Michael Balboni, Ph.D., Th.M., M.Div, is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and a psychiatry fellow at Brigham & Women's Hospital.  He holds a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University and completed post-doctoral training at the Harvard School of Public Health and at Harvard Divinity School.  He received a career development award as a faculty scholar with the Program on Religion and Medicine at the University of Chicago.  As a theologian, his focus has included the development of a theology of medicine and a concentration in the theological underpinnings related to spiritual care in a pluralistic, secular medical context.  In addition, Michael works as a social-scientific researcher.  His empirical projects currently focus on spirituality and religion and their associations with end-of-life medical utilization and patient outcomes.  He is co-editor of Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine: From Evidence to Practice, and the co-author (together with Tracy Balboni) of Hostility to Hospitality: Spirituality and Professional Socialization Within Medicine, which explores the manifestations of spirituality and religion within the socialization processes and institutional structures experienced by medical professionals.