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Michael Balboni, Ph.D., Th.M., M.Div, is a congregational pastor and theologian. He has served both as a congregational minister in Boston and an intentional Christian community of healthcare students and professionals. He holds a Ph.D. in practical theology from Boston University and completed post-doctoral training at the Harvard School of Public Health and at Harvard Divinity School. As an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and a palliative care researcher he has published approximately fifty articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. As a theologian, his focus has included the development of a theology of medicine and a concentration in the theological underpinnings related spiritual care in a pluralistic, secular medical context. With Tracy Balboni, he has co-authored “Hostility to Hospitality: Spirituality and Professional Socialization in Medicine” (Oxford University Press). The book explores a theology of medicine, including its decline through secularization, and hope for renewal through faith communities. He is also the co-editor of “Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine” (Oxford University Press). His current book project, also with Tracy Balboni, entitled “Dancing with Lois”, focuses on Jesus’ call for spiritual leadership and sacrifice in the accompaniment and care for the seriously ill a dying.
Ph.D., Boston University (2011) Th.M., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (2002) M.Div. Westminster Theological Seminary (1999) BA. Pillsbury Bible College (1995)
Dr. Rachael Bedard is an internist, geriatrician and palliative care physician. She doctors, teaches, writes and advocates at the intersections between health, ideas, politics and human rights. Her clinical work is primarily with homeless and justice-involved elders, especially people who are recurrently incarcerated in the final decades of their lives. From 2016-2022 she was a physician on Rikers Island. She currently sees patients at a safety net clinic in Brooklyn. From 2023-2024, she sat on the New York City Board of Correction.
She also does some work in politics. From 2022-2024 she founded and ran an organization that supported the pro-choice side of state ballot initiatives. Rachael grew up in Toronto and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She studied History at Brown University and completed medical training at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts.