Join us on Sunday as our community is blessed once again with the spiritual wisdom of Ron David, who is both priest and physician. He serves as a chaplain, spiritual director, and supervisor of clinical pastoral education at Good Samaritan Hospital in downtown Los Angeles. Over the last decade he has trained dozens of clergy and laity in hospital chaplaincy, including the Rev. Katie Cadigan and more recently, Jennifer Pavia.

Ron is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo where he earned a BA in psychology and a Doctor of Medicine degree. Ron was chief resident in pediatrics and fellow in neonatal perinatal medicine at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital where he was subsequently appointed assistant professor of pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology.

As a neonatologist concerned about infant mortality, Ron was appointed deputy secretary of health for then Governor Robert P. Casey in Pennsylvania. In short order he was appointed acting secretary of health and afforded the opportunity to participate in the leadership program for senior executives at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Shortly thereafter Ron joined the Kennedy School faculty as a lecturer in public policy where his research interest was women’s health as it defined and affected by patriarchal politics and power.

Yearning for a return to clinical and academic medicine Ron accepted an invitation to be chief medical officer of the District of Columbia Health and Hospitals Public Benefit Corporation. There he witnessed much despair and dysfunction and disease. This was a time of spiritual discernment for Ron and he was then set on a conscious path to ordained ministry. In 2003 he earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary, and he was ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church.

Ron is certified as a clinical chaplain and diplomate in the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy and currently serves as chaplain and supervisor of clinical theology at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles, California. There he has the opportunity to meld his vocations as physician and priest through the interdisciplinary study of the science and theology of health.