Maria Silveira is a federally funded researcher, palliative care specialist, and ethicist at the University of Michigan and the LTC Kettles Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Medical Center. She currently serves as the director of the University of Michigan’s Palliative Care Research Program. She teaches ethics, communication, and symptom management to students and trainees, and mentors fellows, junior faculty, and doctoral candidates in research. She has an active inpatient and outpatient palliative care practice at the University and the VA. Importantly, she has been a support and caregiver to three immediate members of her family who have battled cancer; this experience, above all else, has helped shape her perspective about what palliative care and hospice can and can’t do.
