Experts & Educators
We are a hub for the country’s most distinguished hospice and grief experts, researchers, and professionals. HFA experts help to inform and educate on a wide range of timely and relevant topics essential to best practice.
Our HFA educators are well known and widely recognized as experts in their fields.
They’re researchers with decades of knowledge backed by evidenced-based studies.
They’re professionals who have honed their skills with years of patient and family care.
HFA has been privileged to include many notable experts in its professional education offerings over the past 30 years, including the late Earl. A Grollman; Nancy Hogan, RN, PhD; Karla Holloway, PhD; the late William M. Lamers, MD; the late Richard E. Payne, MD.
Below is a complete listing of our presenters and authors from 2020 onward. We are grateful for their willingness to share their expertise to advance hospice and bereavement care through HFA.
Whether it’s a popular HBO Max drama or an interview in People magazine with a famous actress, stories of end-of-life doulas are suddenly everywhere. But how exactly does this new and evolving service complement the work of hospice teams? Join a discussion with hospice professionals and end-of-life doulas to learn how doulas work in tandem with hospice IDT members to another layer of support to patients and families at the end of life.
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Continuing education included with registration.
Jenny Rivera-Cruz is a licensed clinical social worker with nearly a decade of experience providing psychotherapy to individuals, families, couples, and teens. She earned her Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Southern California with an emphasis in Children and Families. Her professional journey reflects a deep passion for empowering individuals to uncover…
Leslie Robinson is a therapist in private practice who spent 30+ years working in many diverse capacities within underserved and marginalized communities. 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…
Madeline Rogers is a licensed clinical social worker and research therapist with multivarious experiences in clinical research, direct clinical practice, training, and case management. She collaborates with multiple institutions including Weill Cornell Medicine, University of Miami, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She has a masters-level specialized educational, practice, and research focus on bereavement, grief,…
Denise Rollins is a master life coach, speaker and executive director of the Whole Heart Grief & Life Resource Center in Frederick, Maryland, where her team offers one-on-one coaching, group support services, and coaching certifications. She holds a doctorate in marriage and family therapy from Eastern University and a masters in thanatology from Hood College….
Roberta Rook is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor with over 30 years’ experience in the field of counseling. For 23 years, she has been working as a Bereavement Counselor and Program Coordinator for the bereavement counseling department of Hospice of the Chesapeake, known as the Chesapeake Life Center. Roberta received a post-graduate Certificate in Thanatology…
William Rosa is chief research fellow, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center. He 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…
Paul Rosenblatt is emeritus professor of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. He has published 14 books, including African American Grief (with Beverly R. Wallace); The Impact of Racism on African-American Families; Shared Obliviousness in Family Systems; Parent Grief: Narratives of Loss and Relationship; Help Your Marriage Survive the Death of a Child;…
Deanna is the Clinical Educator – Social Worker for Agrace Hospice Care, a not-for-profit hospice based in Fitchburg, WI that serves South Central Wisconsin. She holds a doctorate in social work, is licensed as an Advanced Practice Social Worker, and is certified in Advanced Palliative and Hospice Social Work, with additional certification in advanced dementia…
E.K. (Ted) Rynearson is a clinical psychiatrist and researcher who founded the section of psychiatry at the Mason Clinic in Seattle, WA. In addition to full-time clinical practice, he has served on the faculty of the University of Washington as a clinical professor of psychiatry. For over 30 years, Rynearson has maintained a particular clinical…
Joseph Sacco has been the Chief Medical Officer at Connecticut Hospice since 2016, and is a board-certified hospice and palliative medicine physician with over 40 years of experience. He oversees clinical and operational activities for its 53-bed Joint Commission-certified hospital and home care services for 225–250 patients, managing a team of physicians and APRNs across…
Tangela Sawyerr is an Assistant Director of Student Affairs and Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. With more than two decades of experience in social work, she has practiced in the areas of addiction, homelessness, and child protective services. Sawyerr’s scholarly interests examines the complexities of grief experienced by…
Sherry Schachter is executive director emerita of bereavement services for Calvary Hospital/Hospice.
Whether you’re a patient, family member, or a friend trying to determine whether hospice is the right choice, HFA is here. We provide guidance before, during, and after the important decisions are made.
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