Chaplain Research Scientist
As a research chaplain scientist, I focus on whole-person health (inclusive of religion/spirituality) for underserved populations with chronic health conditions. I am exclusively interested in research that seeks to address drivers of health inequity and interventions that improve the health of populations systemically excluded from care or marginalized in society.
I contribute to efforts to hold research programs accountable to the community impacts of research on historically marginalized people: soliciting early and meaningful feedback from stakeholders, sharing research results with communities, applying findings to benefit underserved individuals and families.
Chaplaincy + Research = Career
Half of Americans have at least one chronic illness. Spiritual care in settings that care for families affected by chronic illness needs to evolve.
Formative Experiences
In Spring 2022, I became the first person in my extended family to earn a doctoral degree. However, my education in health equity began very early as my brother was a hemophiliac with significant cognitive disabilities who contracted HIV and Hepatitis B/C from contaminated blood products. When my brother died in 1999, I dedicated myself to pursue remedies to health care injustices and promote community health and well-being. After coming out as Queer in high school, I became active in the LGBTQ youth movement and youth racial justice work in the Boston area. While a full-time college student, I worked nearly full-time as a Department of Public Health street outreach worker and co-leading an evidence-based queer youth HIV prevention program serving over 1500 youth in the Boston area. I studied Society & Health at Simmons University, and later, completed a Master’s program to study bioethics and Womanist/Black feminist ethics at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). At Pacific School of Religion (member school of GTU), I was a student representative on the schoolwide Dismantling Racism Committee and co-founded an antiracist analysis building group for white grad students to transform campus culture and integrate antiracism into their vocational and personal lives.
Megan Visser, Ph.D. 