George Baghdassarian, MDiv

Emergency Department Chaplain

George Baghdassarian, MDiv, is the Emergency Department Chaplain in Spiritual Care Services at Cedars-Sinai. He responds to trauma cases and other crises in various units throughout the Medical Center. Chaplain Baghdassarian helps assess and determine, in life threatening situations, how patients and families integrate their values, beliefs and understanding of the sacred to the particular crisis event.

Chaplain Baghdassarian earned a bachelor’s in history with a minor in cultural anthropology from California State University, Northridge and a master’s of divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He then became a full-time minister, serving as a youth leader, teacher, Christian education director and pastor in both the Armenian Evangelical Church and Armenian Apostolic Church.  

In 2009, he pursued a career in the area of hospital spiritual care, becoming a Resident Chaplain and earning four units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, CA before becoming the full-time Night Chaplain at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, California. Over the course of his residency and as a full-time chaplain, Chaplain Baghdassarian developed a specialty in the areas of emergency medicine, intensive care and trauma.