Conference Schedule
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Tuesday
March 24, 2026 As of 3/5/26 |
7:00 a.m. - 7:30 a.m.: Services -- Catholic (Concorde A), Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant (Concorde C) ; Light Morning Movement (Galleria C)
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.: Continental Breakfast (Ballroom BC)
"Meet the Professor" gatherings, where a more senior leader in the field welcomes others to join him/her at breakfast to discuss items pertaining to medicine and religion. "Meet with an Author", where a recently published book related to religion and medicine can be discussed with the author at breakfast. Jonathan Weinkle, MD, FAAP, FACP, "From Illness to Exodus: A Passover Meditation on Empathy, Health and Healing" (Resource Publications, 2025) 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.: Contemplative Room (Galleria C)
Healing Arts 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Maker Space Studio: Calligraphy Breaks 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Conference participants are invited into an open, drop-in creative space for reflection, connection, and self-care. Using calligraphy, writing across cultures, and shared mapping practices, participants can explore how their own prophetic voice takes shape through mark-making. No prior art experience is required. The studio welcomes quiet participation, conversation, and return visits as part of a personal rhythm of rest and reflection during the conference. The Houston Health Museum Westheimer Prophetic Voice Studio Session: Burial Rituals Across Cultures 8:30 - 10:10 a.m. In this hands-on, contemplative speaker session, participants will create small symbolic burial boxes to hold memories, prayers, or intentions for release. Inspired by diverse cultural approaches to burial and mourning, the session explores how ritual helps communities mark endings, honor the dead, and make space for transformation. A brief guided meditation and lecture will open the session, followed by creative play and reflection. The Houston Health Museum Materials include: Small boxes, florals, collage materials, journaling paper, paint markers, hot glue, craft glue Westheimer 8:30 a.m. - 10:10 a.m.: Paper Presentations and Workshops
Workshops (8:30 - 9:20 a.m.) Seeing Anew: Using Art in Virtual Sessions to Facilitate Reflection and Foster Community among Healthcare Workers Rev. James Adams, MA, MDiv, BCC, Sr. Chaplain, Houston Methodist Neal Cancer Center Director's Rumi at Bedside - Poetic Theology - Spiritual Care Interpretations and Insights from 'Masnawi' and Islamic Spirituality Kuaybe Noor, Chaplain, MAC, MAIRS, Wellspring Chaplaincy Initiative Blvd (9:20 - 10:10 a.m.) "How Can We Sing the Song of Hashem on Foreign Soil?": Singing our Way through Sickness, Health, and Crises of Faith Jonathan Weinkle, MD, FAAP, FACP, University of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill Health Center Director's Papers
(8:30 - 8:55 a.m.) Spectacular Bioethics: Guy Debord, the Society of the Spectacle, and the Odd Position of Modern Clinical Ethics Consultation Martin Fitzgerald, PhD, The Ohio State University Post Oak Shaping Suffering & Meaning-making in Mental Disorder: The Role of Narratives, Metaphors, and Interpretive Frameworks Kate Finley, PhD, Hope College Forum Sacred Moment Rounds: Reclaiming the Sacred in the Practice of Medicine Nathan Houchens, University of Michigan, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Martha Quinn, University of Michigan, Karen E. Fowler, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Christopher Smith, University of Michigan, Christina Wright, University of Michigan, Latoya Kuhn, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Jessica Ameling, University of Michigan, and Sanjay Saint, University of Michigan, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System Concorde A Anticipatory Gratitude and Human Dignity Joshua Schulz, DeSales University Concorde B Medicine and Martyria: A Theology of Narrative Witness in Healthcare Frentzen Pakpahan,Yale Divinity School Concorde C Papers
(8:55 - 9:20 a.m.) The Religious and Spiritual Practices Among Internal Medicine Physicians in Japan and the United States: A Comparative Cross-National Study Kota Sakaguchi, Shimane University Hospital, Kristin Collier, MD, University of Michigan Medical School, Reiko Sakama, NTT Medical Center, Sanjay Saint, University of Michigan Medical School, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Center for Clinical Management Research, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, M. Todd Greene, University of Michigan Medical School, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Center for Clinical Management Research, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Nathan Houchens, University of Michigan Medical School, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Karen Fowler, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Center for Clinical Management Research, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Jason Engle, University of Michigan Medical School, Center for Clinical Management Research, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ikuo Shimizu, Chiba University, Yasuharu Tokuda, Muribushi Center for Teaching Hospitals, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Health and Global Policy Institute, and Takashi Watari, Kyoto University Hospital Post Oak “Strengthen Me Just Once More”: Samson, the Ethiopian Eunuch, and the Medicalization of Masculinity” Brewer Eberly, MD, Family Physician, Fischer Clinic, McDonald Agape Fellow, Duke Divinity School Forum Henri Nouwen: Theologian, Caregiver - How do His Writings Support Informal Caregivers? Julie Yonker, PhD, Calvin University Concorde A Centering Self-Possession through Taoist Energy Practices Sharisse Kanet, Worcester State University Concorde B A Critique of Comfort: Questioning the Medicalizing Tendencies of End-of-Life Care Benjamin Frush, MD, Kennedy Institute Ethics, Georgetown University Concorde C Papers
(9:20 - 9:45 a.m.) Assessing the Impact of Faith-Specific Spiritual Companionship for Muslim Patients: A Pilot Quality Improvement Study Muzzammil Ahmadzada, Stanford University School of Medicine, Baraa Abdelghne, Stanford University, Mohamad Hamoudeh, Seton Hall University, Layth Alkhani, Yasmin Kotb, Hashem Albezreh, and Ameera Eshtewi, Stanford University, and Hosam Arammash, Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine Blvd A Theory of Suffering for Medicine and Bioethics Tyler Tate, MD, Stanford University Post Oak Applying Care: Three Models of Presence Gregory Han, Rice University Forum Death Foretelling: Prognosis and Prophecy in Medical Care and the Bible C. Isaac, PhD, Loma Linda University Concorde A Angels, Demons, AI, and Reciprocity in Healthcare Ethics Dallas Gingles, PhD, MTS, Southern Methodist University Concorde B The End of Therapy: MAHA, Medicalization, and Moral Agency Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD, MTS, Duke University Concorde C Papers
(9:45 a.m. - 10:10 a.m) Islamic and Biomedical Paradigms Harmonized: Reimagining Healthcare Delivery through Ḥifẓ al-Dīn Aasim Padela, MD, MSc, FACEP, Medical College of Wisconsin, Initiative on Islam and Medicine Blvd The Prophetic Voice of Principlism? Or, Can the Scientific Voice Ever Prophecy? Matthew Vest, PhD, Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Ohio State University Post Oak A Prayer for the Midwife: A Late Byzantine Ritual as Liturgical Model for Responding to Moral Distress in Medicine Julie Gunby, Saint Louis University, Northside Hospital Gwinnett Forum Atonement in Professional Life: Conceptualizing Physician Restoration After Medical Error Carl Hildebrand, Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, The University of Hong Kong, and Ashley Moyse, PhD, Department of Religion, Baylor University and Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford Concorde A Buddhist Clinical Care, Counseling, and Chaplaincy After the Racial Capitalism of Mindfulness "Matta" Matthew Zheng, MDiv, Goucher College Concorde B The Medicalization of Food: A Christian Reconsideration of Healthy Eating Devan Stahl, PhD, Baylor University Concorde C 10:10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.: Break
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: Music & Plenary Session (Ballroom BC)
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.: Lunch (Ballroom BC)
"Meet the Professor" gatherings, where a more senior leader in the field welcomes others to join him/her at lunch to discuss items pertaining to medicine and religion. "Meet with an Author", where a recently published book related to religion and medicine can be discussed with the author at lunch. John K. Graham, MD, PhD, DMin, "Belief, Mystery, Miracles, and Eternity: Where Science and Spirituality Can Agree" (All-Reality Press, 2025) Abraham Nussbaum, MD, MTS, "Progress Notes: One Year in the Future of Medicine" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024) 1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.: Panel and Paper Presentations
Panels Interdisciplinary Collaboration between Chaplains and Ethicists to Improve Patient Care and Communication with the Health Care Team Peggy Determeyer, PhD, MDiv, MBA, BCC, HEC-C, Hope and Healing Center & Institute, Sarah Knoll Sweeney, MDiv, ACPE, Michael Lee, MDiv, BCC, and David Leard, MDiv, BCC, Memorial Hermann Hospital System Director's Bridging the Gap: Policy Recommendations for Advancing Muslim Patient Religious Accommodations in U.S. Healthcare Andrew Doan, Ihsan Rizky and Aasim I. Padela, MD, MSc, FACEP, Medical College of Wisconsin, Maleeha Afreen, MS, Medical University of Lublin, and Salmah Abdulbaseer, MD, Rush University Medical Center Blvd Holding Space for the Sacred: Welcoming Scholarly Engagement with Religion in Bioethics Education, Research, and Clinical Consultation Asma Mobin-Uddin MD, MA, FAAP, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Matthew Vest , PhD, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Arshia Madni, MD, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, and Courtney Thiele, JD, MA,The Ohio State University College of Medicine Post Oak Can Ethics Consultation be Liturgical?: Exploring Being Beheld: On the Liturgical Consummation of Clinical Ethics Consultation Jaime Konerman-Sease, PhD, HEC-C, University of Minnesota, Jordan Mason, PhD, MDiv, HEC-C, Providence Health, Kimbell Kornu, MD, PhD, Belmont University, and Ashley Moyse, PhD, Department of Religion, Baylor University and Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford Concorde B Papers
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