Hudson Valley Hospital
Min. Robin K. Ross
Min. Robin K. Ross is a Manager in the Department of Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy at New York-Presbyterian. She is responsible for spiritual care at NYP Allen Hospital, NYP Westchester, NYP The One, and NYP Hudson Valley Hospital. Robin is a board-certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) and a Certified Educator of ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education. Robin began her professional career as an elementary school teacher and taught in public and private schools during that time. She received her Master of Education at Philadelphia Biblical University (currently named Cairn University) Later, Robin, felt led by the Divine to attend seminary at Palmer Theological Seminary where she received her Master of Divinity.
Robin loves teaching and has taught on many different platforms from the schoolhouse classrooms to spiritual conferences with adults. However, in seminary she discovered chaplaincy and how offering a comforting presence and empathetic listening is not only gratifying but aligned with her Christian faith. Robin spent seven years as a hospice chaplain and seven years as a hospital chaplain in her hometown of Philadelphia PA. During her fourteen years as a chaplain, she discovered how she could merge her love for teaching with her love of chaplaincy and became an ACPE Educator. Robin is an ordained minister who embraces inter-faith ministry and has discovered her life’s mission to embody love and a supportive presence to all those she comes in contact within her life.
TJ Douglas
TJ Douglas (they/them) is a Palliative Care Chaplain serving as site leader at NYP Hudson Valley Hospital. After completing their residency at NYP/Weill Cornell Medical Center in 2020, TJ became the inaugural Palliative Care Chaplain Fellow there in 2021. In this role, TJ practiced clinical work as part of the Palliative Care team, offering spiritual and emotional support to patients and families facing serious illness and end of life. TJ specialized in work on surgical ICU and oncology units, particularly the bone marrow transplant unit. Also, in this role, TJ was tasked with creating a facilitating a 12-hour curriculum between physician learners and chaplain learners around the role of spiritual care in healthcare setting. The success of the curriculum granted an extension of TJ’s role, which included presenting the curriculum in a 30-minute podium presentation in 2023’s AAHPM Annual Assembly. In 2023, TJ transferred to serve their local community at NYP Hudson Valley.
TJ is an interfaith chaplain. Their spirituality draws from contemplative, mystical, and wisdom traditions which emphasize impermanence, paradox, interconnectedness, love, mystery, and the natural world as grounds of sacredness. They earned their BA in Religion from Dartmouth College and their Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary with a focus on inter-religious engagement. TJ is a songwriter and sees a connection between their creative life and their call to chaplaincy: both are an effort to love and accompany others -and be accompanied in return- through the pain, wonder, and mystery of being alive. TJ was born and raised by the ocean in Portland, Maine, and now lives by the river in Peekskill, NY, with their wife Gracie and child Desmond.