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.
The Humane Prison Hospice Project provides compassionate palliative, geriatric, memory, hospice, and end-of-life care support to incarcerated people, using an innovative model that trains incarcerated peer caregivers to work alongside the interdisciplinary care team. Lisa Deal and Laura Musselman will join Dr. Michele DiTomas to discuss the care needs of an aging prison population, the program, and how hospices can replicate the model in their own communities.
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Continuing education included with registration.
Kara Thieleman is an assistant teaching professor with the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State University. She has served as a grief counselor and hospice social worker, as well as a group facilitator, program developer, and supervisor for coaches on the Resilient Parenting for Bereaved Families program with the REACH Institute at…
Carrie Traher works as a counselor, educator, and researcher. She has authored articles on issues related to the experiences of adolescent girls, attachment and loss, bereaved university students, and has edited volumes regarding bereaved children and adolescents. Additional research interests include medical assistance in dying (MAiD) and the use of photo narrative and arts based…
Susan Turner is the Vice President of Community Programs & Services for Accord Hospice & Palliative Care overseeing outreach, events, and building relations at their three locations in Arizona and Kansas. She has spent most of her career working in the non-profit world in a leadership role and the last 13 years with hospice focusing…
Elizabeth Uppman is a freelance writer and mother of two and lives in Overland Park, Kansas.
Lauren Jodi (“LJ”) Van Scoy is a professor of Medicine, Humanities and Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine and is a physician scientist with training as a Pulmonary and Critical Care physician. She has an active, independent research program in the field of end-of-life communication and advance care planning. She has published…
Erika VanDyke is the program manager for the Van Scoy Research Laboratory at Penn State College of Medicine (PSU COM). In this position, she supports a large research portfolio of projects related to communication around issues concerning medical decision making. Before joining Dr. Van Scoy’s lab, she worked as a project manager for the Qualitative…
William Villanova is the President of Frank E. Campbell – The Funeral Chapel in New York City, the Past-President of the New York State Funeral Directors Association and a multi-year recipient of the National Funeral Directors Association Pursuit of Excellence and Best of the Best Awards. Celebrating 125 years, Frank E. Campbell–The Funeral Chapel has…
Elizabeth-Ann Viscione is a doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at the University of Rhode Island. Her professional interests include health psychology, loss, and addressing critical incident traumatic stress with first responders. Her research focuses on sexual functioning, especially within women and individuals with gynecologic conditions.
Shelley Wagener has been coordinating hospice volunteers for nearly twenty years, joining Willamette Vital Health in 2016. She works closely with her hospice colleagues to provide personalized support to patients and families to meet their care needs and bring enjoyment and meaning to their remaining time together. For the past eight years she has overseen…
Beverly Wallace is currently the associate professor of Congregational and Community Care at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. 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…
Cara Wallace is Votsmier Endowed Chair and Professor in the School of Nursing at Saint Louis University, with a secondary appointment in Social Work. A former hospice and hospital social worker, her research focuses on barriers, access, and quality of end-of-life care. Dr. Wallace has been published/featured in USA Today, Health Affairs Forefront, GeriPal, St….
Wendy Walters has been in direct clinical practice for over 30 years, with the bulk of that experience in end-of-life care. She spent the first 17 years of her career in hospice work, ultimately returning to UAB in 2006. She joined the UAB Hospital Ethics Committee in 2009 and began taking ethics consults for the…
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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