University of the South in 2023 and is currently completing a Masters of Sacred Theology. He also has a Masters in Religion from Athens State University and Bachelor’s degrees in English, History, and German. Sam Haisten is from Milledgeville, Georgia and is currently in their final year in seminary at The School of Theology at the University of the South where they serve as a Chaplain in Residence. During their time in seminary, they have grown to love the different faces of chaplaincy and have participated in both hospital chaplaincy and dorm chaplaincy. Before seminary, they earned a BA in Spanish from Georgia College & State University, and they often joke that they work in order to maintain the standard of living to which their cats, Goblin and Mr. Neelix, have become accustomed. In their free time, Sam enjoys watching The West Wing and visiting the nearby state park.

Interfaith America is working to promote our nation’s religious and spiritual diversity as an asset in quality healthcare and lever for building health equity. Join Interfaith America and the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab for conversation about the importance of equipping all providers to work in partnership with spiritual care experts to strengthen care for people of all faiths and none. A chaplain, a health professional, and a patient will share stories of impact as they invite others to build interfaith competency across health settings. Anu Gorukanti is a public health practitioner, pediatric hospitalist, and co-founder of Introspective Spaces, a social venture committed to building reflective space and community for women in healthcare. She is also a member of the Sacred Journeys and Witness fellowships. She cares deeply about the well-being of her colleagues in healthcare and is passionate about healthcare reform to create equitable and compassionate care for patients and communities. In her free time, she loves to photograph landscapes, learn to dance and spend time with her wonderful husband, friends and family. Hadia Mubarak is Assistant Professor of Religion at Queens University of Charlotte. She previously served as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Guilford College and as a Research Fellow at New York University-Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). Her forthcoming book, Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands: Controversies in Modern Qurʾanic Commentaries (Oxford University Press, March 2020), explores significant shifts in modern Qurʾanic commentaries on the subject of women against the backdrop of broader historical, intellectual and political developments in twentieth-century North Africa. Mubarak completed her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Georgetown University, where she specialized in modern and classical Qurʾanic exegesis, Islamic feminism, and gender reform in the modern Muslim world. She currently serves as a scholar-in-residence with the Muslim Community Center of Charlotte (MCC). Reverend Mary Martha Thiel is the Director of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Hebrew SeniorLife (HSL). Drawing on the energy and nimbleness of its CPE program, the Religious and Spiritual Care Department spearheads the LGBTQ+ initiatives on HSL’s six campuses. Mary Martha lives in Brookline with her spouse, and has two daughters. She is active at First Church Cambridge, UCC. She is an avid reader, traveler, and lifelong learner.

https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org What is EMS chaplaincy? In this webinar, Katie Tunks Leach of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney will offer an overview of emergency medical services (EMS) chaplaincy. We'll learn what the daily work of EMS chaplaincy looks like, what kind of training EMS chaplains have, what interventions they use, and how those interested in this area of spiritual care can take next steps toward serving in this space.

What is the work of private school chaplains? While we often mean college or university when we discuss spiritual care in educational settings, one field of the profession does serve private institutions at the secondary level. Join us for a discussion on spiritual care for teenage individuals at the ninth through twelfth grade levels, especially in private institutions where community considerations are unique and require close attention from chaplains.

https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org How can chaplains help healthcare institutions respond best in moments of crisis? One chaplain proposes Go Teams for healthcare. Following a series of traumatic incidents and losses, including on-site suicide, colleague deaths, and assaultive patients that deeply shook the staff community, Chaplain Alyssa Adreani created and launched a crisis response program called the Newton-Wellesley Hospital GO Team. Inspired by Critical Incident Stress Management, the GO Team is comprised of professional colleagues from Spiritual Care, EAP, Behavioral Health, Peer Support and other trained and experienced professionals. The team are activated and deployed by executive leadership following crisis events at the hospital. Supportive responders debrief after every incident. This webinar will discuss the history of the GO Team, the path taken to create and launch it, and how other chaplains can create similar resources in their own healthcare institutions. We’re joined by Alyssa Adreani, Director, Spiritual Care Department, Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

We thank Religious Naturalist Association for their support of this webinar. With the roots of professional spiritual care as we know it today in religious traditions, the credentialing process — from classroom education to CPE and endorsement and board certification — long has been associated with religious organizations. But what does this mean for chaplains who either do not wish to pursue credentialing through those organizations, or who do not identify with a religious or spiritual tradition? This webinar will offer practical guidance for such chaplains and provide the elements to consider when pursing chaplaincy credentialing as a humanist chaplain.

www.chaplaincyinnovation.org We thank Chaplain Distance Learning for their support of this webinar on psycho-spiritual first aid. Learn more at https://www.chaplaindl.org. Join Chaplain Deb Wacker, M.Div, MBA, BCCC, FHPC for an introduction to psycho-spiritual first aid, a key intervention in disaster and crisis response. Participants will learn the principles of psycho-spiritual first aid, how it differs from other interventions (such as critical incident stress management), where to learn more about psycho-spiritual first aid, and how they might implement it in their own practice of spiritual care.