Celebrating 40 Years of Clinical Pastoral Education
Fall 2024-2025 Extended Unit Friday Group. Closing Ceremony February 21, 2025. Pictured: The Rev. Dr. Angela Smith, Chaplain Student Manager; Ty Barney; Anastasia Najarian; The Rev. Jenny Lambson; Abigail Anderson; The Rev. Andy Stubblefield, Certified Educator; and The Rev. Nancy Cormack-Hughes. Not Pictured: Jarod Jensen.
As ECS prepares to mark 40 years of Clinical Pastoral Education, we do so on the heels of another powerful milestone: Unit completion for the most recent cohorts of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) students.
For four decades, this program has shaped hundreds of healthcare chaplains who now walk with patients, families, and staff during life’s most tender and challenging moments. Their work—though often unseen—is central to the emotional and spiritual healing that happens every day in Utah’s hospitals.
Rooted in Reflection and Grounded in Service
At the ECS Spiritual Care & Education Center, training is about forming chaplains from the inside out. Through supervision, real-world experience, and deep inner work, students develop not only clinical chaplaincy skills but emotional and spiritual intelligence.
Rev. Andy Stubblefield, ACPE Certified Educator
“CPE is transformative work. Each unit, I have the incredible opportunity to walk alongside students as they become curious about themselves and identify those relationships and experiences within themselves that inform who they are as chaplains.
I was a first-hand witness to the transformative work of each student. I am proud of the work they did individually and we did together as a peer group. It was an honor to be on this journey with them.” - Rev. Andy Stubblefield
The program draws students from many backgrounds including clergy, lay leaders, seminary students, and others seeking to become chaplains. It teaches them how to show up in moments of crisis with empathy, and how to sustain their own well-being in high-demand care environments.
“My first unit of CPE has been a journey of growing through self-doubt and inadequacy into more confidence, ease and trust in being enough just as I am. I have grown in my resilience to meet the challenges and the pain a patient is facing and be present to death with greater presence and courage as a spiritual caregiver.” - Chaplain Alana Felt (Completed 1st Unit)
Fall 2024-2025 Extended Unit Wednesday Group. Closing Ceremony February 21, 2025. Pictured: Brooklyn Franco; Alana Felt; Deanna Anderson; The Rev. Andy Stubblefield, Certified Educator; Dr. Paul Miller; The Rev. Nancy Cormack-Hughes, Director of Spiritual Care; and The Rev. Dr. Angela Smith, Chaplain Student Manager.
For more information:
Please visit our ECSUtah.org website to learn more about Clinical Pastoral Education at the ECS Spiritual Care & Education Center at St. Mark’s Hospital.
