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.
Luke’s Wings’ Veterans in Hospice Transportation Assistance Program (H.T.A.P.) provides free flights for the loved ones of Veterans in hospice care. Through H.T.A.P., Luke’s Wings is honored to provide a final salute to these extraordinary men and women and ensure their loved ones have the opportunity to be physically present when it matters most.
Join Ms. Yaede who will discuss this impactful program as well as their No Service Member Spends The Holidays Alone campaign, which helps ensure service members, Veterans, and their families can be together during the holiday season.
This is a free 30-minute informational session. Continuing education not available.
Michele DiTomas is Assistant Deputy Medical Executive for Palliative and Complex Care and CMF Hospice Medical Director with California Correctional Health Care Services. She earned her MD from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and is board-certified in both family medicine and hospice and palliative medicine. Dr. DiTomas has spent over 10 years working…
Kenneth 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). He is professor emeritus, the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle. A prolific author and editor, Doka serves as editor of HFA’s Living…
Craig Dresang 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. Dresang is a board member for Joshua’s House in Sacramento, the first hospice residence for the homeless on the West Coast. During his 20+…
This is an optional exceprt.
Kelstan Ellis is a palliative care physician and bioethicist at Children’s Mercy Kansas City (CMKC) and the medical director of pediatric palliative care at the University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS). She completed her pediatrics residency and palliative care fellowship at the University of Kansas. Her clinical interests include the intersection of ethics and palliative…
Jane Euler is a a Serious Illness Companion and Chief Doula at Present for You, LLC. She supports individuals facing life-limiting disease as well as the families and friends who journey beside them. With quiet compassion, Jane invites honest conversations about wishes, needs, and care goals. She sits with people coming to terms with impending…
William Feigelman is an emeritus professor of sociology at Nassau Community College, where he taught for 50 years. Since his son’s suicide in 2002, Feigelman has focused his professional writings on suicide and suicide bereavement, with his writings appearing in most all leading bereavement journals. He is a co-author of Devastating Losses: How Parents Cope…
Gary Fink was Senior Vice President of Counseling and Family Support at Montgomery Hospice in Rockville, MD, where he supported the counseling departments, directed the Spiritual Counseling staff, and led 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…
Natasha Fowlks is the Executive Director of Hospice Atlanta, part of the Visiting Nurse Health System, where she leads hospice and palliative care services with compassion, clinical expertise, and a strong commitment to end-of-life advocacy. With more than a decade of experience in hospice care, she is a Certified Hospice & Palliative Nurse (CHPN) and…
Pamela Gabbay is a nationally recognized author, trainer, and consultant who has served the bereavement field in many capacities during her career. Gabbay is part of the training corps of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and travels throughout the country conducting trainings on their behalf. She is on the Advisory Board for the…
Louis Gamino is Professor (Affiliated) of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and Baylor Scott & White Health in Temple, Texas. Dr. Gamino is a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) and a Fellow in Thanatology (FT) through the Association for Death…
Maria Georgopoulos is a licensed mental health counselor and Fellow in Thanatology, whose work focuses on grief, loss, and trauma. She is founder of Roula’s Kids: A Space for Grieving Families, Inc., which provides free grief groups in New York for children and their families that have experienced the death of someone significant in their…
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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