The Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center Announce the Retirement of President and CEO Dr. John K. Graham

PRESS RELEASE

Long-time President and CEO John K. Graham, M.D. will retire from his leadership role at the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center, effective June 30. Since 2010, Graham has blended his professional background as former medical doctor and ordained minister to effect positive change within the 67-year-old nonprofit organization.

Founded in 1955, the Institute for Spirituality and Health’s mission is to increase knowledge of and sensitivity to the role that spirituality plays in health and in healing. To accomplish this goal, the Institute hosts workshops and conferences, provides continuing education for chaplains, conducts academic studies, and brings in guest speakers from all over the world. ISH also trains area medical students about the role spirituality plays in the healing process.

George Anderson, Chairman of the Institute’s Board of Trustees, says, “During John Graham’s more than twelve-year tenure as President, the growth of our Institute has been phenomenal. The upcoming transition will be seamless because our Executive Vice-President, Stuart Nelson, has been mentored by Dr. Graham for ten years and will serve as Acting President while a nationwide search is underway to find our next President/CEO. Although he is retiring, we are not going to let Dr. Graham completely go away.”

Graham will stay on as President Emeritus at the Institute to facilitate a bereavement support group that he began ten years ago, and he will manage the Institute’s adjunct faculty division. He will also serve as a liaison between the Institute and Saybrook University’s Mind-Body Medicine graduate program.

Says Anderson, “Dr. Graham’s many contacts in the community will continue to be important as the Institute reaches out to individuals and foundations to fund projects. And John’s national and international contacts are significant as well. So, his retirement will continue to be a busy one at ISH.”

David Lyon, D.D., Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel, says: “John Graham has had a diverse professional life. In every role, he has been, to use a Yiddish accolade, a ‘mensch.’ It’s a difficult word to translate, but not if you know John. He’s a man of integrity, duty, and faith who lifts up humanity in every word he speaks and every deed he does. I met John years ago, then joined the ISH board, and I also served as its chairman. At each turn, I found in John a partner in leadership and a mentor in service to the organization and community. May he go from strength to strength.”

Says Marc L. Boom, M.D., President and CEO of Houston Methodist: “It’s been a genuine honor to work with John during his tenure at ISH. His past experience as a physician, along with his work in ministry, made him a perfect fit for this role. John’s impact on the community will continue for years to come through the many programs he helped establish and the people trained under his watch. We are eternally grateful to John and his tireless work, especially these last few years, which have been difficult for all of us. While I wish him nothing but happiness and good health in his retirement, I’m happy that John will remain active at ISH.”

Formerly a board-certified plastic surgeon, Graham became an Episcopal priest in 1994 and served at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston for many years—a distinctive background that uniquely suited him to lead ISH. Graham had already been a board member of the Institute for six years before receiving the invitation to step in as President and CEO.

“I almost immediately said yes. I really felt I could make a difference because I’m both a physician and a priest,” says Graham, remembering the phone call he received from the Institute Board of Trustees back in 2010.

During his years at ISH, Graham raised donations from philanthropic individuals and foundations to benefit the organization. Following the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, ISH trained 120 individuals in specialized mind-body emergency response skills that can help manage stress due to trauma; those 120 have now gone on to train more than 20,000 people in emergency response skills. These training efforts continued with Tropical Storm Imelda (2019) and the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Graham’s leadership, ISH also established the Rabbi Samuel E. Karff Center at the Institute to train medical and nursing students in how to integrate spirituality and healthcare. They also established the Interfaith Spiritual Care Coalition (ISCC) to bring spiritual care to many healthcare facilities that do not have a chaplain, including hospice nursing care facilities and nursing homes.

In 1977, as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Louisiana, Graham used his training to replant the totally amputated arm of a four-year-old boy. Graham was the first surgeon to use microsurgery on a child to replant an arm and received national media exposure at that time. In 1990, he felt God’s call, left the practice of medicine, and entered seminary. He received his Master of Divinity from the Seminary of the Southwest and his Doctor of Ministry from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He served churches in both Austin and Houston, spending the last 15 years at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston. Upon retirement from the priesthood, Graham served as a pastoral counselor at Open Door Mission in Houston before becoming President and CEO of the Institute for Spirituality and Health.

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Media Contacts:
Laura Pennino, Senior PR Consultant for The Institute for Spirituality & Health
281-286-9398 office
713 419 1776 mobile
lp@penninoandpartners.com

MaKlay Simon, PR Consultant for The Institute for Spirituality & Health
325-262-1862 mobil,
maklay@penninoandpartners.com