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Professor and Director Emeritus

Center for Ethics, Humanities and Spirituality
Texas Tech University Health Science Center
School of Medicine

Background

Dr. Tom McGovern has spent a lifetime working with students, faculty, and patients in need of humanistic medicine.  Dr. McGovern came to Lubbock as a Roman Catholic priest from County Cork, Ireland.  Over the past 40 years he has served Texas Tech Health Sciences Center as the voice of compassion and concern for the most vulnerable persons in our community.  Dr. McGovern is the Founding Director of the Center for Ethics, Humanities and Spirituality and currently serves a limited role as Emeritus Professor in the Center. 

Professional Focus

Dr. McGovern’s focus is on issues of spirituality in clinical care.  He has a special interest in social justice and care of persons suffering from addiction.  Dr. McGovern is currently working on a history of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, drawing from his extensive personal knowledge and intimate connections with the institution’s past, present, and hope for the future.

Teaching and Counseling

Dr. Tom McGovern teaches in the Health and the Human Spirit course for the Medical Humanities Certificate Program.  He also teaches psychiatry residents about spirituality in the healing of mental illness and addiction.

Recent Publications

Nelson, J, Bundoc-Baronia R, Comiskey, G, McGovern, T. (2017). Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health: A Commentary. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 35(3), 1-10.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07347324.2017.1361763

McGovern TF, McMahon T, Nelson J, Bundoc-Baronia R, Giles C, Schmidt V. (2017). A Descriptive Study of a Spirituality Curriculum for General Psychiatry Residents. Academic Psychiatry, 41(4), 471-476. DOI 10.1007/s40596-017-0687-3