After a rigorous credentialing process, three members of Johns Hopkins’ Clinical Pastoral Education Program recently earned certification as associate supervisors from the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education.

Pictured from left, Emmanuel Saidi, Tahara Akmal and Tommy Rogers spent four years training at Johns Hopkins. Saidi, a Catholic priest from Malawi, says he’s benefited from the Johns Hopkins mission to help others within a diverse environment. Akmal, a Muslim raised in California, who grew up with interfaith parents observing both Christian and Muslim holidays, says she appreciates that every spiritual journey is unique and requires constant self-reflection. Rogers, an Episcopal priest and Oklahoma City native, says he’s found that a patient’s spiritual experience is as important as his or her religious tradition.

Rogers has accepted a position as executive director of Bishop Anderson House in Chicago, while Akmal and Saidi remain undecided about their next career moves. “It’s rare for a clinical pastoral education center to send three students to be certified at one time, and even rarer that they all passed,” notes Ty Crowe, assistant director of the program.