John D. Yoon, MD
Program Director
John D. Yoon, MD is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. Dr. Yoon has been with the Program on Medicine and Religion since its inception in 2009. He is an academic hospitalist, clinical ethicist, and medical educator with research interests in the fields of virtue ethics, moral psychology, and character development and professional formation in medical education. He was a co-investigator on the Project on the Good Physician, a longitudinal study of medical students funded by the New Science of Virtues Project at the University of Chicago. He maintains a faculty affiliation with the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Center for Health and the Social Sciences (CHeSS), and the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence. His area of scholarship has addressed professional identity formation of physicians, physician well-being, and the role of religion/spirituality in shaping the moral and professional formation of physicians-in-training. Dr. Yoon has been deeply involved in generating new educational initiatives at the University that promote the study of Religion, Ethics, and Medicine to Medical Students, Divinity Students, undergraduates in the College, and other residents and trainees in health care. Dr. Yoon will begin his inaugural role as Program Director for a new Internal Medicine Residency Program at UCM-Ingalls Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Yoon’s long-term vision for the Program is to establish a new field of Medical Education Chaplaincy ultimately through the development of a Chaplain Scholars Training Program. These “medical education” chaplains would be trained to provide spiritual care and cultivate the whole-person flourishing of clinicians in health care who are training to care for others, particularly in light of the existential challenges of clinician burnout and moral distress in the profession. He is also a certified Spiritual Director to practicing clinicians, students, and resident trainees in health care, completing a four-year program of study and Internship in Spiritual Direction in the Ignatian Tradition (Society of Jesus, Jesuits Midwest Province).
For those in health care who are interested in exploring sessions of Spiritual Direction on matters related to vocational discernment, medicine-as-a-calling, well-being and human flourishing in the practice of medicine, Dr. Yoon may be contacted for an initial consultation at: jdyoon@uchicago.edu.
Constantine ‘Kosti’ Psimopoulos, MBE, PhD
Visiting Scholar of Medicine & Co-Director, 2025-2026
Constantine or ‘Kosti’ Psimopoulos, MBE, PhD is a Kinesiologist by training and a Harvard Medical School trained bioethicist. A Visiting Scholar in Medicine and co-Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion at the University of Chicago (2025-2026), he is on the faculty and Senior Program Administrator at Harvard’s Initiative on Health, Spirituality and Religion, and academic member of the Human Flourishing program. His primary appointment at Harvard is in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and he has had another academic research appointment in Global Health and Social Medicine and the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Prof. Psimopoulos has been invited to co-teach, along with Prof. Tyler VanderWeele, a course on Religion, Wellbeing, and Public Health, and taught a new required module required for all Doctoral students (many in the MD/PhD programs), as part of the Responsible Conduct in Science MED SCI 300 course. Prof. Psimopoulos has also taught Theological Bioethics, Christian Ethics and Social Ethics (Ministries) to future theologians and those planning to become ordained priests, at the Greek Orthodox School of Theology (Seminary) in Boston.
An alumnus of Harvard Medical School, Constantine received graduate training in Bioethics, having been awarded the Inaugural HMS Dean’s Scholarship. As a student at HMS, Kosti was elected President of Harvard Medical School’s Student Council. He gave the student (valedictorian) address at the HMS graduation entitled: “In pursuit of A Moral Awakening in Medicine & Healthcare: An ethics of Sympraxis.”
Constantine’s new bioethics book project is the translation of an edited book on Paul Farmer’s praxis and ethics as an Infectious Disease doctor, physician healer, and medical anthropologist, entitled: “A Prophet to the Peoples: Paul Farmer’s Witness and Theological Ethics.” into Greek under contract by Akitas-Porfyra Publishing.
Kosti conducted his capstone research project on disability bioethics and adaptive sport medicine at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and served on the Ethics Advisory Committee of the Hospital.
Professor Psi Ψ, holds degrees from Aristotle University, Springfield College, The Ohio State University, Harvard Medical School, and Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago. Author of three book chapters, peer-reviewed publications, presentations at National, International and World conferences, including Public Orthodoxy, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
His interests in bioethics lie on theological bioethics and AI, and public health ethics. Constantine is the recipient of: National Award by SHAPE America, HMS Dean’s Scholarship, International Emerging Scholar Award, Teaching Excellence Award in Bioethics at Johns Hopkins, perfect score (5.0) in Harvard Medical School teaching. Prof. Psimopoulos was nominated for the International Expanded Reason Award, from the Vatican Foundation. Constantine’s work, mentorship and advocacy for students was recognized by Harvard Medicine magazine and Harvard Medical School Pulse journal.
Prof. Psimopoulos is affiliated with the Center of Hellenic Studies, is the proud husband of Dr. Calliope Dourou, an Associate Professor (Instructional) of Modern Greek literature and culture in the Department of Linguistics also at The University of Chicago, and the proud father of Spyro (12), and Erato (10).
He can be reached at constantine1@uchicago.edu.
Priscilla Molina, MD Candidate
PMR Fellow, 2025-2026
Priscilla is a second-year medical student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine who is highly interested in expanding literature surrounding spirituality amongst communities of color, in particular migrant/Spanish-speaking communities. Priscilla received her B.S. in Psychobiology and completed minors in Latin American Studies and Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020. After graduating, Priscilla worked as a health equity navigator for patients in Southern California and as a support group facilitator for Spanish-speaking families of community members living with mental health conditions. She’s excited to expand her research skills as a PMR Research Fellow this year, pursuing a project entitled, “Religion and Human Flourishing in the South Side” with the following objectives:
- Expand the “Human Flourishing Index” (English & Spanish) into an interview guide, integrating questions regarding religion
- Use qualitative interviews with residents of the South/West Side of Chicago to better understand what promotes flourishing for individuals residing in an under-resourced community.
Joshua Morcos, MD Candidate
PMR Fellow, 2025-2026
Joshua is an incoming first-year medical student interested in exploring medicine as both a profession and a vocation, and the role spirituality has in vocational flourishing. Joshua received his B.S. in Biology and Neuroscience with a Molecular/Cellular focus from Loyola University Chicago in 2025.