S5 E6: The Power of Faith: Nurturing Mental Health with Dr. Harold Koenig

Dr. Koenig received his undergraduate education at Stanford University, medical school training at the University of California, San Francisco, and geriatric medicine and psychiatry training and Master of Health Science degree in clinical research from Duke University. He is board certified in general psychiatry, and formerly board-certified in family medicine, geriatric medicine, and geriatric psychiatry. Dr. Koenig now serves as Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Health Systems; Adjunct Professor in the Division of Psychiatry in the Department of Medicine at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Visiting Professor, Department of Psychiatry, at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; and was formerly Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Health at Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, People’s Republic of China. Dr. Koenig has published over 600 scientific peer-reviewed academic articles and has written more than 100 book chapters and nearly 60 books. He has given testimony before the U.S. Senate (1998) and U.S. House of Representatives (2008) on religion and public health. Dr. Koenig is recipient of the Oskar Pfister Award (2012) from the American Psychiatric Association, and both the Gary Collins Award (2013) and the Frank Minirth Award (2021) for excellence in psychiatry and behavioral medicine from AACC. Dr. Koenig is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, a peer-reviewed academic secular journal published by SAGE. Dr. Koenig is the lead author of the Handbook of Religion and Health, 3 rd edition, 2023, with professors Tyler VanderWeele (TH Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University) and John Raymond Peteet (Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School). Dr. Koenig was co-leader of the 2022 Professional Development Training Course (PDTC) for chaplains in the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard at military bases worldwide, training over 1000 chaplains and religious program specialists on helping US Service Members develop spiritual readiness for combat operations. His current work focuses on building and sustaining spiritual readiness among Service Members to prepare them for future combat operations. Dr Koenig also frequently gives training sessions on spiritual readiness, prevention of moral injury, and prevention of suicide for U.S. Army, Special Operations Command (SOCOM), and Air Force (active duty and reserve), and Ukrainian Army leaders and chaplains. He directs the Duke University’s Center for Spirituality Theology and Health in Durham, NC (https://spiritualityandhealth.duke.edu/ ). In 2023, Dr. Koenig was ranked 10 th in the world by Research.com in the category of Best Social Sciences and Humanities Scientists, and was ranked 7 th best in the United States (see https://research.com/scientists-rankings/social-sciences-and-humanities ; also, see https://researchblog.duke.edu/2023/06/28/new-rankings-place-duke-scholars-on-top-of-the-world/. He also has an active clinical practice, and is director of psychiatric services at Duke University’s GET clinic.