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Biographical Sketches of Workshop Speakers and Moderators
Beverly Alves is a retired teacher from upstate New York. She spent most of her career teaching special education in a rural school district and before that she taught math in an inner-city school. Prior to becoming a teacher she was a medical and psychiatric social worker in a large hospital in Newark, New Jersey, and an antipoverty worker. Since her husband, Joe, died from cancer in 2006, she has been an advocate for palliative care and equal access to health care. She was on the steering committee for Single Payer New York and the National Coalition Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care. She is currently on the organizing committee of the Jobs for All Network and is also an advocate for public education.
Robert Arnold, M.D., focuses his research and educational activities on teaching ethics to residents, improving doctor–patient communication regarding palliative care, and changing the culture by developing educational programs in specialties ranging from oncology to critical care medicine. Dr. Arnold is currently developing a structured curriculum on doctor–patient communication for fellows in critical care and trying to better understand the barriers to communication. His clinical activities focus on providing palliative care consults in a tertiary care hospital and providing primary care to HIV-seropositive inpatients. He was the president of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and of the American Academy of Palliative and Hospice Medicine.
John Cagle, Ph.D., M.S.W., is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland 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. This includes efforts to minimize financial burden on families coping with life-threatening illness. His research is informed by nearly a decade of clinical work as a hospice social worker. Dr. Cagle completed his Ph.D. 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 a National Institute on Aging (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 financial burden experienced by families during life-threatening illness, 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 University of Maryland School of Social Work Financial Social Work Initiative, the Hospice Foundation of America, the National Palliative Care Research Center, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the NIA, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and the Foundation for End-of-Life Care.
Reverend Richard Freeman has been a bi-vocational servant throughout his ministry. He has led the chaplain program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh for 16 years while concurrently serving as the Senior Pastor of the Resurrection Baptist Church. Rev. Freeman’s ministerial passions include teaching and marriage/family enrichment. He has taught in numerous settings on various topics, including Old Testament and New Testament Survey course, The Biblical Standard for Dating, and Building Marriages That Will Last. Rev. Freeman has presented at numerous conference and symposia on topics, including Caring for the Care Giver, Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce, End of Life Care: A Holistic View and How to Bring Spiritual Care to Palliative Care. He is part of a statewide gubernatorial roundtable on public education. He is also president of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, a faith-based community organizing organization; putting faith in action.
Marian Grant, D.N.P., R.N., CRNP, is a nurse practitioner dually certified in Acute Care and Palliative Care/Hospice and an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing where she teaches courses on communication, evidence-based practice, and end-of-life nursing. She is also on the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Palliative Care
Service as a nurse practitioner. In 2014, Dr. Grant was named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow. Dr. Grant is on the board of the national Hospice & Palliative Nurses Association, is co-chair of the Public Engagement Workgroup for the national Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), and blogs monthly for the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Her consistent focus is on raising clinician and public awareness of palliative care and advocating for policy changes to make these services more widely available. Before becoming a nurse, Dr. Grant studied mass communication and worked in advertising and marketing for the Procter & Gamble Company.
Anne Kinderman, M.D., is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and is the Director of the Supportive and Palliative Care Service at San Francisco General Hospital. After completing her Internal Medicine Residency at UCSF and Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Stanford, she returned to San Francisco General in 2009 to help develop the Supportive and Palliative Care Consult Service, as its founding Director. Dr. Kinderman’s scholarly work has included developing a curriculum in palliative care interpreting for professional medical interpreters, promoting high-quality care for vulnerable patients with serious illness, and expanding palliative care services in safety net health systems. Within the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, she helped to create and lead a special interest group focused on the health care Safety Net, which advances collaboration and scholarship among palliative care providers caring for vulnerable patients. In 2014, she was Sojourns Scholars Leadership Award from the Cambia Health Foundation, to support her development as a leader in Palliative Care, and was subsequently named an Inspiring Leader Under 40 by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Carol Levine directs the United Hospital Fund’s Families and Health Care Project, which focuses on developing partnerships between health care professionals and family caregivers, especially during transitions in health care settings (www.nextstepincare.org). Before joining the Fund in 1996, she directed the Citizens Commission on AIDS in New York City from 1987 to 1991, and The Orphan Project, which she founded, from 1991 to 1996. As a senior staff associate of The Hastings Center, she edited the Hastings Center Report. Ms. Levine is the editor of Always on Call: When Illness Turns Families into Caregivers (2nd ed., Vanderbilt University Press, 2004); co-editor, with Thomas H. Murray, of The Cultures of Caregiving: Conflict and Common Ground Among Families, Health Professionals and Policy Makers (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004); and editor of Living in the Land of Limbo: Fiction and Poetry About Family Caregiving (Vanderbilt
University Press, 2014). In 1993, Ms. Levine was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for her work in AIDS policy and ethics. She was named a WebMD Health Hero in 2007. In 2009, Ms. Levine was named a Purpose Prize fellow, an honor for social entrepreneurs over 60 who are using their experience and passion to take on society’s biggest challenges.
Dana Lustbader, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Critical Care and Palliative Medicine at Hofstra North Shore–Long Island Jewish (LIJ) School of Medicine. She is Department Chair of Palliative Medicine at ProHEALTH Care Associates, a large physician-run multispecialty group and accountable care organization serving the New York metropolitan area. She created and is the Medical Director of ProHEALTH Care Support, a home-based advanced illness program providing medical care to people with serious illness while supporting their family caregivers. Prior to joining ProHEALTH, Dr. Lustbader worked at North Shore–LIJ where she was the Medical Intensive Care Unit Director, Section Head of Palliative Medicine, and founding Program Director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship. She also served as the Assistant Medical Director for the New York Organ Donor Network providing critical care consultation to intensive care units for optimal donor management. Dr. Lustbader is board certified in critical care medicine, internal medicine, and palliative medicine. She received her medical degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine, Internal Medicine residency training at New York University Medical Center, and fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York. Dr. Lustbader was a founding member of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Test Writing Committee for the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Ginger Marshall, M.S.N., ACNP-BC, ACHPN, FPCN, earned her B.S.N. from the University of Maryland and her M.S.N. from University of Pennsylvania. She served on the Board of Directors for the Hospice Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC) from 2007 to 2013, including her role as President in 2010. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Hospice & Palliative Nurses Association in the role of president elect. She is board certified in acute care by American Nurses Credentialing Center and in hospice palliative care by HPCC. In 2011, she was inducted as a Palliative Care Fellow by the Hospice & Palliative Nurses Association. Ms. Marshall has served as the Director of Palliative Care for both the University of Utah Hospital and Carolinas HealthCare System. She recently joined Compassus in the role of National Director of Palliative Care.
Renee McLeod-Sordjan, D.N.P., is a nurse practitioner for the Department of Medicine at North Shore–Long Island Jewish (LIJ) at Franklin and a
women’s health nurse practitioner in private practice. She is currently a Medical Ethics Attending for the Department of Medicine in the North Shore–LIJ Health System. Professor McLeod-Sordjan has been adjunct professor for the graduate department of New York University. Presently she is clinical assistant professor in the Lienhard School of Nursing Graduate Department.
Diane Meier, M.D., is Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), a national organization devoted to increasing the number and quality of palliative care programs in the United States. Under her leadership the number of palliative care programs in U.S. hospitals has more than tripled in the past 10 years. She is also Vice-Chair for Public Policy and Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine; Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics; and was the founder and Director of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute from 1997 to 2011, all at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
Stacie Pinderhughes, M.D., is the Director of Palliative Medicine at Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix and the Chair for the Division of Palliative Care for Banner Health. She is board certified in palliative medicine, geriatrics, and internal medicine. Dr. Pinderhughes received her medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She completed her residency at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Arizona.
Reverend Tyrone Pitts presently serves as the ecumenical officer and the General Secretary Emeritus of the Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc. He is also the President and CEO of Bridges International LLC, a consultant service with the mission of building reconciliation in international development and global education strategies among churches and civil society. From 1990 to 2010 Dr. Pitts served as General Secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc., serving as Chief Operation Officer of the Convention. He is currently serving on the Executive Committee and the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, with 349 Protestant and Orthodox Church leaders from across the world, and the National Conference of Black Churches representing eight historic American African Denominations, the board of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, and the Baptist World Alliance. Dr. Pitts is also a member of the staff team for The New Baptist Covenant spearheaded by President Jimmy Carter.
Justin Sanders, M.D., is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the department of Psychosocial
Oncology and Palliative Care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His academic interests include health care access, medical care of the underserved, substance misuse among the seriously ill, and the medical humanities, including narrative medicine. Dr. Sanders has a B.A. in Art History from Haverford College, an M.D. from the University of Vermont College of Medicine, and an M.Sc. in medical anthropology from University College London, where, as a Fulbright Scholar, he studied barriers to utilization of hospice services among South Asian Muslims in East London, United Kingdom. He completed internship, residency, and a chief residency in Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and is a graduate of the Harvard Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Fellowship. A current research fellow in the Serious Illness Care Program at Ariadne Labs, his research focuses on cultural adaptation of a serious illness conversation guide.
Yael Schenker, M.D., received her undergraduate degree in literature from Harvard University. She completed all of her medical training at the University of California, San Francisco, before joining the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in 2010. She is currently an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics, and holds a secondary appointment in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, a member of the Biobehavioral Oncology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center, and an associate faculty member of Clinical Research Modeling of Acute Illness in the Department of Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Schenker’s research focuses on the integration of palliative care services in oncology, surrogate decision making, informed consent, and medical advertising. She has received funding from the National Palliative Care Research Center, the University of Pittsburgh Clinical Research Scholars (KL2) program, and the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Schenker is also a practicing primary care physician and conducts palliative care consults at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Thomas J. Smith, M.D., is the Director of Palliative Care for Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Before joining Johns Hopkins, Dr. Smith served as the Medical Director of the Thomas Palliative Care Program and the codirector of the Massey Cancer Center Cancer Control and Prevention Program at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He also holds the first Harry J. Duffey Family Professorship of Palliative Care in the Department of Oncology. Dr. Smith received his bachelor’s of science degree summa cum laude from the University of Akron and his medical degree cum laude from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the
University of Pennsylvania and completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He also was a special fellow in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute.
Elaine Wittenberg, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Division of Nursing Research and Education at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Oklahoma. With a focus on hospice and palliative care, she is co-author of several books, including Communication as Comfort: Multiple Voices in Palliative Care (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2008), which details the complexities of communication in end-of-life care; and Dying with Comfort: Family Illness Narratives and Early Palliative Care (Hampton Press, 2010), both awarded Book of the Year by the National Communication Association. Her latest volume, Communication in Palliative Nursing (Oxford University Press, 2013), details the COMFORT communication curriculum that provides nurses with instruction on palliative care communication. Dr. Wittenberg is the lead editor of the Textbook of Palliative Care Communication, published in 2015 by Oxford University Press. She is co-founder of the Palliative Care Communication Institute (www.pccinstitute.com), an online resource that provides information on communication training, and offers provider, patient, and family resources developed through rigorous communication research. Dr. Wittenberg and colleagues recently launched Health Communication, a free iOS app that provides easy-to-use communication strategies. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles on hospice and palliative care communication. Her work can be found in Qualitative Health Research, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Journal of Palliative Medicine, and the European Journal of Cancer Care.
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