Kei Okada- Biography

Kei Okada was born in New York and raised in Kanazawa, Japan. An initial plan to study for a year in U.S. extended to three art schools followed by four years of working with post-modern dancers in dance theatres in New York City. His love of language led him to study biblical languages at Union Theological Seminary, where the field education course led him to find a meaningful vocation in chaplaincy through a clinical training of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education). After working at NY Presbyterian Cornell Medical Center’s “Program for Children with AIDS” and Housing Works Adult Day Health Care programs for the homeless living with HIV, he worked for 15.5 years at Visiting Nurse Service of New York and Palliative Care. In the end of 2021, he retired from his position as Program manager, End-of-Life Spiritual Care, and currently he is writing his first book on how to facilitate meaningful dialogues with those who are living their final stage of life. Kei is a Board-Certified Chaplain under Association of Professional Chaplains (APC), and an Associate of Columbia University Seminar on Death. As a Christian mystic and an artist, Kei has been offering and writing in the U.S. and Japan on end-of-life consciousness and communication, integrating Art, Spiritual care, and Medicine.