Stephen B. Roberts

Rabbi Stephen Roberts, BCC, MBA Rabbi Roberts is a Past President of the NAJC (Neshamah - Association of Jewish Chaplains) and served on the Board for almost a decade. He became a Board Certified Jewish Chaplain (BCC) with the NAJC in 1998. Over the last decade Rabbi Roberts has worked very closely with the leadership of the Association of Professional Chaplains, National Association of Catholic Chaplains, the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, American Association of Pastoral Counselors, Canadian Association for Spiritual Care, and other groups on a variety of critical chaplaincy leadership projects including helping create The Spiritual Care Collaborative (SCC); co-overseeing and co-guiding the process leading to the Common Standards for Professional Chaplaincy, Common Code of Ethics for Chaplains, Pastoral Counselors, Pastoral Educators and Students; participating in the approval of The White Paper. Rabbi Stephen Roberts currently helps chaplains professionally develop through the organization ChaplainDL.ORG - Chaplain Distance Learning. Prior he was the Associate Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis. In this capacity he directed the Jack D. Weiler Chaplaincy Services of the NYBR which provides pastoral care services to over fifty facilities in the New York City, Long Island and Westchester. Prior to the NYBR he was the Director of Pastoral Care for the Beth Israel Hospital System (NY) (through The HealthCare Chaplaincy, Inc.) overseeing a large staff of professional chaplains at four locations plus a CPE program at two locations. Rabbi Roberts is the co-editor of both the 2nd and 1st Editions of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Communiy, Regional and National Tragedy[Skylights Paths], which is the first comprehensive resource for pastoral care in the face of disaster--a vital resource for clergy, seminarians, pastoral counselors and caregivers of all faith traditions. It is an essential resource for clergy and caregivers which integrates the classic foundations of pastoral care with the unique challenges of disaster response on community, regional and national levels. Rabbi Roberts has served on American Red Cross' National Spiritual Care Oversight Committee since 2000. This committee is responsible for overseeing the provision of spiritual care through ARC after major transportation and other similar disasters. As part of his disaster spiritual care work with ARC, prior to 9/11 he helped recruit and train chaplains who then became part of ARC's 9/11 national response. Rabbi Roberts, responding to the 9/11 terror attacks, was the first Spiritual Care Officer overseeing the provision of Spiritual Care through national ARC's SAIR team in New York City and then helped oversee the program as the Senior Volunteer from December, 2001 until the operation was completed the following May. Over 800 chaplains volunteered with ARC during this time. Further, in June, 2002 Rabbi Roberts chaired the one day conference titled: "The Lifecycle of a Disaster: Ritual and Practice - Understanding the Impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks n faith communities and their leaders." Over 700 leaders of faith communities participated making it one of the largest inter-faith gathering in New York post-9/11. Rabbi Roberts is a Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Disaster Chaplaincy Services (DCS) which was founded in 2003. DCS was spun off from ARC-GNY in 2004 and is the multi-faith organization which now provides disaster chaplains in the New York area. DCS has over 200 trained chaplain volunteers and has responded to a variety of incidents including the Staten Island ferry accident. Other publications include include: "Compassion Fatigue Among Chaplains, Clergy and Other Respondents After September 11th" [Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; Volume 191, Number 11, November 2003] and Jewish Pastoral Care in Wake of a Disaster [Book Chapter - Jewish Pastoral Care - A Practical Handbook; Editor: Rabbi Dayle Friedman; Jewish Lights; June, 2005]. Rabbi Roberts has a Masters in Business from The Wharton School in Philadelphia, PA. He was ordained from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1995.