Rev. Dr Mark Layson CESM MAIES
Chaplain at NSW Ambulance
Mark is a former police officer and firefighter, who has been serving as an ambulance chaplain for 10 years, now alongside his therapy dog Wallace. He also brings 20 years of pastoral experience with children, families and the elderly as an ordained pastor and aged care chaplain. His lived experience as a first responderd, along with past research interests in how moral frameworks are made, manipulated and broken sits behind his current doctoral research. Whilst continuing as an ambulance chaplain at an Aeromedical Unit, he is completing doctoral research at Charles Sturt University in partnership with the NSW Centre for WHS. The research is developing a holistic biopsychosocial-spiritual framework that enables primary preventative strategies to address moral suffering. Mark also serves on the Human Ethics Committee for the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and in his spare time Mark enjoys triathlon, exploring the moral ambiguities of parenting three teenagers and the violence of middle-aged water polo.