He left a successful academic career in 1997 to devote his full-time efforts to writing, research, and consulting.

Dr. Levin received his A.B. from Duke University in 1981, graduating Magna Cum Laude and with Distinction in both Religion and Sociology. He received his M.P.H. in 1983 from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, and his Ph.D. in Preventive Medicine and Community Health in 1987 from The University of Texas Medical Branch. He also completed an NIH-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from 1987 to 1989 at the Institute of Gerontology of the University of Michigan, and has additional advanced training in quantitative methods from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Levin was the first scientist to systematically review and critique the research literature on the health effects of religious involvement. His studies pioneered basic research in the epidemiology of religion and on the impact of religion on the health and well-being of older adults. He was the first scientist ever to receive research funding from the NIH to study religion, and he has also been funded by both the American Medical Association and the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Dr. Levin has served on the boards of leading organizations in the field of spirituality and aging, including the Center on Aging, Religion, and Spirituality at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Shepherd’s Centers of America, as well as on the National Institute on Aging Workgroup on Measures of Religiousness and Spirituality. He is a current or past member of the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed scientific journals, including the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, The Gerontologist, and the Journal of Religious Gerontology. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, in recognition of outstanding career achievement and exemplary contributions to the field of gerontology.

Dr. Levin is the author or co-author of over 130 scholarly publications, as well as over 120 conference presentations and invited lectures and addresses, most of which deal with the role of religion in health and aging. He has published five books, notably God, Faith, and Health: Exploring the Spirituality-Healing Connection (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001), just released in a new trade paper printing. He is also editor of Religion in Aging and Health: Theoretical Foundations and Methodological Frontiers (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994) and the forthcoming Faith Matters: A Festschrift in Honor of Dr. David B. Larson (New York: The Haworth Press), and co-author of the forthcoming Religion in the Lives of African Americans: Research on the Social, Psychological, and Political Role of Religion (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications).

Dr. Levin lectures nationally and internationally on religion, aging, and health. His research has been featured in many newspapers and magazines, including USA Today, The Washington Post, Newsday, JAMA, Modern Maturity, Tikkun, Moment, Spirituality and Health, and in cover stories in Time, Readers’ Digest, and Macleans, and on national radio and television, including NPR, PBS, CTV, and CBN. His biography is included in Who’s Who in Theology & Science, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, and International Who’s Who in Medicine. He is the recipient of many awards for his research and writing, and has given several named lectures in aging and health, including recent addresses at Duke and Columbia.

Aging, Health, Spirituality, religion, Faith & Religion,