Keith Meador, MD, ThM, MPH

Keith G. Meador, MD, ThM, MPH, is the Anne Geddes Professor of Medical Ethics and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where serves as the Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society. He is also Professor of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt Divinity School. He serves as the Director of Integrative Mental Health, a national initiative to equip chaplains in evidence based practices and foster collaborative care and integration of chaplaincy services into mental health care within the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is a physician and board certified psychiatrist with training in theology and public health. Dr. Meador is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vanderbilt University and received his medical degree from the University of Louisville. He completed his residency in psychiatry and fellowship in the Center for Aging and Human Development at Duke University. His theological education leading to the ThM was at Duke Divinity School and he received his MPH in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
His scholarship builds on his clinical experience, research and teaching background in mental health and ethics, and work in practical theology and public health about which he lectures widely and has published numerous publications including the co-authored book, Heal Thyself: Spirituality, Medicine, and the Distortion of Christianity. His academic engagement includes theological and ethical exploration of the intersections of religion and health, along with empirical research regarding socio-cultural determinants of illness, health, and human flourishing.