Joseph M Currier, PhD (Principal Investigator) is Professor of Psychology at University of South Alabama (USA) and Clinical Director of Veterans Recovery Resources. A clinical psychologist by training, his research focuses on trauma and moral injury, spiritually integrated mental health care, and other topics related to applied psychology of R/S (e.g., God representations, spiritual struggles). He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in support of these lines of work along with co-authoring two books with American Psychological Association, entitled Trauma, Meaning, and Spirituality: Translating Research into Clinical Practice and Addressing Moral Injury in Clinical Practice. His work has been funded by the John Templeton Foundation (JTF), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and SAMHSA. He also served as Director of Clinical Training for the Clinical and Counseling Psychology (CCP) Doctoral Program at USA from 2015-2020 and was a RWFJ Clinical Scholar Fellow from 2018-2021.

Jesse Fox, PhD (Co-Principal Investigator) is Associate Professor of Counselor Education at Stetson University and Executive Director of Episcopal Counseling Center of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the role of R/S in mental health, psychotherapy, clinical training, and assessment along with co-authoring two books with Routledge Press, entitled Bringing Religion and Spirituality into Therapy and Spirituality and Avoiding Difficult Emotions: Working with Spiritual Bypass (expected 2022). He currently serves as President Elect of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC) and served as chairman of the Religious and Spiritual Competencies Task Force. In his role as director of a faith-based counseling center, Dr. Fox has developed a strong background in building partnerships with faith leaders and community stakeholders related to mental health care.

Holly K. Oxhandler, PhD, LMSW (Co-Principal Investigator) is Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Associate Professor at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University. She is a social worker who has studied the ethical integration of R/S in mental health treatment across helping professions for over a decade, particularly within the EBP process. She developed, validated, and adapted the Religious and Spiritually Integrated Practice Assessment Scale with national samples of clinicians and social work faculty. She also served as a Co-I on the planning grant for this project, leading a national survey of current mental health clients’ views, preferences, and experiences with integrating their R/S in their care. She has also worked on several other grants as PI, Co-PI, or assistant funded by a number of organizations, including NIMH and the Spencer Foundation. She co-hosts the weekly podcast CXMH: A Podcast on Faith and Mental Health, and is the author of The Soul of the Helper: Seven Stages to Seeing the Sacred Within Yourself so You Can See It in Others.

Kenneth Pargament, PhD (Co-Principal Investigator) is Professor Emeritus at Bowling Green State University and Adjunct Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at Baylor Medical School. He is a clinical psychologist well known for his theory/research in psychology of R/S, publishing over 300 articles and serving as editor-in-chief of the two-volume APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality. His books, The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice and Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy: Understanding and Addressing the Sacred, have also played a pioneering role in bringing research, practice, and training in R/S into the mainstream in mental health professions. Among numerous externally funded projects, he served as PI for the planning grant, entitled “Fostering spiritual and religious competencies in mental health care” (JTF #60971), for this larger project.

Michelle Pearce, PhD (Co-Principal Investigator) is Professor and Program Director for Integrative Health and Wellness at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). She is also a clinical psychologist who specializes in the intersection between R/S, coping, and health, and an established researcher with over 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on these topics. She has served as a PI or Co-I on a number of externally funded projects, including leading the JTF-funded study demonstrating feasibility and effectiveness of an online spiritual competency training program (SCT-MH) for increasing mental health clinicians’ R/S competencies. She has authored or co-authored several books on the role of R/S in mental health, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christians with Depression: A Practical Tool-Based Primer, Religion and Recovery from PTSD, and Night Bloomers: 12 Principles for Thriving in Adversity. 

James Pittman, PhD, is a licensed clinical social worker who completed his M.S.W. at Portland State University in 2007 and Ph.D. at Smith College in 2016. He is Section Chief of Outpatient Mental Health Programs in La Jolla and Lead for Mental Health Social Work Services at the VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS). He is also the Director of the eScreening Technology Core for the VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH); Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego; and an Investigator with the UC San Diego Dissemination and Implementation Science Center (DISC). Dr. Pittman has expertise in Dissemination and Implementation Science (D&I) and mixed methods. His primary research focus has been the development and implementation of technology to improve clinical mental health services and the use of multicomponent implementation strategies to support adoption of complex interventions. He co-developed the eScreening technology — a versatile tool that allows patient-facing self-report of symptom severity and other psychosocial information, such as religion and spirituality. Dr. Pittman has had a leading role on several funded projects related to eScreening development and implementation, and he is currently PI of a competitively funded 8-site 4-year mixed-method, hybrid type 2, stepped-wedge trial to evaluate a novel implementation strategy to inform optimal large-scale rollout of the eScreening program in veterans.

Edward C. Polson, PhD, LMSW, MDiv (Co-Principal Investigator) is Associate Professor in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work and a Resident Scholar in Religion and Civic Life with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. He is also a licensed social worker, licensed minister, and sociologist whose research has focused on examining the role of R/S in social and civic life, experiences of racially/ethnically diverse congregations in the U.S., and integration of R/S in social work practice and education. He has published over 20 articles related to these areas. In addition, he has contributed to multiple grant funded projects, including two funded by JTF, The Baylor Religion Survey and a national study of character development in Boy Scouts of America. He also recently served as Co-PI on a project, funded by Spencer Foundation, to conduct the first national survey of social work educators’ views and behaviors related to integration of R/S content in graduate social work education.  

Cassandra Vieten, PhD (Co-Principal Investigator) is Associate Scientist and Director of Research at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at the University of California, San Diego. She also serves as Executive Director of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation. She is a clinical psychologist and researcher specializing in development of spiritual and religious competencies for mental health professionals. Her research has also focused on developing and evaluating mindfulness-based interventions and investigating transformative experiences and practices that lead to shifts in identity and greater meaning, purpose, and service-orientation. She served as Co-I on the planning grant for this project, authored three articles on R/S competencies, and co-authored the book Spiritual and Religious Competencies in Clinical Practice: Guidelines for Psychologists and Mental Health Professionals with New Harbinger. She is also serving as co-chair of the APA Division 36 Task Force on creating professional practice guidelines for R/S in psychology.

Serena Wong, PhD, is a clinical psychologist at St. Joseph’s Health Care London. She provides spiritually integrated care for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness in the Geriatric Psychiatry and Adult Mental Health Treatment and Rehabilitation Programs. She has published over a dozen peer-reviewed studies and chapters on spiritual resources, spiritual struggles, and psychospiritual interventions. Previously, she served as a research assistant for three JTF-funded grants, including a project on Spiritual Competency in Mental Health. Her role in Sub-Project 1 is to provide guidance and training in advanced survey design and data management.

Edward R. Canda, PhD, is Professor Emeritus and Coordinator of the Spiritual Diversity Initiative in the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas. Dr. Canda’s research, teaching, and service address connections between cultural diversity, spirituality, resilience, and philosophy of social welfare in relation to health, mental health, and disabilities. He has been a Visiting Researcher or Professor in South Korea at Sungkyunkwan University and the Academy of Korean Studies and in Japan at Ritsumeikan, Doshisha, and Kansai Universities. He has more than 200 publications and has conducted about 240 presentations in the United States and in many other countries, especially in East Asia and Central Europe. His most widely cited books are Spiritual Diversity in Social Work Practice and Contemporary Human Behavior Theory. In 2013, he received the Council on Social Work Education’s Significant Lifetime Achievement Award for innovations on spirituality through scholarship and education.

Tom Carlson, PhD, joined the CFT Program at Alliant International University-San Diego Campus as a full professor in 2021. He brings 21 years of teaching and supervision experience in a COAMFTE accredited training program. Dr. Carlson is committed to centering his teaching, supervision, and clinical practice in social justice principles. He has published widely on feminist and social justice approaches to training and supervision as well as LGBTQ affirmative therapy and training. Dr. Carlson has also published widely on the topic of spirituality, narrative therapy as it relates to therapy, supervision, and training. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy and the developer of a unique approach to narrative couples therapy called “Relational Accountability” that invites couples to nurture stories of love and compassion in one another through the intentional living out of narrative ethics in their lives and relationships. Dr. Carlson is passionate about developing alternative pedagogies for training therapists and is the co-author, along with David Epston and Travis Heath, of the soon to be published book entitled, Reimagining Narrative Therapy Through Practice Stories and Autoethnography. Dr. Carlson is also the co-developer, along with David Epston, of an innovative trauma-informed performative approach to narrative therapy called “Insider Witnessing Practices,” which invites clients to be witnesses to a dramatic retelling of the counter stories of their lives.

William J. Doherty, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, where he directs the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project and the Citizen Professional Center. He has authored 16 books, mostly recently The Ethical Lives of Clients: Beyond Self-Interest in Psychotherapy, published by APA. He is a past president of the National Council on Family Relations and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Family Therapy Academy. In addition to his clinical interests, he focuses on community initiatives aimed at democratic renewal and positive social change.

Miyoung Yoon Hammer, PhD, is Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy and the MFT Department Chair at Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Psychology and Marriage and Family Therapy. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in Medical Family Therapy and the use of the Restoration Therapy model when working with clients and families affected by acute and chronic illnesses. Both in the clinic and the classroom, she has additionally focused her teaching, training, and writing on the self-of-the-therapist process as it relates to the intersection of cultural identity and spiritual formation. She is deeply involved in the spiritual formation curriculum in her program at Fuller and has had the privilege of journeying with her students in their personal and professional seasons of deconstruction, reconstruction, and growth.

Daniel Gutierrez, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Counselor Education program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He is also a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor with experience working in various settings including community mental health, behavioral hospitals, and private practice. At VCU he leads the Urban Education & the Family iCubed core, a transdisciplinary group of researchers focused on developing innovative solutions to address some of the social problems found in Urban communities. His research is in mental health treatment, contemplation, and positive psychology with a particular focus on cross-cultural interventions for working with marginalized populations, the influence of contemplative practices and spirituality on personal and social transformation, and community wellbeing. He is a President (2021-2022) and a board member of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling, a division of the American Counseling Association (ACA) focused on the integration of Religious Values and Spirituality into counseling, and is currently the Associate Editor for Theory and Practice for the journal Counseling and Values, the Associate Editor for Quantitative Research for the Journal for Counseling and Development, and the former chair of the ACA’s Human Rights Committee.

Janeé Avent Harris, PhD, is an accomplished scholar, educator, consultant, and speaker. She is an Associate Professor and is the Graduate Program Director in the Counselor Education program at East Carolina University. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Ph.D. in Counseling and Counselor Education from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dr. Avent Harris’ scholarship seeks to understand the intersections of faith and mental health with a special focus on how religion and spirituality impact the mental health attitudes and help-seeking behaviors in Black communities. She has served as an editorial board member for scholarly journals as well as been elected as a Board member for ASERVIC. Dr. Avent Harris has been asked to lend her expertise and consultation to various local and national organizations, spiritual leaders, programs, and media outlets.

Altaf Husain, PhD, MSSA, serves as an Associate Professor and chair of the Community, Administration and Policy Practice concentration in the Howard University School of Social Work, in Washington DC. In addition to teaching macro social work courses, he has primary teaching responsibilities within the MSW program for the Displaced Populations field of practice specialization, which includes social work practice with individuals experiencing homelessness and natural and human-caused disasters, as well as with immigrants and refugees. He also teaches the Pro-Seminar: Communities and Organizations course in the Ph.D. program. He serves on the editorial board and served as a guest editor of a double issue on “Islam in the 21st century,” for the Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work. He also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Mental Health, Religion & Culture. His professional involvement includes serving as a co-chair of the Islam and Muslims track of the Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), founder and co-chair of the Immigrants and Refugees cluster of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), a former co-chair of the Race, Ethnicity and Immigration cluster of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), member of the SSWR membership committee and a founding member of the CSWE Religion and Spirituality Working Group. Dr. Husain was selected as a SSWR Fellow in 2020. He also serves as a member of the National Ethics Committee of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Dr. Husain’s community involvement includes serving currently as founding Vice President of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (YIIR), a member of the founding board of directors of The Conscious Kid Library, a former Vice President and then two-term national President of the Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA National) and Vice President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). He also serves as an advisory board member of the Peaceful Families Project (PFP), dedicated to preventing domestic violence.

Grant Morgan, PhD, is Professor of Educational Psychology and Associate Dean of Research for the School of Education at Baylor University. His areas of expertise are psychometrics, advanced quantitative methods, and structural equation modeling. He sits on review panels for multiple federal agencies, and, in addition to this project, he works on other funded projects related to data science, sports analytics, and statistics education.

Danielle E. Parrish, PhD, is a Professor with the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University. Dr. Parrish’s passion for bridging the research-practice gap is informed by her prior clinical experience working in public mental health settings with youth and families. Her research focuses on developing and testing feasible, efficient health behavior change and mental health interventions; integrating research and practice in real settings; utilizing technology to increase the feasibility/reach of interventions; and reducing health disparities among vulnerable populations (e.g., juvenile justice, low-income women, homeless or housing insecure). Dr. Parrish has worked as a principal investigator or co-investigator on grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIDA and NIAAA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Health Resources Services Association (HRSA). Dr. Parrish is also a Research Scientist with Search Homeless Services in Houston, Texas, and Editor-In-Chief with the Journal of Social Work Education (JSWE).

Christina Puchalski, MD, MS, OCDS, FACP, FAAHPM, is the founder and Executive Director of the George Washington University’s Institute for Spirituality and Health (GWish) and Professor of Medicine at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Through her innovative curricular development including the development of the widely used spiritual history tool FICA she continues to break new ground in the understanding and integration of spiritual care in healthcare settings as an essential element of whole-person care, which has led to the development of Interprofessional Spiritual Care Education Curriculum (ISPEC). Dr. Puchalski is author of Time for Listening and Caring: Spirituality, Care of the Seriously Ill and Dying, and co-author of Making Health Care Whole and The Oxford Textbook of Spirituality and Health. In 2018, Dr. Puchalski was named as one of “30 Visionaries” in the field by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

P. Scott Richards, PhD, is retired from Brigham Young University where he was a professor of counseling psychology for 30 years. He is Past-President and Fellow of the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (Division 36) of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a Fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy (Division 29) of APA. He is the author of seven APA books about spirituality and psychotherapy, including the best-selling citation classic A Spiritual Strategy for Counseling and Psychotherapy (Richards & Bergin, 1997, 2005) and co-editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies (Richards, Allen, & Judd, 2022). He was the Principal Investigator and Project Director of a $3.57 million-dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation about the processes and outcomes of spiritual integrated psychotherapies, which was completed in 2020. He is currently the President of the Bridges Institute for Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies.

Leila Roach, PhD, LMFT, LMHC, believes in the strength of relationships for promoting resiliency and wellbeing in individuals, couples, families, and organizations. She serves as associate professor in the Department of Counselor Education at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where she teaches couple and family counseling courses and supervises Practicum and Internship students. She has been a practicing counselor for 30 years working with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families in community agencies, public schools, university counseling clinics, churches, and private practice. She has served in the country of Bhutan twice for extended periods with NBCC-International, providing counseling, training, and supervision with the Ministry of Health supporting efforts to develop culturally appropriate counseling. Her interests include couple and family counseling, spirituality in counseling, and counselor wellness. Leila is a past president of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC), a division of the American Counseling Association.

Jason J. Washburn, PhD, ABPP, is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University where he is the Director of Graduate Studies for the MA and PhD programs in Clinical Psychology. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from DePaul University, was an intern at the University of Washington School of Medicine, a fellow at the University of Michigan Medical School, and a Robert Wood Johnson Research Scholar at Northwestern. He is boarded in clinical child psychology and runs a diagnostic clinic. He is a past chair of the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology and a current member of the BEA/BPA Doctoral HSP Competencies Task Force. His interests include nonsuicidal self-injury, suicide, and other high-risk behaviors, as well as measurement-based care, innovative science-based practices, and education and training in clinical psychology.