Dr. Bill Hoy has taught at Baylor University since the spring of 2012. He is widely regarded as an authority on the sociocultural history of funeral rites and his clinical experience has been in bereavement counseling and end-of-life care. Before coming to Texas, he was a pastor and hospice chaplain in southern California, and for more than a decade, directed the bereavement counseling program for Pathways in Long Beach, California. Bringing his graduate training in practical theology and counseling, his course on death and dying is popular with Medical Humanities students.

In addition to teaching at Baylor, he is a popular lecturer for groups of caregiving professionals around the United States and Canada and he delivers about 40 keynote presentations and workshops in more thant 25 cities every year. His books include Guiding People through Grief (2007), Road to Emmaus (2008), and Do Funerals Matter? (forthcoming, 2013). He has also authored more than 100 book chapters, educational pamphlets and journal articles over the last 25 years, including a chapter on African-American celebrity funerals for a forthcoming book in French to be published by University of Quebec Press in the spring of 2013.

Dr. Hoy and his wife, Debbie (Baylor, 1977) make their home in the rural community of Crawford, about 25 miles southwest of Baylor. They have two young adult children and they are active in the First Baptist Church of Woodway.

Contact

BSB D108
(254) 710-2065
Email: Bill_Hoy@baylor.edu

Education

• Doctor of Ministry (pastoral counseling), Fuller Theological Seminary. [When Sadness Comes to Church: Clergy Continuing Education in Bereavement and End of Life Care] (2005)
• Clinical Supervision in grief counseling and therapy under supervision of Dr. J. William Worden, Newport Beach, CA (1992-1994)
• Masters of Divinity (Pastoral Counseling and Theology), Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (1990)
• BS (Social Sciences), Louisiana State University; special research in the social and cultural ramifications of death in American society (1984)

Professional Experience

• Lecturer in Medical Humanities (College of Arts and Sciences), Baylor University, Waco, TX (2012-Present). Teaching assignment includes death, end-of-life and bereavement course for pre-med & pre-health students in the Medical Humanities program.
• Executive Director, Grief Connect, Inc. (1991-Present). Provides publications and training materials as well as approximately 70 continuing education workshops each year to assist caregiving professionals and volunteers in their work with dying patients and grieving families.
• Lecturer, Graduate Program (Department of Thanatology, School of Arts, Humanities and Letters) Marian University, Fond du Lac, WI (2009-Present). Teaching assignment includes courses in spirituality and bereavement, community education methodology and the practice of grief counseling.
• Director of Counseling Services, Pathways Volunteer Hospice, Long Beach, CA. (1996 – 2006). Provided overall direction to this multi-faceted bereavement program with its strong emphasis on school-based bereavement and trauma programs. Provided individual counseling and group support services in the areas of bereavement and spiritual care. Responsibilities included the development of training programs and clinical consultation with staff and volunteers.
• Adjunct Instructor, Health Science Division, Cypress College, Cypress, CA (1994- 2005). Permanent teaching assignment included death studies courses to prepare students in nursing, mortuary science, and social service to assist clients and patients in facing death; developed and taught the college's first bioethics course beginning in 1998.
• Minister (1985-1995). Served two congregations in southern California-First Southern Baptist Church of Long Beach and Pacific Breeze Community Church of Seal Beach, providing overall pastoral leadership and specific guidance in pastoral care and counseling. Developed community- wide grief programs in both congregations.

Professional Affiliations

• Association for Death Education & Counseling Board Certification in Thanatology (FT); Initial certification (CT) earned 2002; Fellow in Thanatology status earned 2006.
• Chair, ADEC Committee on School Crisis Intervention
• Co-chair with Dr. Louis Gamino, ADEC 2013 annual conference, Los Angeles, California American Academy of Religion
• Credentialed Continuing Education Provider: Texas Education Agency (school counselors and school-based mental health professionals), California Board of Behavioral Sciences, Texas Board of Social Work Examiners, California Department of Social Services (RCFE), California Board of Registered Nursing, Texas Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors, Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists