The interdisciplinary committee will meet regularly throughout the three years to discuss the current issues that have been presented at each lecture and discuss ways of furthering the scholarly efforts in that area. This group represents faculty from various departments throughout the University of Pennsylvania. Through meetings and collaborations, these various scholars can then explore the overall topics in a true multidisciplinary approach. In this way, the interdisciplinary group will support future research and scholarly work of the Penn faculty in this and related fields. The names and bios are provided here for anyone interested in finding out more about what various faculty members are doing in the area related to the mind, religion, and ethics.
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| Newberg | Crits-Christoph | Farrar | Katz | Nelson | Townsend |
| Amsterdam | Dunning | Gur | Lewis | Matter | Seligman |
| Ciampa | Farah | Hufford | Mackenzie | Stunkard | Wolpe |
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| Khalsa | Waldman | Wintering | |||
The University of Pennsylvania Survey of Spiritual Experiences
Sponsors & Collaborators
For Those Interested in Other Related Sites on the Penn Campus:
The Neuroethics Website
The Positive Psychology Website
Andrew B. Newberg, M.D., is Principle Investigator and will serve as Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Committee. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Psychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1993 and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine. Dr. Newberg has been particularly involved in the study of mystical and religious experiences as well as the more general mind/body relationship in both the clinical and research aspects of his career. He has also co-authored three books entitled, Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning Spirituality and Truth, Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief and The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Belief that explore the relationship between neuroscience and spiritual experience. The last book received the 2000 award for Outstanding Books in Theology and the Natural Sciences presented by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. He currently teaches a course on Science and the Sacred in the Department of Religious Studies.
Jay D. Amsterdam, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Depression Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He has extensive experience in the field of psychopharmacology of affective disorders. In addition, he has broad experience in the areas of new antidepressant drug development, and in the treatment of bipolar disorders, mood disorders in women, and treatment-resistant depression. He has conducted more than 80 controlled clinical trials with antidepressant, anxiolytic, and mood stabilizer medications, many of which have been funded by the NIMH. More recently, his work has included studies of complementary and alternative therapies for the treatment of psychiatric illness including an NIH/NCCAM-funded study entitled Chamomile Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and an NIH/NCCAM-funded study on Black Cohosh Therapy for Menopause-Related Anxiety. Dr. Amsterdam has also performed a variety of receptor-based neuroimaging studies of depression which have explored alterations in brain dopamine and serotonin transporters as putative state-dependent bio-markers of depressive disorder. He has received international awards for his research work in depression, and is on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. He has published 200 articles and invited papers in scientific journals, and has edited and co-authored five textbooks in the field of psychopharmacology and biological psychiatry.
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.
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 NIH 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, 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, 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 neuroscience).
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.
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 grants from the NSF, NIH, NIMH, NIA, NINDS, and private foundations.
David Hufford, Ph.D., is University Professor and Chair of Medical Humanities, with joint appointments in Neural & Behavioral Science, and Family Medicine, at the Penn State College of Medicine. At University of Pennsylvania he is Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies. 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 study of the beliefs of ordinary people and their relationship to experience, especially contested beliefs such as complementary and alternative medicine and beliefs regarding the "supernatural." This entails the phenomenological study of spiritual experiences, from mystical and near-death experiences to negative, terrifying experiences, and an examination of their neuropsychological correlates. Hufford's book, The Terror That Comes in the Night (Univ. of PA Press, 1982) documents the relationship between beliefs about "spiritual assault" and the physiologically mediated state known as sleep paralysis, and laid the groundwork for the experience-centered study of belief.
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.
Lisa M. Lewis, PhD, RN is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing in the Division of Family and Community Health. She earned her BSN from Syracuse University (1991), Masters of Education in Nursing Education from New York University (1998), and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a graduate minor in Women’s Studies (2002). Dr. Lewis’ overall research interest is investigating how spirituality can be used to develop culturally appropriate interventions to assist African-Americans in adhering to treatment regimens for managing chronic illnesses. She has received funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to conduct work in the area of spirituality and hypertension in African-Americans. Dr. Lewis has developed a culturally appropriate instrument to measure spirituality in African-Americans (African-American Spirituality Perspective Scale). Other funded research projects include exploring African-American elders’ use of spirituality in the decision to adhere to antihypertensive medications and she has recently been funded to explore the beliefs and attitudes associated with adherence to antihypertensive medications in the African-American community.
Elizabeth R. Mackenzie, Ph.D. Elizabeth Mackenzie is a Senior Fellow in the Writing Center at the University of Pennsylvania, a Lecturer in the department of Science, Technology and Society and an Associate Fellow of the Institute on Aging, UPHS. She currently teaches courses on humanistic medicine, holistic healthcare and therapeutic writing. Dr. Mackenzie completed her doctoral dissertation on health belief systems at the University of Pennsylvania and soon after joined the Institute on Aging at the University of Pennsylvania Health System to conduct research on cultural dimensions of health and healthcare. As a research assistant professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, she was the principal investigator of a study on spirituality and mental health. Dr. Mackenzie is the author of Healing the Social Body: A Holistic Approach to Public Health Policy. She is the co-editor of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Older Adults a compendium of articles on holistic approaches to healthy aging. In addition to her academic work, Dr. Mackenzie is a long-time student of yoga, qigong, and body psychotherapy.
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, 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, 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, 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.
Raymond R. Townsend, MD , is a Professor of Medicine, an Associate Director of the federally funded General Clinical Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Director of the Penn Center for the Assessment & Treatment of Complex Hypertension (PennCATCH). He is currently Principal Investigator on a 7-center U01 grant to evaluate the role of demographic, humoral and genetic factors in the progression of kidney disease and the development and progression of cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease. He is the P.I. of an R01 grant evaluating the specific role of pulse wave velocity in the renal and cardiovascular consequences of chronic kidney disease. His clinical interests are in hypertension and metabolism. His formal certifications are in internal medicine (ABIM), nephrology (ABIM), clinical pharmacology (ASCP) and hypertension (ASH). He is a fellow in the American Heart Association and a fellow of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.
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, 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.
Associate Fellows
Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. attended college at the University of Florida and graduated from Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. He received training in Anesthesiology at the University of California-San Francisco, where he was chief resident. He is board certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Management. Dr. Khalsa is a graduate of the UCLA Medical Acupuncture for Physicians Program and studied Mind/Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 1993, after developing the Acupuncture, Stress Medicine, and Chronic Pain Program at the University of Arizona Medical School's teaching hospital in Phoenix, Dr. Khalsa founded the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation. He has served as its president /medical director since that time. He is the author of 7 books, eleven CD programs, and has authored numerous articles and medical text book chapters.
Mark R. Waldman, B.A., is the author of ten books and anthologies covering the fields of psychology, religion, literature, and creative writing, and is the co-author, with Andrew Newberg, of Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1973), earned his ministerial credential from the Society for Evolving the Self Matrix (1987), and is a therapist in private practice in Southern California. He was the founding editor of the academic literature review journal, Transpersonal Review, served as a developmental editor for Tarcher/Putnam and Lowell House/McGraw Hill, and has authored numerous academic papers. He co-chaired the Los Angeles Transpersonal Interest Group and serves on the advisory panel of the Alternative Journal of Nursing. He is currently researching the neuropsychology of emotion, politics, and religious experience with Dr. Newberg.
Program Manager
Nancy A. Wintering, MSW, Assistant to the Project Director is a clinical social worker who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. Currently she works directly with Andrew Newberg, MD as a Clinical Research Monitoring Specialist. At the University of Pennsylvania she has worked in clinical research on genetics, addictions, psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders and diagnostic imaging. Key areas of inquiry: non-violent resistance to the Holocaust; understanding the role of spirituality and belief upon health; developing inclusive social networks with persons with disabilities; developing holistic approaches to health and education systems through an integration of east-west philosophies; evaluating the role of individual altruism and societal resistance and resilience in times of existential crisis. She serves on the Pennsylvania Department of Education Bureau of Special Education Advisory Panel for Least Restrictive Environments.
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