Duane R. Bidwell, Ph.D.

Duane R. Bidwell (he/him) is an award-winning teacher, mentor, pastor, writer, coach, and facilitator with 30 years of leadership in ministry, higher education, and the non-profit sector.

His expertise includes:

spiritual and theological reflection,
strategic planning, program evaluation, and change management,
qualitative research methodologies,
equity, diversity, inclusivity in education and healthcare,
complex religious bonds,
suicide intervention,
spiritual direction,
brief coaching, and
solution-focused and narrative practices.

After 25 years in higher education, he returned to the pulpit as an intentional interim minister in 2025, currently serving as interim pastor of Claremont Presbyterian Church in Claremont, California.

From 2022-2025, Duane was an Educational, Teaching, and Research Associate for the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, serving on the faculty of the Department of Health Professions Education in the School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.

At USU, he oversaw a collaboration between the university and the US Veterans Health Administration to improve educational leadership at medical centers across the country.

His book After the Worst Day Ever: What Sick Kids Know About Sustaining Hope in Chronic Illness explores how children with end-stage kidney disease understand and cultivate hope in the midst of illness.

From 2010-2022, Duane was professor of practical theology, spiritual care, and counseling at Claremont School of Theology in California, where he also maintained a clinical practice at The Clinebell Institute for Pastoral Counseling and Psychotherapy.

Duane's current research specializes in educational leadership, health professions education, comparative approaches to mental health and spirituality, and Buddhist-Christian studies.

He has published six books and more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. His work has been featured on National Public Radio, CNN, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Interfaith Radio, and in The Utne Reader. He frequently appears as a featured guest on podcasts.

His last book, When One Religion Isn’t Enough: The Lives of Spiritually Fluid People (Beacon Press, 2018), is a Christian Century bestseller and a Library Journal “Best Book of 2018.”