NZ HEALTHCARE CHAPLAINS’ ASSOCIATION
2012 BIENNIAL CONFERENCE
3rd - 7th September 2012
Christchurch
Keynote Speaker: Dr Harold G. Koenig MD MHSc
Director, Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health
Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Associate Professor of Medicine
B.A. Stanford University
R.N. San Joaquin Delta College
M.D. University of California at San Francisco
M.H.Sc. Duke University
R.N. San Joaquin Delta College
M.D. University of California at San Francisco
M.H.Sc. Duke University
Harold G. Koenig, Dr. Koenig completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, his medical school training at the University of California at San Francisco, and his geriatric medicine, psychiatry, and biostatistics training at Duke University Medical Center. He is board certified in general psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry and geriatric medicine, and is on the faculty at Duke as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Associate Professor of Medicine. He is also a registered nurse.
Dr. Koenig is founder and former director of Duke University’s Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality and Health, and is now Director of Duke’s current Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. He has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics, and religion, with over 350 scientific peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and nearly 40 books in print or in preparation. He is the former editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, and is on the editorial boards of many professional journals. His research on religion, health and ethical issues in medicine has been featured on over 50 national and international TV news programs (including The Today Show, ABC’s World News Tonight, and several times on Good Morning America), over 100 national or international radio programs (including multiple NPR and BBC interviews), hundreds of national and international newspapers or magazines (including cover stories for Reader's Digest, Parade Magazine, and Newsweek), and is considered by biomedical scientists one of the world’s top experts on religion and health (http://www.biomedexperts.com/Concept.bme/18754/Religion). Dr. Koenig has given testimony before the U.S. Senate (September 1998) and the U.S. House of Representatives (September 2008) concerning the effects of religious involvement on public health, and has been interviewed by James Dobson on Focus on the Family and by Robert Schuller in the Crystal Cathedral on the Hour of Power. Dr. Koenig has been nominated twice for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
His latest books include The Healing Power of Faith (Simon & Schuster, 2001); The Handbook of Religion and Health (Oxford University Press, 2001; 2011 forthcoming); and his autobiography, The Healing Connection (2004); Faith and Mental Health (2005); In the Wake of Disaster (Templeton Press); Spirituality in Patient Care, 2nd edition (2007); and Medicine, Religion and Health (2008) published by Templeton Foundation Press. Dr. Koenig travels widely to give workshops and seminar presentations in the United States and around the world.