Integrating Spiritual and Palliative Care

Sarah Byrne-Martelli, MDiv ‘02, Board Certified Chaplain and Research Fellow, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Department of Supportive Oncology (Boston, MA)

View more stories on HDS alumni and their career paths.

Describe the work you do today:

I have served since 2002 as a hospice and palliative care chaplain. My work is motivated by a vision for compassionate, integrated, and research informed spiritual care. I am driven by my professional experiences of chaplaincy across various hospice and palliative care settings, along with a clear vision of how spiritual care contributes to patient-centered, culturally humble, justice-oriented care. After 20+ years in clinical work, including active leadership in the Association of Professional Chaplains and the Orthodox Christian Association of Medicine, Psychology, and Religion, I have transitioned into full-time research, teaching, and writing. I am the first chaplain to be accepted as a research fellow in the Department of Supportive Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After I received the Cambia Sojourns Scholar Award, it propelled me into the national Palliative Care space and hence I have been able to focus more on chaplaincy research. My current research explores the integration of spiritual care in palliative care. For my denomination, I mentor Orthodox Christian chaplains nationally, and I serve as an Assistant Professor of Spiritual Care at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary. In this role, I instruct and mentor Doctoral students (primarily Orthodox priests). I published a book in 2022: Memory Eternal: Living with Grief as Orthodox Christians. The bereavement curriculum I designed has been implemented in parishes nationally.

How has your HDS degree experience influenced your career journey?

I remember the day I learned about hospice chaplaincy, at a presentation in the HDS chapel during my MDiv. What a blessing! My coursework at HDS equipped me with a deep and broad knowledge of religions and cultures of the world; this, in turn, gave me a skill set for caring for patients and families of different religious practices and backgrounds. HDS' academic rigor and commitment to justice and respect was a strong foundation for my career.