2026 Annual Conference Highlights

APC recognized the work and dedication of Chaplain Jeffrey Garland BCC-PCHAC at the 2026 APC Annual Conference for his contributions to the profession and to APC with the Anton Boisen Professional Service Award.

Today, I have the honor of presenting the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Garland D.Min Ed.S BCC-PCHAC with the 2026 APC Anton Boisen Professional Service Award.

Rev. Garland has been an active member with APC since 1997; Board Certified since 2002 and held advanced certification in Palliative and Hospice Care since 2019, but this is only a small glimpse of his accomplishments with APC.

Dr. Garland has served APC in many ways. He has served on the Membership Services Committee, the Multi-Cultural Multi-Ethnic Committee Chair, the Conference Planning Committee, the Nominating Committee and the APC Board of Directors, most recently Rev. Garland served on the Executive Committee and as President of APC from 2022-2023.

Jeff has served as an APC representative to the National Coalition on Hospice and Palliative Care, he has been on countless certification committees, including Advanced Certification committees for Palliative and Hospice Care. Jeff is a tremendous volunteer who has given back to APC and our profession time and time again, and he is not finished yet. Please help us in recognizing this and his many other accomplishments.

APC recognized the work and dedication of Russell Myers DMin at the 2026 APC Annual Conference for his contributions to the profession  with the Distinguished Service Award

The Distinguished service award celebrates the contributions of any individual or organization that promotes the standard of professional chaplaincy in an exemplary manner and Russell Myers certainly has done that.

Throughout his long tenure with Allina Health, Russ distinguished himself as a chaplain. His leadership and innovation were instrumental in shaping spiritual care practices across their system, but his most enduring legacy is his pioneering work in EMS chaplaincy. Russ recognized the extraordinary emotional and spiritual burdens carried by emergency medical services personnel.

He developed a system that not only responded to crises, but proactively supported EMS providers with structure, training, and thoughtful integration into the culture of emergency services. He built from the ground up an EMS chaplaincy program that is today considered a model of excellence.

Russ has been a leading voice in expanding the body of knowledge for EMS chaplains across the United States and internationally. His writing, research, and presentations have contributed significantly to the professionalization of EMS chaplaincy, providing frameworks, best practices, and theological reflection that are now used by chaplains well beyond Allina Health.

APC recognized the work and dedication of Dr. Jason Nieuwsma at the 2026 APC Annual Conference for his contributions to the profession with the Distinguished Service Award

Dr. Jason Nieuwsma is a clinical psychologist whose career has centered on integrating mental health and chaplaincy care services across various healthcare systems. Dr. Nieuwsma earned his bachelor’s degree from Taylor University and master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming, where his work focused on intersections between cultural belief systems, mental health, and access to care. His doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship were completed at the Durham VA Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center, where he has been on faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences for 15 years. He currently serves as Associate Director for Integrative Mental Health (formerly Mental Health and Chaplaincy) in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He also holds academic appointments as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in Integrative Chaplaincy at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

In 2009, under the leadership of Dr. Keith Meador, Dr. Nieuwsma help to co-found the VA Mental Health and Chaplaincy program. Since that time, he has led or co-led a wide range of national initiatives within both the VA and the Department of Defense to bridge gaps between mental health professionals and chaplaincy services. These efforts have included clinical quality improvement, research, education, and community engagement. He helped launch the VA/DoD Mental Health and Chaplaincy Learning Collaborative, a national initiative aimed at enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration in screening, assessment, communication, and care coordination. He also co-created the Dynamic Diffusion Network, which brings together innovative chaplain-mental health teams to develop, refine, and disseminate best practices related to moral injury and suicide prevention and has influenced care practices at dozens of sites across VA.

His educational leadership includes the development of the Mental Health Integration for Chaplain Services (MHICS) training program, which began in 2014 and has become a cornerstone for Vanderbilt’s Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program in Integrative Chaplaincy. To date, approximately 300 chaplains have completed MHICS training, with many pursuing or completing their DMin degrees and going on to implement transformative changes in spiritual care throughout the VA.

As a scholar, Dr. Nieuwsma has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. He is co-editor and contributor to two major academic books: ACT for Clergy and Pastoral Counselors (2016), and Addressing Moral Injury in Clinical Practice (2020). He has led or co-led more than $15 million in funded research projects with a focus on the intersections of spirituality and health, moral injury, and chaplain integration in mental health care. His research contributions include one of the first empirical comparisons of moral injury in combat veterans and healthcare workers, foundational work identifying veterans’ use of pastoral care services in relation to mental health needs, and a national-scale gap analysis of chaplaincy services across the VA and military.

Dr. Nieuwsma has also made significant contributions to academic publishing. Since 2017, he has served on the editorial team of the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, becoming Senior Associate Editor in 2023. During his tenure, the journal’s annual citation count has more than doubled. He led the development of the journal’s first-ever special issue—Moral Injury Care: Practices and Collaboration—in 2022 and is currently co-leading a forthcoming issue focused on healthcare chaplaincy in pluralistic contexts.