On Dane Sommer

THE REVEREND DANE R. SOMMER, D.Min, M.Div., BCC

Director of Chaplaincy Services

Assistant Director of Bioethics Policy and Practice

The Children’s Mercy Hospital

Kansas City, Missouri

The Rev. Dr. Dane R. Sommer has been the Director of Chaplaincy Services at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, since 1987.  He is also the Assistant Director of Bioethics Policy and Practice.  Dr. Sommer was the first full-time chaplain at Children’s Mercy.  The Department of Chaplaincy Services now includes seven full-time and four part-time chaplains.  He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Religion at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, and his Master of Divinity Degree from the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, New Brighton, Minnesota.  He received his Doctorate of Ministry from Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, completing a qualitative research project entitled “How Children Die:  A Narrative Review of Twenty-Two Pediatric Deaths.”  Dr. Sommer is a Board Certified Chaplain in the Association for Professional Chaplains, and has full standing in the United Church of Christ.  Dr. Sommer was the founder and first president of the Pediatric Chaplains Network, an organization designed for support of the unique needs of chaplains who work in pediatrics.  He is a member of the national UNOS Ethics Committee, and adjunct professor of bioethics at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.  He is a frequent lecturer on the theological and spiritual issues of working with hospitalized children.  His most recent focus has been on the issue of suffering and evil.