HFA has been privileged to include many notable experts and moderators in its programming over the past 26 years, including Charles Corr, PhD; Nancy Hogan, PhD; Karla Holloway, PhD; Bruce Jennings, MA; the late Richard Payne, MD, the late Cokie Roberts; Donna Schuurman, EdD; Sherry Schachter PhD; and the late William Lamers, MD.

Below is a complete listing of our speakers from the 2016-17 program year onward. We are grateful for their willingness to share their expertise to advance hospice and bereavement care through HFA programs. 

   

Kimberly D. Acquaviva, PhD, MSW, CSE

Dr. Acquaviva has a PhD in Human Sexuality Education from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, and MSW from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, and a BA in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences. She is an AASECT-Certified Sexuality Educator. Dr. Acquaviva has served as the Betty Norman Norris Endowed Professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing since August 1, 2019. Prior to that, she spent fifteen years as a faculty member at the George Washington University (GW) School of Nursing and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. As a social worker teaching within a school of nursing, her scholarship is interdisciplinary and collaborative. Her scholarly work focuses on LGBTQ aging and end-of-life issues, and her clinical has been with patients and families facing life-limiting illnesses in both hospital and hospice settings. Her book LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice & Palliative Care: A Practical Guide to Transforming Professional Practice, was published by Harrington Park Press and distributed by Columbia University Press. The book was awarded first place in the AJN Book of the Year Awards in the Palliative Care and Hospice Catagory. She's the host of em dash podcast, a show that explores the lived experiences of patients and healthcare professionals in the healthcare arena.
 

Charmayne Adams, PhD

Dr. Adams is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is a fully licensed counselor in the state of Nebraska and a nationally certified counselor through the National Board of Certified Counselors. Her clinical background focuses on working with individuals with a history of trauma or in crisis including traumatic loss. Her research focuses on teaching about trauma, stress response and coping, systemic and emotion-focused clinical interventions, and the application of attachment theory in clinical and academic settings. Both clinically and academically Dr. Adams is focused on social justice counseling and empowering clients to examine barriers and use their strengths to overcome life’s challenges.
 
 

Patti Anewalt, PhD, LPC, FT

Dr. Anewalt is Director of the Pathways Center for Grief & Loss with Hospice & Community Care. The focus of her clinical practice, writing and teaching is on issues related to end of life, grief, compassion fatigue and crisis response, presenting at the national, state and local level. Dr. Anewalt is a Fellow in Thanatology with the Association for Death Education and Counseling and a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement. She is a frequent presenter at the national, state and local level. At the Pathways Center for Grief & Loss Dr. Anewalt oversees a wide variety of bereavement services for adults, children and teens, serving close to 9,000 hospice and community bereaved each year. A disaster mental health specialist and instructor for the American Red Cross, she serves on several community crisis teams, providing trainings, debriefings and support when local tragedies occurs.
 

Carrie Arnold, PhD, FT, MEd, RSW, CCC

Dr. Arnold obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, a Master of Education (Counselling), both from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD (Psychology) from Saybrook University. She is a Certified Canadian Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, is registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers and is an approved service provider with the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada. Dr. Arnold provides psychotherapy to adolescent and adult clients in the areas of grief, loss, and trauma. Her publications include articles on issues related to the experiences of adolescent girls, attachment and loss, and an edited volume entitled Understanding Child and Adolescent Grief: Supporting Loss and Facilitating Growth (Routledge).

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Alua Arthur, JD

Alua Arthur is the Founder and Executive Director of Going with Grace, an end-of- life planning, training, and support organization. As a certified death doula and attorney, Alua is able to focus on her clients' practical and emotional needs while giving them the space to contemplate the end of life. She has created and facilitates a death doula training program and is the author of the Going with Grace Guide to Completion: The First 10 Steps in Completing the Affairs of Your Loved One's Life. 

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Jennifer Moore Ballentine, MA

Jennifer has more than 20 years’ experience in hospice and palliative care, healthcare ethics and public policy, adult education, and nonprofit leadership. She currently serves as CEO of the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, a statewide nonprofit focused on improving the experience of serious illness through system change. Prior positions include Executive Director, California State University Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care; Vice President, Hospice Analytics; Executive Director, Life Quality Institute; and Director of Professional Programs, Colorado Center for Hospice and Palliative Care. Ballentine has chaired the Denver Community Bioethics Committee and served on several bio- and clinical ethics committees including the San Diego County Medical Society Bioethics Commission, Centura Health at Home Ethics Committee, and the NHPCO Ethics Advisory Council, as well as the Board of Directors for the Colorado Healthcare Ethics Forum. Jennifer has authored text chapters in ethics for the Certified Senior Advisors, Oxford University Press, and Hospice Foundation of America, as well as peer-reviewed and trade journal articles and professional curricula. She holds a Master’s degree with graduate honors in End-of-Life Studies from Regis University, a certificate in gerontology from University of Colorado–Colorado Springs, and a Bachelor’s degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from Oberlin College.

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Joy Berger, DMA, FT, BCC, MT-BC

Joy is Founder/CEO of Composing Life Out of Loss, equipping individuals and end-of-life care organizations nation-wide with empathic, 24/7 education resources for end-of-life care professionals, families, and the communities they serve. Joy’s 25+ years of hospice service span providing direct patient care with all hospice populations; leading hospice and palliative care educators locally, regionally, and nationally; and prolific teaching and writing for professionals in end-of-life care, grief counseling, home health, and the arts. For her direct patient care, Joy was honored with the National Heart of Hospice Psychosocial/Spiritual Care Award by the National Council of Hospice and Palliative Care Professionals.

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Kathleen A. Bixby, MSN, RN, CHPN

Kathy is a former Army nurse who returned to her roots and began working at the Washington, DC Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in 2005 where she conveys 25 years of experience from multiple venues including intensive care, advanced illness home and hospice care, and oncology case management. She is an approved End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) trainer, served as VA Faculty for Palliative Care Leadership training, and provided national workgroup leadership promoting VA-wide palliative and end-of-life care. Kathy is a certified Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse with past certifications in Critical Care and Oncology. In addition to working in Geriatric and Palliative Care Staff Development, Kathy also serves as the palliative care team member for the medical center’s Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Clinic. Kathy is a Reiki Master and Certified HeartMath Trainer with additional training in iRest Yoga Nidra. She is a Caritas Coach, certified through the Watson Caring Science Institute, and recently completed Interprofessional Spiritual Care Education Curriculum (ISPEC) training. Kathy is an Opus Peace Ambassador, and her interests include communication, expressive and healing arts, whole-person caring relative to wholehearted living, integrative health and well-being, and spirituality in healthcare.

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 Jillian Blueford,  PhD, LPC, NCC, CT

Dr. Jillian Blueford is a Clinical Assistant Professor for the school counseling program at the University of Denver, a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Colorado, and is certified in Thanatology: Death, Dying, and Bereavement. Over the years, Dr. Blueford has provided grief counseling to individuals of all backgrounds in various settings, including schools, outpatient facilities, and currently in private practice in the Denver area. Further, Dr. Blueford is a grief and loss scholar, who has conducted research and scholarship via her dissertation, peer-reviewed publications, webinars, podcast features, and several regional, national, and international presentation. Seeking that all counseling professionals are equipped and competent in grief counseling, Dr. Blueford also works with other educators and clinicians as Co-Chair of the Grief Counseling Competencies Task Force to develop key competencies for the training programs.

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Tashel C. Bordere, PhD, CT

Dr. Bordere is Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science and State Extension Specialist in Youth Development at the University of Missouri-Columbia where she teaches Childhood Death and Bereavement, Black Families, Adolescence and Young Adulthood, and Lifespan Development. She is past editor of The Fourm (Association for Death Education Counseling), past board member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, and past Chair of the People of Color/Multicultural Committee. Dr. Bordere has conducted numerous workshops, consultations, trainings and published works relating to diversity and resilience through loss, including her recent co-edited and co-written book (with Darcy Harris), Handbook of Social Justice in Loss and Grief. Dr. Bordere was featured on NPR, "Teens and Grief," and in Hospice Foundation of America's "Living with Grief: Helping Adolescents Cope with Loss." Her research focuses on adolescent adjustment to death and loss, with emphasis on assaultive violence, homicidal death, coping and grief among African American youth. She also studies New Orleans death rituals. Dr. Bordere developed SHED Grief Tools to educate and equip teachers with tools to support youth coping with death and non-death loss in the context of school settings.

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Pauline Boss, PhD

 

Dr. Boss is Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and a former president of the National Council on Family Relations. She practiced family therapy for over 40 years. With her groundbreaking work in research and practice, Dr. Boss coined the term ambiguous loss in the 1970s and since then, developed and tested the theory of ambiguous loss, a guide for working with families of the missing, physically or psychologically. She summarized this research and clinical work in her widely acclaimed book Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief (Harvard University Press, 2000). In addition to over 100 peer reviewed academic articles and chapters, her other books include Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss (W. W. Norton, 2006) and Loving Someone Who Has Dementia: How to Find Hope While Coping with Stress and Grief (Jossey-Bass, 2011). Her most recent book is The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change (W. W. Norton, 2022). Her work is known around the world wherever ambiguous losses occur, and thus her books are now available in 18 different languages. For more information about Dr. Boss, her writings, and the ambiguous loss online training program, see www.ambiguousloss.com. 

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Molly Brooks RN-BC, CHPCA

Molly Brooks the Executive Director of Clinical Innovation at Capital Caring Health, a provider of hospice, palliative and advanced illness care in the Mid-Atlantic region. In her role she is responsible for evaluating and implementing new models of care and technologies that enable greater efficiencies while preserving improved outcomes. She obtained her degree in nursing from Park University in Kansas City, Missouri. She holds specialty certifications in Gerontology and also Hospice and Palliative Care Administration. Molly's 26 year career as a registered nurse has included work in medical-surgical oncology, long term care and 17 years in hospice roles. Molly is also the co-founder of Hero's Bridge, a nonprofit that address social determinants of health in veterans age 65 and over. 

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Karen Bullock, PhD, LCSW, FGSA, APHSW-C
 

Karen Bullock is the Ahearn Endowed Professor in the Boston College School of Social Work. Her practice interests include health disparities and health equity in serious illness care; aging and gerontology; and hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care decision making. Her research focuses on cancer care, social support for older adults, diversity, equity, and cultural factors influencing health care outcomes. She has served as Principal Investigator and/or Co-Investigator for over $5 million in federal grant funding focused on equity and inclusion for workforce development, aging, and health network sustainability. Dr. Bullock is a John A. Hartford Faculty Scholar and serves on several national boards and committees, including the Social Work Hospice & Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) as vice-chair and the immediate past chair of the American Cancer Society (ACS) Oncology Social Work Research Peer Review Committee. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Roundtable Committee on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness and a member of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC).
 
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Laurie Burke

Dr. Burke is a licensed clinical psychologist who maintains an active private practice in Portland, OR that is dedicated to serving grieving individuals, with a primary focus on assisting traumatically bereaved adults (e.g., individuals grieving losses from homicide, suicide, fatal accident). She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Memphis where she continues to conduct bereavement research. Her research and publications bear on death, dying, loss, and grief processes, with an emphasis on violent death bereavement, complicated grief, and complicated spiritual grief (CSG)—a spiritual crisis following loss reflected in the griever’s struggle with God and/or his or her spiritual community. Dr. Burke, who is one of the leading experts in the study of CSG, led the development and validation of the Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief (ICSG), and its revised version, the ICSG 2.0.

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Kathleen S. Burkhart, MSN, APN-C, FAANP

Ms. Burkhart is a retired Captain in the US Navy Nurse Corp and a Fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, board-certified in Adult and Geriatric specialties. She has worked 27 years for the VA in several diverse and challenging roles including being a Nurse Practitioner in the Home-Based Primary Care Department, in a Community Based Outpatient Clinic, as well as a Nurse Manager for the Center for Health and Wellness. She has been a strong clinical leader in the VA Patient Centered Care and Whole Health initiatives where she currently serves as the Whole Health Education Champion. In addition to her VA role she provides clinical assessments for patients receiving hospice care in the private sector. Ms. Burkhart is affiliated with the Opus Peace Organization where she serves as an Ambassador. She has been speaking and providing workshops for both professional and lay audiences on the topic of Soul Injury and topics related to emotional/spiritual wellbeing. She is active in her church in the caregiver ministry as well as enjoys art and travel.

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John Cagle, PhD, MSW

Dr. Cagle is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore, School of Social Work with a substantive interest in improving care at the end of life. As a translational health services researcher, his efforts have focused on identifying effective models of care and support for dying patients and their families – and implementing those models into routine clinical practice. His research is informed by nearly a decade of clinical work as a hospice social worker. Dr. Cagle completed his PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University where his dissertation thesis explored the needs and experiences of informal caregivers of advanced cancer patients. After being awarded his doctoral degree in 2008, he trained as an NIA-funded postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute on Aging as well as the University of California, San Francisco, Division of Geriatrics. His current research examines disparities in care at the end of life, psychosocial barriers to pain management, and improving palliative care outcomes in long-term care settings. His research has been supported by a number of public and private entities, including the Hospice Foundation of America, the National Palliative Care Research Center, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and the Foundation for Care at the End of Life.

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Amy Calligan, RNCM, Pediatric Hospice

Amy Calligan is a regional pediatric registered nurse case manager for Capital Caring Health. For almost 20 years, Amy has been a passionate advocate for her patients and sees her work with pediatric hospice patients as a way to enhance the quality of the child’s life during what she feels are their most vital moments.  

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Rev. Carla Cheatham, PhD, MDiv

Rev. Carla Cheatham began her career in psychosocial services with an MA in Psychology, certification in trauma therapy, PhD in Health & Kinesiology, and MDiv before working 10 years as an interfaith healthcare chaplain and bereavement coordinator. Carla is a national keynote speaker and consultant focusing on emotionally intelligent and resilient professionals and organizations, Chair of NHPCOs Ethics Advisory Council, former Leader for NHPCO’s Spiritual Caregivers Community, Adjunct Professor at Seminary of the Southwest, and Assistant Professor for University of Maryland’s MS in Palliative Care. She publishes books and videos about resilience, communication, boundaries, grief, healthy leadership, service recovery, and emotionally competent professionals. 

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Stephen R. Connor, PhD

Dr. Connor is the Executive Director of the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) with 350 organizational members in over 100 countries. Connor has worked in palliative care continuously for the past 44 years as a researcher, licensed clinical health psychologist, consultant, author, educator, advocate, & executive. For 11 years he was VP for research and development at NHPCO. For the last 20 years he has worked on global palliative care development in over 25 countries. He is a trustee of the International Children's Palliative Care Network and the International Work Group on Death, Dying, & Bereavement; a board member for the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation; on the scientific advisory board of the (US) National Palliative Care Research Center; is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Pain & Symptom Management; and serves on several WHO technical advisory groups. Connor has authored 5 books and over 130 peer reviewed journal articles, reviews, and book chapters on issues related to hospice & palliative care.

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Elizabeth Crunk-Sikhuashvili, PhD, NCC, LGPC
 

Dr. Crunk-Sikhuashvili is a mental health counselor and an Assistant Professor of Counseling at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She provides psychotherapy to individuals and couples who are coping with a range of concerns, including grief and loss, depression and other mood disorders, anxiety, relationship concerns, breakup recovery, self-esteem, family estrangement, family of origin concerns, chronic illness, and stress. In particular, she specializes in treating diverse issues in grief and bereavement, including complicated grief, anticipatory grief, non-death loss, and life transitions. Dr. Crunk’s specialized training and nine years of research experience in grief and loss equips her to help
individuals navigate these challenging experiences.

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Randall Curtis, MD, MPH
 

Dr. Curtis completed medical school at Johns Hopkins University then an internal medicine residency and pulmonary and critical care physicain and palliative medicine residency and pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the University of Washington. He is a pulmonary and critical care physician and palliative medicine physician at Harborview Medical Center at the University of Washington. He also holds the A. Bruce Montgomery- American Lung Association Endowed Chair in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and he is the founding Director of the Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence at the University of Washington. He has an active research program with over 25 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health and has also received funding from a number of foundations including the Cambia Health Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Greenwall Foundation. His Research focuses on improving palliative care for patients with serious illness as well as for patients' families. He has authored mor than 300 peer-reviewed research articles and more than 150 editorials and chapters. He is also committed to mentoring in palliative care research and is th director of two T32 awards and a K12 award from the National Institutes of Health to train palliative care researchers of the future. Dr. Curtis has been the recipient of several awards for his research and teaching in palliative care and in 2017 he was named one of the 30 visionaries in Hospice and Palliative Medicine by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

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Terri Daniel, DMin, CT, CCTP

Dr. Terri Daniel is a hospice and hospital-trained spiritual care provider and educator certified in death, dying and bereavement by the Association of Death Education and Counseling and in trauma support by the International Association of Trauma Professionals. The focus of her work is to assist dying and grieving individuals to discover a more spiritually -spacious understanding of death, grief, and beyond. She conducts workshops throughout the U.S., and also teaches in the Interreligious Chaplaincy program at the Graduate Theological Union and the Spirituality and Mental Health program at the University of Redlands. She is the founder of the Conference on Death and Afterlife Studies and the Ask Doctor Death podcast. Terri has a BA in Religious Studies from Marylhurst University, an MA in Pastoral Care from Fordham University, and a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Care and Counseling from the San Francisco Theological Seminary.

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Monica Delaney, ATR-BC, LPC, Hospice Child Life Specialist

Monica is an art therapist and licensed professional counselor. She has worked in pediatric hospice and children’s grief counseling since 2018. Prior to that, she has had experience with children and adults receiving organ transplants, in outpatient oncology/hematology, and in private practice, as well as with children and teens with emotional and behavioral disabilities. She is an adjunct faculty member of The George Washington University Art Therapy Program.

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Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv

Dr. Doka is Senior Vice President of Grief Programs at Hospice Foundation of America (HFA) and the recipient of the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Death Education and Counseling (ADEC). A prolific author and editor, Dr. Doka serves as editor of HFA’s Living with Grief® book series, its Journeys newsletter, and numerous other books and publications. He has been a panelist on HFA’s Living with Grief® program for 29 years. Dr. Doka is a past president of ADEC, a former board member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement, and an Advisory Board member to the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). He is the recipient of The International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement’s prestigious Herman Feifel Award and ADEC’s Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Death Education. In 2006, he was grandfathered in as a Mental Health Counselor under New York’s first state licensure of counselors. Dr. Doka is an ordained Lutheran minister.

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Craig Dresang

Craig is CEO of YoloCares, Sacramento Valley’s first established hospice and community-based palliative care program. He is a writer, educator, hospice advocate, and an end-of-life columnist for the Davis Enterprise. Crais is a board member for Joshua’s House in Sacramento, the first hospice residence for the homeless on the West Coast. During his 20+ years in palliative care he chaired the Nonprofit Hospice Coalition of Northern California and raised $50 million for the construction of four hospice residences in the Chicago area. In 2020, his organization secured a $1 million research grant from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation to better understand and address barriers to care for rural and indigenous populations. He holds two degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and he has been a frequent guest instructor and lecturer at both the Kellogg School of Management and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

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William Feigelman, PhD

Dr. Feigelman is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Nassau Community College (Garden City, New York), where he taught for 50 years. Author and co-author of seven books, including his most recent co-authored work in 2012, Devastating Losses: How parents cope with the death of child to suicide or drugs (NY: Springer). He is also an author or coauthor of more than 50 journal articles, written on a wide variety of social science subjects including child adoptions, youth alcohol and drug abuse, problem gambling, tobacco use and cessation, and intergroup relations. Since 2002, after his son Jesse's suicide, Dr. Feigelman has focused his professional writings on youth suicide and suicide bereavement. This work has appeared in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, Death Studies, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying and Illness, Crisis and Loss. He is a member of the American Association of Suicidology and the Association for Death Education and Counseling, a frequent presenter at bereavement conferences in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Norway and Japan, and a co-facilitator of a survivors' support group.

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Rabbi Gary S. Fink, DMin

Gary S. Fink, DMin, is Senior Vice President of Counseling and Family Support at Montgomery Hospice in Rockville, MD, where he supports the counseling departments, directs the Spiritual Counseling staff, and leads interfaith community outreach efforts. He served as a congregational rabbi for more than 25 years, retiring from the pulpit to establish a pastoral counseling practice specializing in grief, life-limiting illness, and end-of-life issues. Rabbi Fink was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and earned a doctorate at Howard University Divinity School, concentrating in end-of-life care. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Thanatology. Rabbi Fink was selected as a panelist for the 2011 HFA Living with Grief® program focusing on Spirituality and End-of-Life Care and authored a chapter in the accompanying textbook. Since then, he has served as a panelist for a variety of programs sponsored by HFA.

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Stephen Fleming, PhD, CPsych

Dr. Fleming has a private practice, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, at York University in Toronto, and is a Consulting Psychologist with the Pilot Recruitment Programme at Air Canada. The author of numerous books, book chapters, articles, and presentations on the grief experience of children, adolescence, and adults, he has lectured in Canada, the United States, South America, Asia, and Europe. Dr. Fleming has qualified as an expert witness in litigation involving trauma, and he has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Palliative Care and Death Studies. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honours including the Noah Thorek Award for outstanding volunteer contribution to the Bereaved Families of Ontario; the Clinical Practice Award for outstanding contribution to clinical thanatology from the Association for Death Education and Counselling; the Dr. Beatrice Wickett Award for outstanding contribution to mental health education in Ontario; and the Citizen of Distinction Award from MADD Canada. Dr. Fleming served as Secretary-Treasurer of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement from 2005 - 2013. His co-authored book, Parenting after the death of a child: A practitioner’s guide, was published by Routledge in 2011.

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Pamela Gabbay, EdD, FT

Dr. Pamela Gabbay has served in many capacities during her 25-year career. Currently, she is the Director of Operations and Training for The Compassionate Friends. She is also a co-founder of The Satori Group and a national trainer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Dr. Gabbay is the co-author of Understanding and Supporting Bereaved Children: A Practical Guide for Professionals. Previously, she was the Director of the Mourning Star Center, where she worked extensively with bereaved families. Additionally, she served on the Board of Directors of the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG). She holds a Fellow in Thanatology (FT) from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and earned her Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Leadership from Brandman University. Dr. Gabbay conducts nationwide presentations for organizations including NACG, Hospice Foundation of America (HFA), ADEC, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and the Childhood Grief and Traumatic Loss Conference.

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Maria Georgopoulos, LMHC, FT

Maria Georgopoulos, LMHC, FT, is Director of the Bereavement Services Department at Calvary Hospital. She is responsible for 32 bereavement support groups in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan that serve hundreds of adults, children and teenagers each year; leads a team of 7 bereavement counselors; and spearheads Calvary's efforts to expand teh Hospital's professional learning programs in the New York area. Prior to Calvary, Ms. Georgopoulos worked in the mental health profession in other settings including The American Red Cross of Greater New York as a Caseworker after 9/11. In addition to her work in bereavement, Ms. Georgopoulos is a licensed mental health counselor with a private practice in NYC and provides counseling for diverse populations of people with varying difficulties.

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Allison Gilbert

Allison is an Emmy award-winning journalist and one of the most thought-provoking and influential writers on grief and resilience. The author of numerous books including the groundbreaking, Passed and Present: Keeping Memories of Loved Ones Alive, her stirring work exposes the secret and essential factor for harnessing loss to drive happiness and rebound from adversity. She is a sought-after expert, appearing on TODAY, CNN, and MSNBC. She’s been interviewed by Megyn Kelly and appeared at New York Open Center with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Soledad O’Brien, who’ve also been featured on her blog. She’s frequently quoted in print and online, her perspective featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and numerous other publications. Allison serves on the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) advisory board and the National Alliance for Grieving Children (NAGC) board of directors and presents workshops on loss and healing across the country.

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Zaneta M. Gileno, LMSW, CT

Zaneta began her social work career as a professional in the child welfare system. Her efforts to reunite families and empower parents helped shape her as a practitioner. She is a graduate of Columbia University School of Social Work and served as Director of Community-based Care for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) where she offered direct survivor support, ensuring the TAPS community of survivors was connected to grief counseling and support groups, and established the network of TAPS own support group model.

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Linda Goldman, MS, LCPC, MBCC, FT

Linda has a Fellow in Thanatology: Death, Dying, and Bereavement (FT) with a Master of Science in counseling and Master's equivalency in early childhood education. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and a National Certified Counselor. Linda worked as a teacher and counselor in the school system for almost 20 years. Currently, she has a private grief therapy practice in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and works with children, teenagers, families with prenatal loss and grieving adults. Linda shares workshops, courses and trainings on children's grief and trauma and teaches as adjunct faculty in the Graduate Program of Counseling at Johns Hopkins University and King’s University College in Ontario, Canada. She has also taught on the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Social Work/Advanced Certification Program for Children and Adolescents and lectured at many other universities including Pennsylvania State University, Buffalo School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, the National Transportation Safety Board, the University of Hong Kong, and the National Changhua University of Education in Taiwan as well as numerous school systems throughout the country. She has taught on working with LGBT youth and working with children's grief and trauma at Johns Hopkins Graduate School, the University of Maryland School of Social Work and the Child Welfare Administration. She has written many articles, including Healing Magazine’s “Helping the Grieving Child in the Schools” (2012), “The Bullying Epidemic, Creating Safe Havens for Gay Youth in Schools” (2006), “Parenting Gay Youth” (2008), “Talking to Kids About Suicide” (2014), “Helping Kids Cope with Grief of Losing a Pet” (2014) and “What Complicates Grief for Children: A Case Study” (2015). Some of her articles on children's grief and trauma have been translated into Chinese for the Suicide Prevention Program of Beijing. She appeared on the radio show Helping Gay Youth: Parents Perspective (2008) and has testified at a hearing before the MD Joint House and Senate Priorities Hearing for Marriage Equality (2007) and the MD Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee for the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (2008). 

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Marian Grant, ACNP-BC, ACHPN, FPCN, RN

Dr. Grant is the Senior Regulatory Advisor at the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) in Washington, DC. In addition, she is a nurse practitioner (NP) dually certified in Acute Care and Palliative Care/Hospice, an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, and an NP on the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Palliative Care Service. Dr. Grant was a 2014-2015 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow and worked both in Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office and at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) on the Medicare Care Choices Model. She currently serves as a member of the American Nurses Association’s (ANA) Palliative & Hospice Nursing Professional Issues Panel Steering Team, and the Community Health Accreditation Partner’s (CHAP) Palliative Advanced Illness Care Steering Committee. Grant received her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from the University of Maryland, and her Master’s and Bachelor’s in Nursing degrees from the Johns Hopkins University. She is a co-author of The Hospice and Palliative Care Approach to Serious Illness, has done research as an online palliative care nurse practitioner on the Johns Hopkins Pancreatic Cancer website, and blogged for the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Before becoming a nurse, Dr. Grant received a Bachelors in Science from Miami University in mass communication and had a career in advertising and marketing for the Procter & Gamble Company.

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Deborah Grassman, ARNP

Deborah is a mental health Nurse Practitioner whose 30-year career at the Department of Veterans Affairs included being the Director of the Hospice program, as well as personally taking care of more than 10,000 dying veterans. She is recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts in caring for Veterans nearing the end of life. Deborah is most well-known for her pioneering Wounded Warriors: Their Last Battle presentation which was the first of its kind to identify the unique needs of Veterans as they age and their “warrior wisdom” emerges. In 2002, she introduced "pinning ceremonies" to honor dying veterans–a ceremony which has now become standard practice in hospices and long-term care facilities throughout the nation. Deborah is the author of two books: Peace at Last and The Hero Within. She is now CEO and cofounder of Opus Peace, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to provide programs that raise awareness about the soul injury that occurs during trauma, abuse, self-neglect, and chronic or serious illness.

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Carlos Graveran

Carlos has nearly 30 years of experience in various facets of the healthcare industry. Before his appointment in July of 2016 to his current role as Executive Director, Frederick Health Hospice, he honed his skills working with pharmaceutical, home health and hospice organizations; most recently as Vice President of Operations for VITAS Healthcare. He is a passionate advocate for hospice and end-of-life care with demonstrated knowledge of hospice operations, leadership, financial management and strategy development. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Carlos is also a very proud US Army veteran (Paratrooper, 82nd Airborne Division).

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The Reverend Kristopher T. Halsey, DDiv, PhD

Dr. Halsey has worked in the healthcare industry for over 22 years. He began his career in healthcare working as a Registered Medical Assistant at a local community clinic in 1995 then moving onto being on staff as a Clinical Coordinator and a Medical Practice Manager at Graduate Hospital and Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has an extensive background working as a clinical chaplain, providing spiritual and psychosocial support to patients and their families at the end of life. He currently holds the position of Bereavement Services Manager and is Co-Chairman of the Ethics committee for Vitas Healthcare, a hospice provider serving the greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. He is an active faculty/staff member for The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC), a national specialized educational initiative to improve palliative care. In 2007, he founded a local community church in Philadelphia in which he currently serves as the Senior Pastor. Dr. Halsey holds degrees in Theology and Pastoral Psychology. He is a sought-after conference speaker specializing in topics relating to End-of-Life Care, Compassion Fatigue, Medical Ethics and Spiritual Care in Healthcare. He has also appeared as a guest on numerous radio broadcasts and has written an article for a national Hospice Care magazine.

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Joanne L. Harpel, MPhil, CT, JD
 

President of Coping After Suicide, LLC, is an international authority on suicide bereavement and  postvention response. She is Certified in Thanatology (death, dying, and bereavement) and has over 20 years’ experience addressing the questions, emotions, and complexities that arise in the aftermath of suicide. Joanne’s full-service practice includes; working directly with grieving individuals, couples, and families, facilitating national and international suicide bereavement support groups, advising educational institutions, workplaces, and faith communities, training mental health clinicians, health care professionals, clergy, funeral directors, first responders, and educators, and frequent appearances as an invited presenter and media guest. Her work has been recognized with the two most prestigious awards available in the field: the American Association of Suicidology’s Survivor of the Year Award and the International Association for Suicide Prevention’s Farberow Award. Joanne has spoken on suicide bereavement and aftercare at the United Nations, on Capitol Hill, and for the American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Northern Ireland National Health Service, Hospice Foundation of America, and New York State School Boards and Funeral Directors Associations. She's trained the chaplains of the U.S. Army and Veterans Administration; the  Psychologists affiliated with the South Korea National Police Agency; the crisis response team of a large public university; and the psychiatry, pediatrics, nursing, and social work departments of major medical centers. Over two decades she’s collaborated with hundreds of organizations, including the NIMH, WHO, Columbia University Schools of Social Work and Journalism, the University of Melbourne, HBO, and Sesame Street. 

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Bryan Harnetiaux

Bryan has been a Playwright-in-Residence at Spokane Civic Theatre in Spokane, Washington, since 1982. Thirteen of his plays have been published; these works include commissioned stage adaptations of Ernest Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Killers, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Long Walk to Forever, all published by The Dramatic Publishing Company. Bryan's work has been perfromed throughout the United States. His play National Pastime, about the breaking of the color line in major league baseball in 1947, has received many productions, including an Equity waiver production at Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena, California and Equity production at (former) Stamford Theatre of NYC. Bryan has a cycle of plays on end-of-life, Vesta, Dusk, and Holding On ~ Letting Go. All of these end-of-life plays (Holding On ~ Letting Go in abridged form) are licensed in clinical settings addressing end-of-life issues (medical and professional conferences, etc.) through Hospice Foundation of America (www.hospicefoundation.org). Bryan is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

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Elaine Healy MD, FACP, CMD

Dr. Healy is the vice president of medical affairs and medical director at United Hebrew of New Rochelle, a multi-service healthcare organization that includes a 300-bed skilled nursing facility, two senior independent housing units, two assisted living facilities, and a robust home care program. She is board certified in Internal, Geriatric and Hospice and Palliative Medicine and is a certified medical director by the American Medical Directors Association. Dr. Healy is a clinical assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College and has implemented programs in geriatric medical training and care at two community hospitals. Dr. Healy is currently the President-elect of the New York Medical Director's Association and is a member of the American Medical Director's Association's Education and Infection Control Committees.

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Rev. Dr. Wanda Henry-Jenkins, MHS, MASF, DMin

Reverend Wanda Henry-Jenkins is Bereavement Services Manager for Vitas Healthcare in Chicago and an HFA Hospice Hero. She has worked in healthcare for more than 50 years as a nurse, chaplain, and bereavement volunteer manager. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Rev. Dr. Henry Jenkins, who is also known affectionately as “Reverend Wanda,” has been a co-leader of Vitas’ national online support groups. For her groundbreaking work with families of sudden death and homicide, she was awarded the Miss Clairol Take Change Award, the National Association of Social Worker's Public Citizen Award, the National Council of Negro Women's Tribute to Black Women Community Leaders, and the University of Pennsylvania's Black Health Conference Nursing Award. Rev. Dr. Henry-Jenkins is the author of Just Us: Overcoming and Understanding Homicidal Loss and Grief, and Hard Work: A Guided Journal for Survivors of Murder Victims. She writes workbooks for individuals coping with death and loss. She is featured in several videos: At Death's Door, Beyond Death's Door, and Children Grieve Too. She was a panelist on the Hospice Foundation of America program, Diversity and End-of Life-Care and also appeared several other HFA programs, including Intimacy and Sexuality During Illness and Loss and Living with Grief Since Covid-19. This year, Rev. Dr. Henry-Jenkins successfully defended her dissertation to obtain a doctorate in ministry.

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William G. Hoy, DMin, FT

Dr. Bill Hoy has taught at Baylor University since the spring of 2012. He is widely regarded as an authority on the sociocultural history of funeral rites, the topic of his most recent book: Do Funerals Matter: The Purposes and Practices of Death Rituals in Global Perspective (Routledge, 2013). He brings nearly 20 years of clinical experience in palliative care to the Medical Humanities faculty, directed pastoral care and bereavement programs at two southern California hospices. From 1985 to 1995, Dr. Hoy served as a pastor in the Los Angeles area. Besides teaching at Baylor, he is a popular lecturer for groups of caregiving professionals around the United States and Canada, delivering about 40 keynote presentations and workshops every year. his books include Guiding People through Grief (Compass, 2007) and Road to Emmaus (2008). He has also authored more than 100 book chapters, educational pamphlets and journal articles over the last 25 years, including a chapter on African American celebrity funerals for a forthcoming book to be published by University of Quebec Press.

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Nick Jehlen

Nick is the founder of Common Practice and the lead designer of the games Hello and My Gift of Grace, which have been used by families and organizations around the world to support more and better conversations about living and dying well. Applying his background in human factors engineering and design, Nick has been creating innovative social interventions for over 20 years. Over the course of his career, he has collaborated with housing and voting rights advocates, healthcare staff, state employees, student groups, human service organizations, and returning veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to build tools that create social change and empower communities. His work is informed by his ongoing study of Gandhian nonviolent methods and social movements. Nick grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts and now lives in New York city with his wife, Amber. 

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Bruce Jennings, MA 

Bruce Jennings is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, and he is Senior Fellow at the Center for Humans and Nature, a nonprofit research center based in Chicago that studies environmental ethics and policy. He came to Vanderbilt in 2015 from the Yale University School of Public Health, where he taught ethics from 1996-2014. He is in active collaboration with The Hastings Center where he served as Executive Director in the 1990s and where he is now Senior Advisor and Fellow. He also works with an environmental policy institute called the Center for Humans and Nature where he is a Senior Fellow. In 2011 Mr. Jennings was named Editor-in-Chief of the standard reference work in the field of bioethics: Bioethics, 4th Edition, 6 vols. (Macmillan Reference USA, 2014). Mr. Jennings has been active in the health policy and end of life care arenas and has published widely on ethical issues in hospital treatment decision making, palliative care, and hospice. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and the Board of Trustees of the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York State. He served as ethics consultant for numerous hospitals and nursing homes, including the New York Presbyterian Hospital-Wyle Cornell Medical School. With Mildred Solomon, he was the co-founder of the “Decisions Near the End of Life” program, an educational and practice change program that was conducted in over 200 hospitals in 20 states from 1990-1996.

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John (Jack) R. Jordan, PhD

Dr. Jordan is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Pawtucket, Rhode Island where he has specialized in work with survivors of suicide and other traumatic losses for more than 35 years. He is the Clinical Consultant for Grief Support Services of the Samaritans in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Professional Advisor to the Loss and Healing Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). He is Co-Chair of the Survivors of Suicide Loss Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. This Task force has recently released postvention guidelines for the United States, titled Responding to Grief, Trauma, and Distress After Suicide: U.S. National Guidelines. For over 30 years, Jack has provided training nationally and internationally for professional caregivers and has helped to lead many healing workshops for suicide survivors. Jack has published over 50 clinical and research articles, chapters, and full books in the areas of bereavement after suicide, support group models, the integration of research and practice in thanatology, and loss in family and larger social systems. He is the co-author of four books: After Suicide Loss: Coping with Your Grief – 2nd Edition (2015 – self-published); Grief After Suicide: Understanding the Consequences and Caring for the Survivors (Routledge, 2011), Devastating Losses: How Parents Cope With the Death of a Child to Suicide or Drugs (Springer, 2012); and the newly published, Attachment Informed Grief Therapy: The Clinician’s Guide to Foundations and Applications (Routledge, 2016).

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Ashley Keagle, LMSW

Ashley is a licensed social worker and the Director of Life Transitions - Mercy Doula program for People Inc., one of the leading agencies in services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In this unique and innovative effort, Ms. Keagle has capitalized on the gap in service for end-of-life care, companionship in dying and the beauty of vulnerable space. 

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Corey L. Kennard, MACM

Corey L. Kennard, MACM, is Pastor of Amplify Christian Church, manager of Patient Experience at Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and also serves as an activist in the field of healthcare. His holistic approach (body, mind, and spirit) serves as the foundation for his desire to see all human beings treated with dignity, honor, and respect in all facets of life. Corey has been involved in the field of healthcare for over 20 years with over a decade of experience in the areas of Palliative Care and Hospice. He currently seeks to enhance the patient/family experience in healthcare settings. His work has also included leading a spiritual care team at one of Detroit's largest hospitals, and formerly serving as a Faculty Lead for Duke University's Institute on Care at the End Of Life (ICEOL) national training program called, "Appeal." He had also served as a National Advisory Board Member for the Hospice Foundation of America, and as a Co-Director of a Community Faith "Advance Care Planning" Project for the University of Virginia. Corey Earned a Masters Degree from Ashland Theological Seminary and carries out his passion for people as a daring and devoted agent of change.

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Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD

Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD, is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer for Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo. Alongside direct patient care, Dr. Kerr’s focus is in the areas of leadership and patient advocacy. He has overseen the integration and expansion of palliative care into hospitals and developed a large home-based program for both adults and children and has published on innovative program models that are designed to better align patient/family services to the complexity of needs inherent to advanced illness. Dr. Kerr’s background in research has evolved from bench science toward the human experience of illness as witnessed from the bedside, specifically patients’ dreams and visions at the end of life. Although medically ignored, these near-universal experiences often provide comfort and meaning, as well as insight into the life led and the death anticipated. To date, the research team at Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo has published multiple studies on this topic and documented over 1,500 end-of-life events, many of which are videotaped. Dr. Kerr’s work was published in a recent book called Death Is But a Dream.

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Timothy W. Kirk, PhD, HEC-C

Timothy Kirk is Department Chairperson and Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York, York College, specializing in healthcare ethics with an emphasis on hospice and palliative care. He also holds an appointment in the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. Dr. Kirk is a board-certified ethics consultant with MJHS Hospice & Palliative Care, one of the largest hospice and palliative care programs in New York State, and consults nationally with hospice and palliative care organizations. Together with Bruce Jennings, he is editor of Hospice Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2014).

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Rachel Kodanaz

Rachel is a heart-minded author, speaker, and consultant helping her audiences embrace life’s challenges at work and at home. Overcoming her own adversity following the sudden death of her husband coupled with her experience in the management of large corporations, she is fully aware of the seesaw created when personal and professional challenges collide. Rachel was instrumental in creating and supporting all programs at HeartLight Grief and Loss Center in Denver as a facilitator, board member, and executive director. She has served as a Board of Director on numerous not-for-profits including Soaring Spirits International (Camp Widow) and Denver Grief Network Alliance. Rachel has been speaking passionately to national audiences for 20 years, her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including Good Morning America, and her books Finding Peace, One Piece at a Time (summer 2019), Living with Loss, One Day at a Time, and Grief in the Workplace have received international acclaim.

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Phyllis Kosminsky, PhD, LCSW, FT

Dr. Kosminsky is a clinical social worker specializing in grief, loss and trauma. She has a private practice in Westchester County, New York, and has been on the clinical staff of The Center for Hope/Family Centers, in Darien, Connecticut, an agency devoted to helping people who are dealing with bereavement or life-threatening illness. In 2008 Dr. Kosminsky was named a Fellow in Thanatology by the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) in recognition of her contributions to teaching, research and clinical practice in the field of bereavement. She uses traditional psychotherapy as well as specialized trauma techniques and clinical hypnosis to address recent losses and those that may have occurred years in the past. Her experience extends to the treatment of adults who are caring for aging parents, spouses who have suffered the sudden loss of a partner, and others who are dealing with a wide range of difficult life transitions. She is co-author with John Jordan of the recent book, Attachment Informed Grief Therapy: The Clinician's Guide to Foundations and Applications (Routledge, 2016).

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Allison Kuchar, MBA, MSHCA, CHES

Allison is the Manager of Capital Caring Kid’s hospice and palliative care program, where she provides primary administrative, operational, and logistical support for all pediatric-directed programs, including those related to complex care coordination, access to care, business development, and provider/family education within the scope of concurrent hospice and palliative care for children. Allison is a graduate of the University of Maryland, University College (UMUC) where she completed master’s degrees, in Business Administration (MBA) and Healthcare Administration (MSHCA). She earned a bachelor’s degree in Behavioral and Community Health from the University of Maryland (UMD) and she is credentialed as a practicing Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and Certified End of Life Specialist (CEOLS) concentrating on community outreach, advocacy, and health education planning and promotion within the hospice, palliative care, end-of-life, and greater healthcare continuum fields.

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Dale G. Larson, PhD

Dale G. Larson (B.A, University of Chicago; Ph.D, U.C. Berkeley) is Professor of Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University. A clinician and researcher, he is a Fulbright Scholar, a Fellow in the American Psychological Association, and member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement. Dr. Larson was Senior Editor and a contributing author for Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America, the national newspaper series that reached 7 million Americans. He is the author of The Helper's Journey: Empathy, Compassion, and the Challenge of Caring (2020) and his publications on end-of-life issues, stress in professional caregivers, grief and grief counseling, and self-concealment are widely cited, both in the scientific literature and in the popular media. In 2016 he received the Death Educator Award from the Association of Death Education and Counseling, and in 2017 was International Educator for the Australian Center for Grief and Bereavement. 

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Sherman A. Lee, PhD

Sherman A. Lee is an associate professor of psychology at Christopher Newport University. Lee studies negative feeling states, such as anxiety and grief, and the role personality and religion play in those emotional experiences. He also teaches courses in the psychology of death, dying, and bereavement (Thanatology). The creator of the Trait Sympathy Scales, Islamophobia Scale, Persistent Complex Bereavement Inventory, and the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, he is currently researching the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological well-being of people around the world.

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Vickie Leff, MSW, LCSW, BCD, APHSW-C

Vickie Leff, is the Executive Director of the APHSW organization. She has over 35 years of clinical practice experience in healthcare including oncology, palliative care and hospice. Vickie served on the board of SWHPN for many years, developing and implementing their educational and mentorship programs. She also serves as a subject matter expert and presenter to several national educational organizations & institutions. Vickie has published articles in Health Affairs, JPSM and other journals related to moral distress and resilience, in addition to providing blog posts for PalliMed. She also works with Project ECHO related to hospice and palliative care resilience initiatives. She is an Adjunct Instructor at the UNC School of Social Work in Chapel Hill. Vickie received her MSW from Simmons School of Social Work in Boston in 1984 and a BA in Political Science from Ithaca College.

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Arion Lillard-Green, MTS, BCCC, BCPC

Arion Lillard-Green is a Spiritual Counselor with Goodwin House Palliative Care and Hospice in Falls Church, VA. In addition to her work as spiritual counselor,Arion is an advocate for making health education and health literacy accessible to all people through inclusion. She is also dedicated to making an impact on chronic illness within the African American community through outreach. Arion believes providers must build relationships earlier in the health continuum to truly meet the spiritual and medical needs of the dying. Most recently, Arion has served as a contributor to the development of provider resources and tools  aimed to assist hospice and palliative care organizations with diversifying patient populations.  She serves as a member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Diversity Advisory Council, a commissioner on the City of Alexandria’s Commission on HIV/AIDS, and consultant to organizations building programs to expand their reach to underserved communities. Prior to embarking on her hospice and palliative care career, Arion attended Indiana University (BAJ), Christian Theological Seminary (M.TS), clinical pastoral education and residency with the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (BCCC, BCPC). She looks forward to completing her Master of Health Administration from George Mason University this fall.

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Sonya Lott, PhD

Dr. Lott has been a licensed psychologist for more than three decades. She maintains a multi-state online private practice, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD). She is a frequent presenter on PGD at professional conferences, and often shares information about acute and prolonged grief and the impact of the pandemic on grieving on national podcasts (WYNC and WBUR) and in other media including The Washington Post and CNN.com. Dr. Lott is also the founder and CEO of 4 CEMPSYCH, LLC, a company that provides continuing education in multicultural psychology for mental health professionals. 

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Nora Luna, MEd

Ms. Luna is the Director of Diversity & Grant Funding for Nathan Adelson Hospice, the only non-profit hospice in Southern Nevada. She develops, implements, manages and evaluates hospice and palliative care community outreach programs for diverse cultural communities, and facilitates partnerships with Hispanic/Latino organizations and other diverse groups.  She leads the organization’s diversity and inclusion priorities and is responsible for grant writing and reporting as well. Ms. Luna is also responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating Deciding Tomorrow…Today, an advance care planning program.
 
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Pamela A. Malone, PhD, LCSW-S, Fellow in Thanatology

Pamela A. Malone, PhD, LCSW-S, Fellow in Thanatology maintains a private clinical practice in which she provides individual, couples, and family therapy. Her clinical experience spans over 30 years in a variety of settings. She is a clinical supervisor for master's level clinicians specifically for hospice social workers. Dr. Maloneis an Assistant Professor-in-Practice at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work where her favorite course to teach is Death and Dying. Research, presentations, and publications focus on loss and grief during adolescence. Her book, Counseling Adolescents through Loss, Grief, and Trauma is published by Routledge and available on Amazon.

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Jenna Z. Marcus, MD

Dr. Marcus co-created a Palliative Care Mobile Unit to help COVID-19 patients and their families. She and her colleagues traveled the emergency department, intensive care unis and medical floors initiating end-of-life conversations, establishing health care proxies and discussing advance directives. Dr. Marcus is a gynecologic oncologist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark. She serves as Assistant Professor in the Division of Gynecological Oncology at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and is Director of Robotic Surgery of the Institute's Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health. She serves on the board of several national committees within the field including, the Society of Gynecologic Oncology and American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology.
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Jackie McGinley, PhD, LMSW

Dr. McGinley is a licensed social worker and Assistant Professor with the Binghamton University Department of Social Work. Dr. McGinley’s research focuses on the intersection of disability, aging, serious illness, and end-of-life care. Through her work, Dr. McGinley seeks to improve care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families as the end of life nears and through bereavement. 

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Leah McDonald, MD

Dr. McDonald is a current Fellow in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Hope Health and Brown University School of Medicine in Rhode Island. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at NYU/Bellevue and is interested in improving primary palliative care and hopsice skills provided in critical care settings and the Emergency Department.

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Doneila McIntosh, MDiv, MA

Doneila is a third-year doctoral student at the University of Minnesota in Family Social Science with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. Doneila has a Master of Divinity in Theological Studies and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology. She is a psychotherapist at the African American Child Wellness Institute (AACWI) in Minneapolis. Prior to becoming a psychotherapist, she worked as a chaplain for nearly 10 years. A systemic interventionist, Doneila primarily works with couples and families. She specializing in compassionate grief therapy helping clients navigate the intersections of trauma, grief, and loss. She utilizes the African Centered Wellness Model^© to work with clients and is also trained in a variety of modalities including Mindfulness Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Self-Compassion (MSC). Doneila’s research aligns with her previous work as a chaplain where she explores the intersections of disenfranchised grief among African American families, particularly in the aftermath of violent death.

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Matt Metevelis, MDiv

Matt is the Spiritual Care Supervisor at Nathan Adelson Hospice. He has a degree from Hillsdale College where he graduated cum laude with major concentrations in history and philosophy. After teaching for a year in Ohio, Matt entered Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota to begin training for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. During his preparation for ordination, Matt completed Clinical Pastoral Education in the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio where he completed his clinical hours on a cardiac “step down” floor and served on call. He also served as an intern pastor for a congregation in Tacoma, Washington. After graduation from seminary with a Master’s in Divinity, Matt moved to Las Vegas where he began working as a chaplain at Nathan Adelson Hospice in 2009. In 2010, Matt was ordained and installed as an Associate Pastor for Community Care at Reformation Lutheran Church in Las Vegas. Matt works now as the Spiritual Care Supervisor at Nathan Adelson, overseeing the care of patients and their families for spiritual and bereavement needs. He also is an occasional contributor to crossings.org, an online theological journal.

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The Reverend Paul A. Metzler, DMin

Rev. Metzler has served more than 40 years as a clergy member, therapist, and grief counselor. He was the Director of Community and Program Services for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York Hospice and Palliative Care and the Director of The Center for Living with Loss, a bereavement education and counseling center of the Hospice & Palliative Care Associates of Central New York. During his years of active service, Rev. Metzler was a Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist. He is a regular contributor to Hospice Foundation of America's Journeys: A Newsletter to Help in Bereavement. 
 
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Jim Monahan, MEd, ACHE

Jim is Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Community Hospice & Palliative Care, Jacksonville, Florida. He provides leadership for the marketing, communications, referral call center, admissions and health care relations functions at the Jacksonville, Florida-based nonprofit, which serves nearly 1,300 patients each day in northeast and north-central Florida. Monahan has more than 25 years of hospice experience, including patient care, bereavement support, census development and executive leadership. He has led the referral and admission activities for hospice providers in Florida, Texas and Indiana. For the past six years, the business development and admission teams he has led have admitted up to 35 patients a day and more than 7,150 patents per year. A worldwide authority on hospice and grief, Monahan has been named a “Consultant” by the Chinese Association for Life Care in Beijing and was named Director of the Year by the Texas & New Mexico Hospice Organization. He has lectured about grief and hospice care in England, Australia, New Zealand, China and Portugal. He has also authored numerous publications, including a co-authoring a chapter with J. Worden, PhD on parental grief in the book Hospice Care for Children published by Oxford University Press.

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Lori P. Montross-Thomas, PhD

Dr. Montross-Thomas is an Assistant Adjunct Professor in Family Medicine and Public Health, Division of Behavioral Medicine, at the University of California San Diego. She is a licensed clinical psychologist trained in hospice and palliative care, with specific expertise in Dignity Therapy. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Montross-Thomas has been engaged in clinical practice and research focused on dignity, hospice care, multiculturalism, positive psychology, psychosocial oncology, and resilience. She has received funding from the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Clinical and Translational Research Institute (CTRI), the International Alzheimer's Association, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), the MAPI Research Trust, and the Westreich Foundation. She has authored more than 40 journal articles and book chapters and has more than a decade of experience as an educator, with both teaching and managerial experience in academic, counseling, and hospice settings.

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Bret A. Moore, PysD, ABPP

Dr. Moore is a board-certified clinical psychologist and prescribing psychologist in San Antonio, Texas and a member of the Boulder Crest Retreat Wellness Committee in Bluemont, Virginia.  He is a former active duty Army psychologist and completed two tours (27 months) in Iraq as a Clinical Psychologist and held the positions of Chief of Clinical Operations and Officer in Charge of Preventative services while deployed.  He is the author and editor of 14 books, including Treating PTSD in Military Personnel: A Clinical Handbook, Wheels Down: Adjusting to Life after Deployment, and Taking Control of Anxiety: Small Steps for Overcoming Worry, Stress, and Fear.  He writes the column Kevlar for the Mind, which is published in Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Times.  He has also written feature articles for Scientific American Mind and The New Republic. Dr. Moore is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and recipient of the Arthur W. Melton Award for Early Career Achievement in Military Psychology from Division 19 and the Early Career Achievement Award in Public Service Psychology from Division 18 of APA. His views on clinical and military psychology have been quoted in USA Today, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe, and on CNN and Fox News. He has appeared on NPR, the BBC, and CBC.
 
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Patricia Murphy, PhD, APN, FAAN, FPCN

Dr. Murphy is recently retired as the Clinical Ethicist at University Hospital, Newark, NJ. She is an associate professor in the Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School Department of Surgery. Dr. Murphy was a member of the New Jersey Bioethics Commission, the multidisciplinary body that developed the Advance Directive and Brain Death legislation in New Jersey and the NJHA Workgroup on POLST. Dr. Murphy did a fellowship in Health Care Ethics at Georgetown University and has more than 50 publications in the area of ethics and end-of-life care and has been selected as a Project on Death in America Faculty Scholar. For more than 35 years she has worked with patients who are dying and families who are acutely grieving. All of her clinical work has been in the acute care setting and she has been a principle investigator on 2 national grants to integrate palliative care into critical care.

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Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD

Dr. Neimeyer is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, and maintains an active consulting and coaching practice. He also directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, which provides training internationally in grief therapy. Since completing his doctoral training at the University of Nebraska in 1982, he has conducted extensive research on the topics of death, grief, loss, and suicide intervention. Neimeyer has published 30 books, including Techniques of Grief Therapy: Assessment and Intervention and Grief and the Expressive Arts: Practices for Creating Meaning, the latter with Barbara Thompson. The author of over 500 articles and book chapters, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process, both in his published work and through his frequent professional workshops for national and international audiences. Neimeyer is the Editor of the respected international journal, Death Studies, and served as President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling. In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he has been granted the Distinguished Research Award, the Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Eminent Faculty Award by the University of Memphis, elected Chair of the Interantional Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement, and given the Research Recognition, Clinical Practice and Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Most recently, he has received the Phoenix Award: Rising to the Service of Humanity from the MISS Foundation, been given ADEC's Lifetime Achievement Award, and been recognized as an Honored Associate of the Viktor Frankl Association for his lifetime contributions to the study of meaning.

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Angela Novas, MSN, RN, CRNP

Angela is Senior Medical Officer at Hospice Foundation of America. She graduated from The George Washington University, Washington DC, with an MSN in Nursing/Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (ANCC). Angela completed her postgraduate studies in palliative and hospice care, including Practical Aspects of Palliative Care (PAPC), from Harvard Medical School, received her Palliative Care Certificate from University of Colorado, and completed her Board Certification as an Advanced Certified Hospice & Palliative Care Nurse (ACHPN). 

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Mary-Frances O'Connor, PhD

Dr. O’Connor is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona Department of Psychology, where she directs the Grief, Loss and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab. She earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona in 2004 and following a faculty appointment at UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, she returned to the University of Arizona in 2012. She served for three years as Director of Clinical Training in the Psychology Department. Her research program focuses on the wide-ranging emotional responses to bereavement. In particular, she investigates the neurobiological and psychophysiological aspects that vary between individual grief responses via functional neuroimaging, immune, and endocrine analysis. Dr. O’Connor also researches difficulties adapting following the death of a loved one, termed prolonged grief (newly included in the revised DSM-5). She believes that a clinical science approach toward the experience and physiology of grief can improve psychological treatment. Dr. O’Connor’s recent book, The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss (2022; HarperOne) has garnered praise from peers and literary critics alike and has led to speaking engagements around the world. Dr. O’Connor is a highly sought-after speaker, giving numerous talks and workshops to community organizations around the world, including in-service trainings to healthcare professionals and volunteers at hospices. She has authored research papers published in a wide range of peer-reviewed journals, from American Journal of Psychiatry to NeuroImage to Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Dr. O’Connor’s work has been discussed in the New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, and Scientific American. 

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Sheila Otten, LCSW

Sheila is in private practice in Louisville, KY living out her passion providing education and support to children and families and is also an instructor at the University of Louisville. She worked in community mental health supporting children and families in crisis and went on to serve as the primary Social Worker with the Kourageous Kids program at Hosparus Health for five years. After returning to university as a non-traditional student, Sheila obtained her BSW in 2012 and her MSSW with a concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2013 from the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. Sheila continues to be a strong advocate for empowering families during a time of suffering to build resiliency.

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Lisa Pahl, LCSW

Lisa Pahl is co-creator of The Death Deck and The E•O•L Deck, tools that inspire meaningful conversations on what matters most in our lives and in our deaths. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over seventeen years of experience within hospice and emergency medicine, Lisa helps people cope with illness, dying, and grief. With a passionate belief that peace at the end begins with meaningful conversations over time, Lisa engages people in talking about and preparing for this important stage of life.

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Rev. Cynthia Carter Perrilliat, MPA

Rev. Cynthia Carter Perrilliat is Executive Director and Co-Creator of the Alameda County Care Alliance Collaborative (ACCAC), a faith-based program in partnership with local clinical, academic, and community organizations engaging 25 faith-based organizations and their pastors in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties of Northern California. The ACCA Advanced Illness Care Program™ assists persons needing advanced illness care and their families/caregivers to manage physical, psychological, spiritual, and advanced care planning needs. Rev. Perrilliat has over 25 years of experience as a change agent in healthcare, marketing and communications, biotechnologies and community organizations. Over the last 15 years, she has focused on end of life care program development and educational training iin the African American, Latinx and Asian communities. As part of VITAS Healthcare, Rev. Cynthia established a targeted compassionate care approach to communities of color, which was adopted and replicated across the 17-state footprint of VITAS. She also served as faculty member of the Duke University APPEAL program, a Palliative Care Educational Curricu.um for African Americans at the end of life.

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Michelle A. Post, MA, LMFT, CTBS

Michelle is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Continued Education Provider, and Clinical Supervisor in private practice in Los Angeles, California. She consults internationally and trains in areas of grief, death notification with children and teens, stress and burn-out prevention, group facilitation, ASIST (suicide prevention), executive leadership and team-building. As Manager of Donor Family Aftercare for OneLegacy (the So Cal Donate Life Organization), she expanded the bereavement services offered to donor families to include free monthly workshops, short-term counseling and an online Facebook support group (and she teaches others how to utilize social media to reach bereaved clients). She provides staff and community training and bereavement services and is the former chair AOPO Donor Family Services Council and former board member and secretary for National Alliance for Grieving Children. She has been a faculty member for Global Leadership Symposium and American Academy of Bereavement. She is a member of Dr. J. William Worden’s SoCal Bereavement Specialist group. Ms. Post has presented multiple topics at 100s of locations across the U.S. She has authored more than 40 guest pieces in newsletters, blogs, and educational membership journals with a focus on caregivers, psychotherapy, parenting, children’s grief, poetry and grief, dreams and grief, death notification, donor family grief and loss, holiday grief, and self-growth in a demanding work environment. Her research interests vary from suicide survivors, trauma survivors, organ and tissue donor families, multicultural families, children’s grief and organizational behavior.

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Kenneth M. Ralph, PhD

Dr. Ralph received his doctoral degree in counseling psychology from Southern Illinois University in 1976. He has worked for Lancaster County organizing prevention services, maintained a private counseling practice, and created J&K Seminars which provides continuing education to human service professionals. He has served as the Clinical Director and primary trainer for the Lancaster County Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team since he helped organize it in 1988.

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Therese A. Rando, PhD, BCETS, BCBT

Dr. Rando is a clinical psychologist in Warwick, Rhode Island. She is the Clinical Director of The Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss, which provides mental health services through psychotherapy, training, supervision, and consultation, and specializes in: loss and grief; traumatic stress; and the psychosocial care of persons with chronic, life-threatening, or terminal illness, and their loved ones. Since 1970, she has consulted, conducted research, provided therapy, written, and lectured internationally in areas related to loss, grief, illness, dying, and trauma. She also has provided expert witness testimony in legal proceedings involving illness or bereavement. Current professional foci include treatment of complicated mourning, loss of a child, the interface between posttraumatic stress and grief, anticipatory mourning, specialized intervention techniques in the treatment of traumatic bereavement, and the integration of EMDR into intervention with grief and mourning. Dr. Rando holds a doctoral degree in Psychology from the University of Rhode Island and has received advanced training in psychotherapy and in medical consultation-liaison psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University Medical School and University Hospitals of Cleveland. A former consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Hospice Education Program for Nurses, she developed its program for training hospice nurses to cope with loss, grief, and terminal illness. Her current research interests focus on the operations and courses of anticipatory and postdeath mourning; development of a short-term treatment protocol for survivors of traumatic loss; construction of a self-help program for coping with the sudden death of a loved one; and integrating EMDR with group intervention for traumatic loss survivors. 

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JoAnne Reifsnyder, PhD, MSN, MBA, FAAN

Dr. Reifsnyder is Executive Vice President, Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Officer for Genesis HealthCare. In this role, she is responsible for leader development, nursing strategy and clinical quality, safety and efficiency. She serves on the Board of the Hospice Foundation of America and is the past President of the Board of Directors for the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. She is a member of the American Nurses Association, American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA), the National Gerontological Nurses Association (NGNA) and Sigma Theta Tau International, the Honor Society of Nursing. Dr. Reifsnyder was inducted as Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2015. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychosocial oncology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and holds a PhD in nursing from the University of Maryland, an MBA from George Washington University, a Master’s Degree in nursing from Thomas Jefferson University, and a BSN from Holy Family College.

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Leslie R. Robinson

Leslie is a therapist in private practice, who spent 30+ years working in many diverse capacities within underserved and marginalized communities, and she proudly served as a Department of Defense Reintegration Speaker nationwide during the drawdown from Afghanistan. In 2009, Leslie founded Trance4mation Games, the overall Company for her Keep It Real Inclusion game, Warrior Spirit Veteran Reintegration Games, RECHARGE Beyond the Bars Re-entry games, and STREETS, a board game which addresses the gang and street lifestyles, all utilized by over 100,000 people nationwide. Just launched is REMEMBRANCE – a resource to help people to process and to heal grief and loss of a loved one with friends, family and loved ones. All of these Restorative Communication games provide safe, structured spaces to have engaging and profound conversations, generating understanding, empathy, healing and LOVE! Leslie has developed and facilitated workshops on leadership development, diversity and inclusion, mental health, professional development, veteran reintegration and service learning on college campuses nationwide. She has appeared on PIX 11 News, Good Day New York, Al-Jazeera America, The Security Brief series on Reelz TV, WBAI’s On The Count, and numerous national radio broadcasts and podcasts.

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Denise Rollins, PhD, MA

Dr. Rollins is a master life coach, speaker and executive director of the Whole Heart Grief & Life Resource Center in Frederick, Maryland, where her team offiers one-on-one coaching and group support services. She holds a doctorate in marriage and family therapy from Eastern University and a masters in thanatology from Hood College. Dr. Rollins has conducted workshops for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and presented at the Association for Death Education and Counseling national conference. In addition, at the Gary L. Rollins Funeral Home in Maryland, she partners with her husband, Gary, in managing the business and providing aftercare services. She has more than 20 years of experience in corporate America, where her roles included training, human resources and diversity. Dr. Rollins' personal experience with loss changed her career path. She is author of 2Grieve 2Gether: A Journal from the Heart Helping Survivors & Supporters Navigate the Healing Process, an autobiographical account of her own grief journey.

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Billy Ro​sa, PhD, MBE, ACHPN, FAANP, FAAN

BIlly Rosa is Chief Research Fellow, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center, New York. He received his BSN magna cum laude from NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (2009); was valedictorian of his MSN class, Hunter College (2014); and completed his PhD and Master of Bioethics as an RWJF Future of Nursing Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania (2020). Dr. Rosa spent one year with the Human Resources for Health Program in Rwanda, East Africa (2015-2016), contributing to the curriculum content for the first Masters-prepared nursing cohort in the country and completed MSK’s interprofessional hospice and palliative medicine clinical fellowship (2017). He is the editor of four books and has contributed more than 150 academic publications. Dr. Rosa has been recognized with numerous distinctions, including the international Spirit of Renewal Award from Sigma (2017); national Public Health Service Award for Distinguished Practice in Nursing from the American Nurses Association (2020); and the national Advanced Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse of the Year Award from the Hospice & Palliative Credentialing Center (2021). He was most recently named to the Crain’s New York Business Notable in Health Care 2021 list. He serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, and American Journal of Nursing, and as a board/committee member for multiple global health and palliative care organizations. Dr. Rosa is an International Council of Nurses Global Nursing Leadership Institute Scholar, an American Psychosocial Oncology Society Health Equity Scholar, and the International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care U.S.A. Advocacy Focal Point. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the American Association of Nurse 4 Practitioners, the American College of Critical Care Medicine, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

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Kelly Rossetto, PhD, MA

Dr. Rossetto holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, an MA from the University of Montana, and a BA from the University of California, Davis. Since earning her degrees, Dr. Rossetto has enjoyed teaching courses in interpersonal and family communication, stress and coping in relationships, and research methods. Her research centers on how families navigate stressful events, online and face-to-face, through meaning making, coping and support. Specifically, she evaluates the enactment, functions and paradoxes of coping and support, along with how these social processes influence reactions to stressful events including military deployment and bereavement. Overall, Dr. Rossetto connects supportive, family and mediated communication literatures and advances theory and practice surrounding communicative resilience processes. She utilizes a variety of methods, but her particular expertise and interest lies in qualitative research and the potential benefits it may have for participants. You can find Dr. Rossetto’s work published in various journals, including Communication Monographs, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Personal Relationships, Journal of Family Communication, and Western Journal of Communication. She has also been cited in Newsweek, Psychology Today, and other local news outlets.

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Kim Ruocco, MSW

Kim is the Vice President of TAPS Suicide Prevention and Postvention. In this role, Ms. Ruocco has developed comprehensive, peer-based programs that offer comfort and care to all those who are grieving the loss of a service member to suicide. In addition to her postvention work, Ms. Ruocco contributes to suicide prevention efforts in civilian as well as military organizations. She is an international speaker who uses her education, personal experience and information gathered from thousands of service members and bereaved military families to help others more fully understand suicide. Kim holds a BA in Human Services and Psychology from the University of Massachusetts and a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from Boston University. She is also the surviving widow of Marine Corp Major John Ruocco, who died by suicide in 2005.

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Ana A. Sanchez, MD, HMDC

Dr. Sanchez is Chief Medical Director for Community Hospice & Palliative Care, Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Sanchez oversees medical services for nearly 1,300 hospice patients from a team of physicians and advanced registered nurse practitioners. She also establishes and monitors qualitative and quantitative practice standards to ensure the highest level of patient care and educates community providers about the benefits of hospice care. She joined the organization in 2011 as a hospice medical director and was subsequently promoted to her current role, in which she balances her administrative responsibilities with a continued commitment to hands-on patient care. Dr. Sanchez is double-boarded in family medicine and hospice and palliative medicine with more than 15 years of patient care experience. She started her solo family medicine practice in Jacksonville, renting out one room in the office of her father’s psychiatry practice. She wanted to stay true to a traditional family practice, including home visits and caring for the entire family. The only marketing for her practice was patient satisfaction and referrals. The success of the practice caught the attention of a major hospital system, which offered to acquire and assist with administrative tasks so that she could focus on her love of patient care. As her patients continued with her, she started identifying patients in need of hospice care. The more she experienced the value hospice care provides, the more she was attracted to it until she decided to shift her care, and career, to hospice and palliative medicine. Dr. Sanchez earned her medical degree in the Dominican Republic and completed a family medicine residency through the University of Florida in Jacksonville.

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Henk Schut, PhD

Dr. Schut is the coordinator of the international Master Clinical Psychology (CP) of the Department Clinical Psychology. He is coordinator of the master's course Loss & Psychotrauma and he coordinates the master's thesis in the Master CP. At postgraduate level Henk provides education in the field of research ethics, bereavement and coping. Within the postgraduate curriculum in Clinical Psychologist (Central RINO Groep Utrecht ) he serves as professor of Scientific Research and Innovation. Henk was involved as co-promoter with various PhD projects in the field of bereavement (Dr. I. Dijkstra , Dr. T. van Vliet , Dr. Wijngaards-De Meij, Dr. M. Eisma and Drs. C. Newsom ) and eating disorders (Dr. B. Boon and Dr. W. Mensink ). With Margaret Stroebe he developed the Dual process model of coping with bereavement. The books he has edited include: Handbook of Bereavement Research, Consequences, Coping and Care (2001); Handbook of Bereavement Research and Care; Advances in Theory and Intervention (2008); and Complicated Grief: Scientific Foundations for Healthcare Professionals (2013).

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Heather L. Servaty-Seib, PhD, HSPP

Dr. Servaty-Seib is a Dean’s Fellow for Analytical Assessment in Purdue’s Honors College. She is also Professor of Counseling Psychology in the Educational Studies Department of the College of Education where her primary scholarly areas include adolescent/college student bereavement, loss/gain impact of life events, and support and communication in the grieving process. Professor Servaty-Seib received her BA (honors) from Concordia College in 1992 and her Master’s and PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of North Texas in 1995 and 1997. She teaches Honors courses connected to her research—most recently courses entitled Death and Dying and Loss. Dr. Servaty-Seib is a past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and received the ADEC 2013 Death Educator Award. Much of her recent scholarship has been focused in area of college student bereavement including a co-edited volume (published by Jossey-Bass) entitled Assisting Bereaved College 4 Students, an edited volume of narratives by grieving college students (published by Jessica Kingsley), and empirical articles published in journals such as The Counseling Psychologist and Death Studies. She is on the editorial boards of four academic journals including three of the top research journals of the field of thanatology.

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Frank Sesno 

Frank is director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University, a former anchor for CNN, and a longtime moderator of HFA's Living with Grief® programs. He is an Emmy-award winning journalist and creator of PlanetForward.org, a user-driven web and television project that highlights innovations in sustainability, and he is the author of Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions and Spark Change.

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M. Katherine Shear, MD

Dr. Shear is the Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry and the founding Director of the Center for Prolonged Grief at Columbia University School of Social Work. Dr. Shear is a clinical researcher who first worked in anxiety and depression. For the past 25 years, she has focused on understanding and treating people who experience persistent, intense grief, which is now an official diagnosis called Prolonged Grief Disorder in the ICD-11 and DSM-5. She developed and tested Complicated Grief Therapy/Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy; a short-term, strength-based intervention that helps foster adaptation to loss, and confirmed its efficacy in three large NIMH-funded studies. Dr. Shear is widely recognized for her work in bereavement, including both research and clinical awards from the Association for Death Education and Counseling and invited authorship of articles for Uptodate and the New England Journal of Medicine. Her work includes more than 330 peer-reviewed publications. She’s developed several widely used assessment instruments and a PGDT instruction manual.

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Darcia L. Simpson, BS, MDiv, PhD, CT

Dr. Simpson is an integral member of the transdisciplinary care team at Hospice of the Western Reserve. As a full-time Spiritual Care Coordinator/Chaplain, she collaborates with physicians, registered nurses, social workers, and other healthcare professionals to assess patient and family spiritual needs, identify spiritual problems, develop goals of care, and implement appropriate interventions. Additionally, she is an Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) where she is part of the Reflective Practice in Medicine program. In addition to her 23 years of experience in chaplaincy, spirituality, and hospice care, Dr. Simpson is an active advocate for equal access to health care, geriatric and dementia education, hospice, and end-of-life issues in Northeast Ohio. Dr. Simpson is the 2023 recipient of the NEOMED College of Medicine Faculty award for Medical Ethics and Humanities, and the 2022 recipient of the H. Peter Burg Faculty Award for Excellence in Palliative Care.

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Brad Speaks

Brad is the President and CEO of Speaks Family Legacy Chapels. He runs three funeral homes, a cemetery, a crematory, and a pre-need operation in the Kansas City area.  Brad is a past president of the Selected Independent Funeral Homes association, the largest group of family-operated funeral homes in the world. He is a Rotarian and a former pastor, and he currently serves on the Funeral Service Foundation Board of Trustees. Brad is a graduate of Graceland University with a double major in History and Political Science.

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Michelle “Mish” Sproat, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, NP-C, JD

Dr. Sproat is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse experienced in a broad range of practice areas including home health, critical care, ER, acute inpatient rehabilitation, long-term care, and for the last seven years, hospice and palliative care. She is double board certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner and most recently completed her Doctorate in Nursing Practice at Georgetown University. While completing this degree, her thesis focused on complementary and alternative medicine within hospice looking specifically at exploring the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of employees and volunteers regarding CAM use. In addition to her nursing background, Dr. Sproat is a licensed attorney with an emphasis on health law and is a Six Sigma Green Belt.

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Heather Stang MA, C-IAYT

 

Kathleen Taylor, MA, LMHC

Kathleen is a Florida Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Qualified Clinical Supervisor. For over a decade, she served as the director of community engagement at the country’s largest nonprofit hospice organization. Among her accomplishments, she led the organization's advance care planning education programs and developed their first training program on empathy and compassion in patient care. In years prior, Kathleen managed an award-winning national Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant program establishing grassroots coalitions to improve end-of-life care and worked for over 7 years as a hospice counselor serving patients and families coping with life-limiting illness, caregiving and grief.

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Richard Tedeschi, PhD

Dr. Tedeschi is a Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a member of the core faculty for the Health Psychology PhD program at UNC. Dr. Tedeschi serves as a consultant to the American Psychological Association (APA) on trauma and resilience. He is a fellow for the Division of Trauma Psychology at APA and has he has written several books on posttraumatic growth, an area of research he developed. Dr. Tedeschi is past president of the North Carolina Psychological Association. His specific research interests include posttraumatic growth in survivors of various traumas, including combat, serious illness, bereavement, and natural disaster; grief and loss; and clinical interventions to facilitate posttraumatic growth in trauma survivors.

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Kathleen T. Unroe, MD, MHA

Dr. Unro is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Indiana University in Indianapolis and a Research Scientist with IU Center for Aging Research and Regenstrief Institute. She is a nursing home physician–her research, clinical and policy interests are focused on improving quality of care, particularly access to palliative and end-of-life care, for long stay nursing home residents. Dr. Unroe is the co-project director of OPTIMISTIC, an 8-year $30.3 million CMS funded demonstration project aimed at improving quality of care and reducing avoidable hospitalizations in 44 Indiana nursing homes and is the Principal Investigator of a Hartford Foundation planning grant focused on OPTIMISTIC dissemination.

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LJ Van Scoy, MD

Dr. Van Scoy is a pulmonary and critical care physican at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Humanities and Public Health Sciences. As a physicain scientist, she directs a research program that centers around end-of-life issues and includes advance care planning, communication and end-of-life decision-making. She is also the co-director of the Qualitative and Mixed Methods Core at Penn State. She is the director of Project Talk, a research program that studies the impact of innovative conversational tools, including an end-of-life conversation game ("Hello") and a novel graphic ICU communication tool ("Let's Talk"). She recently partnered with the Hospice Foundation of America to lead a national community-engagement project to evaluate and disseminate the "Hello" game across 27 states and more than 1,200 people living in underserved communities. Dr. Van Scoy serves as a methodology consultant for a wide variety of mixed-method projects and topics. She has served as a qualitative and mixed-methods consultant on a variety of projects, including large, randomized controlled trials, pharmacological drug trials and education projects.

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William Villanova

William Villanova is the President of Frank E. Campbell - The Funeral Chapel in NYC, the President-Elect of the New York State Funeral Directors Association and a recipient of the NFDA 2019 Pursuit of the Excellence and Best of the Best Awards. William is a licensed Funeral Director in NY and CT and a Member of Hudson Valley Community College Mortuary Science Advisory Board. A Leader in his profession, he has dedicated the better part of 30 years to implementing and promoting the highest standards in funeral service.

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Brian de Vries, PhD

Dr. de Vries is Professor Emeritus of Gerontology at San Fran­cisco State University with adjunct appointments at Simon Fraser University (in Vancouver, BC) as well as the University of Alberta (in Edmonton, AB). He received his doctorate in life-span developmental psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1988, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Southern California. He is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and former board member of the American Society on Aging and former co-Chair of the LGBT Aging Issues Network. Dr. de Vries served on the Institute of Medicine’s Board on the Health of Select Populations Committee producing The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding (2011).  Dr. de Vries is former editor of Sexuality Research and Social Policy (2007-2011) and a former associate editor of The International Journal of Aging and Human Development (2000-2006) and LGBT Health (2013-2015). He has guest edited an additional six journals. In addition, he has edited (or co-edited) five books, including Kinship Bereavement in Later Life (1997), End of Life Issues (1999), Narrative Gerontology (2001), Gay and Lesbian Aging (2004) and Community-Based Research in LGBT Aging (2015); he has authored or co-authored over 100 journal articles, book chapters and professional publications; he has given over 150 presentations to professional audiences on the social and psychological well-being of midlife and older LGBT persons, bereavement, and life stories.  His research has been funded by several grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Ford Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Frailty Network, among other foundations and granting agencies.
 

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Beverly Wallace, MDiv, PhD

 

Dr. Wallace is currently the associate professor of Congregational and Community Care at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Dr. Wallace has authored several articles and book chapters including Narratives of Grieving African Americans About Racism in the Lives of Deceased Family Members; A Womanist Legacy of Trauma, Grief, and Loss: Reframing the Notion of the Strong Black Woman Icon; Hush No More: Constructing an African American Lutheran Womanist Ethic; and is the co-author (with Paul Rosenblatt) of African American Grief. Her current research agenda includes understanding community trauma and end-of-life decisions among older African Americans. She is also in the process in writing her second book, African American Grief – Revisited.

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Karla T. Washington, PhD, LCSW

 

Dr. Washington is an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri in the Department of Family and Community Medicine where she researches behavioral interventions to support patients and families receiving hospice and palliative care. Dr. Washington has served as the Principal Investigator of research projects supported by entities including the National Cancer Institute and the John A. Hartford Foundation in addition to working as a Co-Investigator on studies funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the National Institute on Aging. Her research has been published in numerous palliative care journals including Journal of Pain & Symptom Management, Journal of Palliative Medicine, and Psycho-Oncology. She is a founding member of the Hospice Caregiving Research Network.

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Hank Willner, MD

Dr. Willner is Medical Consultant to Hospice Foundation of America and is certified both in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and in Family Practice. Dr. Willner is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Practice at Georgetown University Medical School and has served as a member of the Maryland State Advisory Council on Quality Care at the End of Life. He attended Yale University College and Medical School and completed his residency in Family Practice at the University of Virginia where he was the Chief Resident. From 1978-80, he served in the National Health Service Corps as a family practitioner in a large, rural, health clinic in Buckingham County, Virginia. In 1980, he founded a private, family practice in Northern Virginia where he worked until 2001, when he decided to change focus to Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Willner’s special interests include the doctor-patient relationship, informed consent, and bioethics.

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J. William Worden, PhD, ABPP

Dr. Worden is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and holds academic appointments at the Harvard Medical School and at the Rosemead Graduate School of Psychology in California. He is also Co-Principal Investigator of the Harvard Child Bereavement Study, based at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Recipient of five major National Institutes of Health grants, his research and clinical work over 40 years has centered on issues of life-threatening illness and life-threatening behavior.Dr. Worden has lectured and written on topics related to terminal illness, cancer care, and bereavement. He is the author of Personal Death Awareness; Children & Grief: When a Parent Dies, and is coauthor of Helping Cancer Patients Cope.  His book Grief Counseling & Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner, now in its fifth edition, has been translated into 14 foreign languages and is widely used around the world as the standard reference on the subject. Dr. Worden’s clinical practice is in Laguna Niguel, California.
 
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Justin M. Yopp, PhD

Dr. Yopp is a psychologist and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Dr. Yopp directs the pediatric psycho-oncology consultation service within UNC’s Comprehensive Cancer Support Program. He also co-leads the Widowed Parent Program at UNC and is co-author of The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life. Prior to coming to UNC, Dr. Yopp worked at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH

Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH, specializes in Critical Care and Palliative Care medicine, and practices at the public hospital in Oakland, California. She is the author of Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life. Her essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Huffington Post, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and other publications. Her work is featured in the Oscar and Emmy-nominated short documentary, Extremis, and her forthcoming film, Caregiver: A Love Story. She is a nationally recognized speaker on the topic of dying in America.

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