Jun 16, 2026
Newly promoted assistant professor Kelsey White reflects on her new position and editorial leadership
After several years of service at the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Health Professions, Kelsey White, Ph.D., BCC, was recently promoted to associate professor. A chaplaincy faculty researcher, White has been focused on her work, which studies the integration of chaplains into the health care delivery system and their effects on health care access and quality.
“Being acknowledged and recognized for the hard work and dedication that I've given to my field, the college and the university, are exciting and humbling in that regard,” said White.
White also said that being in a faculty position with tenure is exciting, not because of what it means for her but because of what it means for her field.
“Chaplains are really becoming more widely seen by our professional colleagues as an important part of whole person care,” she said.
White’s career and plans as an associate professor
White began her career as a chaplain, working for several medical systems before transitioning to academia. Her introduction to spiritual care occurred while she was undertaking her first graduate degree. She learned that many people in the health care setting were suffering beyond physical pain and needed someone to talk to, and that patients wanted to speak to someone who wouldn’t hesitate to ask hard questions.
“I fell in love with being able to develop those relationships and give people opportunities to talk about the really difficult things in their lives, but also celebrate things that may not be traditionally celebrated,” White said.
White had her love of academia fostered as she conducted more research in spiritual care and during a fellowship to pursue a master’s in clinical translational science. She then went on to earn a Ph.D from the University of Louisville.
Her research goals have been fueled by the hope to expand the integration of spiritual care services within health systems. After serving as a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary, she joined CHP in February 2022 as an assistant professor and received confirmation of promotion to associate professor in May 2026.
As White continues to teach into the summer and fall at CHP, she said she will continue with her research on spiritual care and health care and foster more interdisciplinary conversations.
“That's one of the great things about CHP, it's just this really beautiful place where all sorts of disciplines can find unique ways to collaborate,” White said. “When I think about expanding my research, I'm also thinking about how I can make it more interdisciplinary.”
White will be responsible for teaching in the summer and fall, as well as “gearing up” for the department's enhanced master's degree, which is slated to launch in the fall of 2026.
“I love working here at VCU and in CHP,” she said. “It’s a fantastic place to be, and I couldn't have imagined being in a better place to grow in my career.”
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy
In addition to her duties as an associate professor, White has served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy since January 2023. Her journey to becoming the journal's head was inspired by the former editor-in-chief, Daniel Grossoehme, a senior research scientist at the Rebecca D. Considine Research Institute at Akron Children's Hospital. According to White, Grossoehme showed her the inner workings of the journal and first served as associate editor starting in 2019.
In her time as editor-in-chief, White has added associate editors to the journal and increased its presence on social media, particularly on LinkedIn, which has helped increase readership. Another one of her goals has been to equip more chaplaincy researchers, especially those who are pursuing degrees, to understand how academic journals operate.
“It's really exciting to see research before it's publicly accessible, and to really help authors grow and guide them in their process of writing up their research, which is a growing area for our field,” White said. “There aren't many researchers who are chaplains and who conduct spiritual care research, so there is a lot of opportunity there.”
White added that her role allows her to connect with people around the world about broader chaplaincy research. She also said she approaches her editing with a more hands-on approach, talking through papers with writers to not only enhance them but also build research literacy in the field.
“I'm hopeful that after my time as editor-in-chief, it can help someone else also become a well-respected researcher in the field, because I think that's what it did for me, too,” White said.
White noted that her approach to growing the publication is to connect with individuals who are interested and driven to learn through research methods and diverse approaches, and to make the work as accessible and easy to digest as possible.
“[For] most chaplains, their actual academic training doesn't include anything about research at all,” White said. “So supporting chaplains who hope to engage in research can often require more in-depth conversation than it would for a typical graduate who had research exposure.”