Chris Acevedo, CHC, CPC, PCS

 

 

Lev Ba'esh, Rabbi, JD, MHL
Lev is a rabbi, ordained by the Reform Movement in 1994 in Cincinnati. He can also be found teaching Introduction to Judaism Courses for the Outreach division of the Reform movement in the Boston area, as well as national and world traveling to celebrate interfaith-Jewish weddings.  His focus, throughout his congregational work was welcoming all who wanted "Jewish" as part of their lives.  Prior to life as a rabbi, Lev was an attorney with the Children's Aid Society in NY, and coordinated their Manhattan project of PINS Mediation with parents and teens.  Lev is a graduate of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion class of 1994, Benjamin N Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University class of 1987 (accepted in the NY and Connecticut Bar Associations), and Clark University class of 1984.  Lev was accepted and attended Bangor Theological Seminary's Doctor of Ministry program until he decided to leave congregational work.
Program presentations:
829: Cultural Considerations at the End of Life
830: Religious Beliefs and Traditions at the End of Life

Tani Bahti - RN, CT, CHPN
A RN since 1976, Tani has spent over half her career in the field of hospice and palliative care. Recognizing how fear, misinformation and lack of information can negatively impact decision-making and the dying experience, she is passionate about, and committed to improving end of life care through education. Certified both in Thanatology and in Hospice and Palliative Nursing, Tani is a frequent lecturer for the medical and nursing schools and community groups, Tani has developed clinical training programs for healthcare professionals and volunteers, participated in end of life research and produced teaching tools. Writer and producer of the award winning video, Living Through Dying - The Struggle for Grace, she is now director of Pathways: Education & Consultation In End of Life Care (www.pathwayseol.com).
Program presentations:
205: Through the Fire: A Dying Exercise
206: Explaining Hospice to Patients and Families
207: Just One More Bite: Understanding Changes in Eating and Drinking at End of Life
208: Pain Hurts Everyone: Understanding and Managing Pain
209: Quality of Life Issues: Challenges and Opportunities

Susan Balfour - RN, Design of Care Consultant
Susan heads Design of Care for Multi-View, Inc. (www.multiviewinc.com). She is the TOP consultant in clinical visit design, having helped multitudes of hospices in this area. Have you ever heard of "Shape of the Visit?" That's Susan! She has worked for the Carolinas Center for End of Life Care for many years and is recognized as one of the top people in the nation regarding hospice regulatory compliance. To pile more on, she is an RN, was a former hospice CEO, AND she has a degree in Economics. A student of human behavior, she believes that hospices that design their care, educate their employees and insist on accountability will be the hospices that achieve our highest goals: delivery of extraordinary care, ability to recruit and retain top-notch employees, and long term economic sustainability.
Program presentations:
204: Hospice and the Traveling Patient
824: Providing Hospice to Residents of a SNF/NF or ICF/MR

Joy Barry - RN, M.ED, CLNC
Joy Barry is a Principal of Weatherbee Resources, Inc. (WRI), the Hospice Education Network (HEN), and Hospice Quality Resources, LLC (HQR). Her clinical and administrative expertise, coupled with a thorough understanding of regulatory compliance and standards of care, contribute to the provision of comprehensive consulting services unmatched by others in the industry.

During her tenure as Executive Director of a large and very successful hospice program in the Southwest, Joy honed her administrative and clinical skill sets. In this role, she increased the hospice's average daily census while streamlining operational processes and ensuring the highest quality of care to patients and their families. Under her leadership, this hospice successfully operated five inpatient facilities of various types including a first-of-its-kind collaborative model. Joy offers her managerial expertise to hospices seeking rightsizing and reorganization for successful growth management.

Joy is a member of the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC®). She conducts clinical record audits for hospice programs facing Additional Development Requests (ADRs) and claim denials from their Regional Home Health and Hospice Intermediary (RHHI). After completing each audit, Joy identifies documentation and competency-related opportunities for improvement and provides individualized education to management and interdisciplinary teams. She provides guidance and support to hospices and their legal counsel throughout the claim denial appeal process and is often called to testify as an expert witness before Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and the Department of Justice (DOJ). She has participated in drafting complex hospice-related Corporate Integrity Agreements (CIA).

Joy is a registered nurse with over 26 years of healthcare experience. She holds a Master's degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a specialty in consulting psychology and organizational development. She is committed to nursing leadership and education and is a featured speaker at national and state conferences.

Program presentations:
665: ADRs: Additional Development Requests
666: Determining Terminal Status: Dementia due to Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders
800: Initial and Comprehensive Assessment
826: IDG, Careplanning and Coordination of Services

June Berlinger - RN, BSN
June Berlinger, RN, BSN, is the Manager of the Education Department at Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee, FL. She is responsible for the professional development and training for new and experienced employees. June's background includes the development and coordination of professional and community educational programs; creating and managing the Women's Pavilion at Tallahassee Medical Center, and directing a nursing program. She has extensive experience in public speaking having conducted training programs and motivational talks throughout Florida and across the nation to nurses, physicians, judges, law enforcement personnel and other public officials.
Program presentations:
193: Effective Communication

Carla Braveman - RN, M.Ed, CHCE
Carla Braveman is a seasoned hospice executive with nearly 30 years of experience in the health care field. Carla graduated from St. Anselm's College in Manchester, NH with a degree in Nursing and the U of Maine at Orono with a Master's in Education. Carla is the CEO/President of Big Bend Hospice located in Tallahassee, FL which services over three hundred patients a day and has a freestanding inpatient unit with 12 beds. Carla has been privileged to serve on many professional boards and trade organizations including the Massachusetts Hospice and Palliative Care Federation, and the National Association for Home care and Hospice, and the Hospice Association of America.
Program presentations:
180: Hospice 101: An Introduction to Hospice Services

Janet Bull - M.D

Janet Bull, MD serves as Chief Medical Officer for Four Seasons in Flat Rock, NC.  This year, Four Seasons received the Circle of Life award for their integrated palliative care program and research department, both of which Dr. Bull was instrumental in creating.    In 2007, Dr. Bull and Dr. Abernethy formed the Palliative Care State Database, a project devoted to collecting and analyzing data, developing benchmarks and quality initiatives in palliative care.  This project has grown into a Palliative Care Consortium, with multiple sites involved in collecting data over North Carolina.  She currently serves as Principle Investigator on multiple clinical trials, and conducts research on hospice and palliative care patients in the home setting.  She is a Fellow of the Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, board certified in hospice and palliative medicine, and a frequent speaker at both state and national meetings. She is a member of the AAHPM research committee, the Hospice Intermediary Advisory Board, and an assistant editor for PC Fasts.
Program presentations:
1197: Prognostication in End of Life
1198: Advanced Symptom Management

Patrick L. Clary, MD
Dr. Pat Clary was the Medical Director of three New Hampshire hospices serially from 1993 through May 24, 2006. He is Board Certified in Family Practice and in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He also founded and owns The Palliative Care Service, a limited liability corporation providing consultative and educational services in palliative medicine. Educated at Georgetown College and later at Georgetown’s School of Medicine, his first professional training was in poetry as a student of Roland Flint. His work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, CoEvolution Quarterly, Patient Care, Journal of Palliative Medicine, JAMA and Journal of Medical Humanities, as well as in anthologies, literary magazines and two collections: Notes for a Loveletter, and Old Friends. His second solo book of poetry, Dying for Beginners, was published in the fall of 2006 by Lost Borders Press. He contributed a chapter to Being Human at Work, an anthology of somatics published by North Atlantic Books in 2003. A conscientious objector on the basis of his Quaker beliefs, he served as a medical corpsman with US Infantry Units in Vietnam 1969-70. He has long been active in palliative care advocacy in New Hampshire, drawing on experience as a US Senate staff member in the 1970s. He serves on the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization’s Legislative Advocacy subcommittee, is Past President of the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and chaired the committee organizing the State's joint Cancer Pain Initiative and Hospice Organization's Annual Palliative Care conference "Pain & Beyond,” for five years, ending in 2005. Dr. Clary was certified by the AMA as an Educating Physicians for End-of-life Care (EPEC) presenter in 1999 and has done more than 70 talks using that curriculum since certification.
Program presentations:
1035: Breaking Bad News
1036: A Cry for Help: Responding to Requests for Physician-Assisted Suicide
1273: Breaking the Code: Assure payment for physician and ARNP services
1038: Withholding, Withdrawing Treatments

Patrick Coyne, MSN, APRN, ACHPN, FAAN
Patrick is a Clinical Nurse Specialists for Palliative Care and Pain Management. He is currently the Clinical Director at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Care Systems. His experience spans 27 years.
Program presentations:
818: ELNEC: Symptom Management in Palliative Care

Linda Darbyshire, RN, MSN, PMHCNS-BC
Linda Darbyshire, Consulting Coordinator with Weatherbee Resources, Inc. is a registered nurse with over 20 years experience working in multiple clinical settings, including homecare and hospice. She has a Masters degree in Psychiatric Liaison Nursing from Yale University, and completed the Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care Program in 2003. Linda has been certified as a Psychiatric Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist for over 10 years. She has an extensive background in education and teaching. Linda completed the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Oncology Training in 2006.
Program presentations:
1240: Fire and Electrical Safety

Kathy Davis - PhD, LICSW
Dr. Kathy Davis is an accomplished mental health practitioner and clinical ethics/palliative care consultant. Kathy received her PhD from Syracuse University in 2000 in Medical Ethics. She received her Master's In Social Work at Syracuse University in 1997. Dr. Davis has a private mental health practice that focuses in traditional and complementary methods for healing. In addition, Dr. Davis is the Director of Psychosocial and Bereavement Services at Hospice & Palliative Care of Cape Cod. Dr. Davis's expertise includes clinical medical ethics, bereavement and loss, palliative and end-of-life care, trauma and PTSD, conflict resolution, crisis intervention, and professional coaching and development. She has served on numerous JCAHO committees and helped develop many Ethics Committees. In 2001, she was awarded the NYS Liberty Award for her service to family members and responders at Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks.
Program presentations:
217: Clinical Ethics at the Bedside
239: Patient Rights and Responsibilities

Betty Ferrell, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Betty Ferrell has been in oncology nursing for 29 years and has focused her clinical expertise and research in pain management, quality of life, and palliative care.  Dr. Ferrell is a Research Scientist at the City of Hope National Medical Center.  She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and she has over 270 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts.
Program presentations:
820: ELNEC: Cultural Considerations in Palliative Care
821: ELNEC: Ethical Issues in Palliative Care

N. Joel Fry - MSW, LICSW
N. Joel Fry, MSW, LISW is president and co-founder of TEAM Restoration Ministries. He is committed to seeing lives and relationships restored. Joel earned his BA at Simpson College, and earned his Master of Social Work (MSW) and Aging Studies Certificate from the University of Iowa. He is a State of Iowa Licensed Independent Social Worker (LISW). He formerly served as an administrator with a hospice organization and has significant experience teaching at the college level. Joel preaches and speaks frequently, and he and his wife, Heather, volunteer with local, state and national marriage initiatives. His counseling experience and interests include the areas of pre-marriage, marriage, individual, family, adolescent, and grief and loss therapy. He believes in the sanctity of forgiveness as the key to emotional and spiritual health, and uses a biblical approach to counseling.
Program presentations:
227: Depression in the Dying
228: Psychological Factors at the End of Life
839: Communication: An Act of Love
840: Social Work Boundaries as an Ethical Consideration
841: Exploring your Own Legacy: a look at Ethical Wills
842: Social Work Leadership in Hospice Care
843: Social Work Ethics in End of Life Care
844: Strategies to Maintain Effectivemess - Indicators of the Need to Step Away
845: The Dyspneic Patient and Family in Times of High Anxiety
846: The Practitioner Role in End of Life Geriatric Care
847: Psychosocial Assessment, Intervention and Treatment Planning

Gary Gardia, M.Ed., LCSW, CT
Gary has worked in the hospice field for over 25 years beginning as a volunteer. Over the years he has served in many capacities such as program director for volunteers, social workers, bereavement, and education and as a Vice-President . He is a Certified Thanatologist (CT): Death, Dying and Bereavement through the Association for Death, Education and Counseling and holds Master Degrees in Education and Social Work.  In 1996 Gary was honored with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (NHPCO) “Heart of Hospice Award” for developing innovative programs to meet the needs of caregivers and the bereaved. For the past 7 years Gary has held various leadership positions for NHPCO, including the national representative for Volunteers and Volunteer Managers and the national representative for Social Workers.  In 2002 his hopes and dreams were fulfilled as he opened the Center for Compassionate Care in Las Vegas, Nevada. 
Program presentations:
937: How to be a Great Hospice Social Worker
1151: Working with Challenging Cases: A Problem Solving Model for Social Workers

Gail Gazelle - MD, FACP, FAAHPM
Dr. Gail Gazelle is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the medical director and associate medical director of a number of Boston-area hospices. She was the founding director of the Palliative Care Program at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a large multi-specialty practice serving over 250,000 patients in the Boston area and former director of the Harvard Vanguard Pain Program. Dr. Gazelle graduated from Cornell University in 1982 and received her medical doctorate from the State University of New York at Syracuse. Dr. Gazelle is board certified in Internal Medicine as well as Hospice and Palliative Medicine and has received the honor of fellowship status in the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Gazelle is one of a small number of national Palliative Care experts who teaches as Master Facilitator in the American Medical Association program Educating Physicians about End-of-Life Care. She teaches in many Harvard continuing medical education courses and frequently gives grand rounds and other talks for attending physicians and physicians in training. Dr. Gazelle has been featured on the National Public Radio show, All Things Considered, on CNN, and on Michigan and Wisconsin Public Radio. Her writings have been published in a number of medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Program presentations:
544 Pain Management in Hospice: Part 1
546 Pain Management in Hospice: Part 2
547 Pain Management in Hospice: Part 3 Case Studies

Lorna Hearn - RN, BSN, MS, CLNC
Lorna has over 35 years of nursing experience in a variety of areas, including 26 years in healthcare management and administration. She has over 20 years of experience at Delaware Hospice with the responsibility of day to day operations, performance improvement, clinical leadership, human resource management and staff development. Lorna is currently an Associate Consultant with Weatherbee Resources.
Program presentations:
637: Improving Clinical Documentation
817: JCAHO: Going beyond Medicare Certification to Joint Commission Accreditation

Dawn Jelley - RN, CHPN
Dawn Jelley is a native of England who now lives in New Hampshire. After dedicating 14 years to working with dying patients in Hospice she currently works for a hospice software company. It was her work with dying patients that sparked her poetry passion, initially shared with her co-workers and her friends.
Program presentations:
643: Keeping their stories alive

Nancy Ledoux - M.Div.
A hospice chaplain since 1997, Ms. Ledoux has developed an expertise in communicating with persons with dementia. She has offered presentations on this subject to audiences that include the National Association of Home Care and Hospice, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Hospice and Palliative Care Federation of Massachusetts, and the Alzheimer's Association, Massachusetts Chapter. Ms. Ledoux has served on the Advisory Board of the National Memory Impairment Institute and written articles published by the National Association of Home Care and Hospice and Archdiocese of Boston.
Program presentations:
223: Communicating with Alzheimer Patients
224: Spirituality and End of Life Care

Daniel Maison - MD, FAAHPM
Dr. Daniel Maison is a nationally recognized expert in hospice care. Dr. Maison is board certified in Internal Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, one of only 60 in the United States and sits on National Committees for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organizations. He is a graduate of Georgetown Medical School where he was elected to the national honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha. He did his residency in Internal Medicine at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, California. He was also chief resident of the Internal Medicine program there. Dr. Maison has conducted extensive training sessions for physicians and other healthcare professionals in hospice and palliative medicine. He has given numerous lectures at the local, regional, state, and national level. He has also published articles on subjects relevant to hospice and end-of-life care.
Program presentations:
609: The Medical Director's Role In Organizational Excellence
610: A Physician's Role in Organizational Culture Change during Open Access
611: It Takes a Village: Engendering Community Physician Support For End-Of-Life Care
612: Plumbing The Depths: Local Physician Recruitment For Your Hospice Program
613: Staff Empowerment Through Extemporaneous Educational Opportunities

Pam Malloy - RN, MN, OCN
Ms. Malloy is a Registered Nurse (RN) who received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN) from Oklahoma Baptist University. From there she obtained her Master's with a Concentrated Study In Oncology at the University of California. Pam has been an education coordinator for six years at the George Washington University Hospital. Her main emphasis is on oncology and palliative care. Pam has also been on the speaker's bureau for several pharmaceutical companies, talking about various chemotherapy and supportive medications. In addition, she present eight to ten times a year at least one of the ELNEC modules at national conferences. Pam has also spoken at various national meetings on palliative care (i.e. Oncology Nursing Society, Sigma Theta Tau, etc).

Program presentations:
677: Communication in Palliative Care (ELNEC Presentation)

C. Andrew Martin - MSN, RN, CHPN
Andrew is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for Weatherbee Resources, Inc., the Hospice Education Network and Hospice Quality Resources. He began his hospice association in 1993, as a volunteer for Seacoast Hospice in Exeter, NH. Andrew is a Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse and previously worked for Seacoast Hospice (2001-2008) in the roles of RN Case Manager, Intake and Clinical Support RN, and most recently on their Management Team as Education and Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI) Coordinator. He was instrumental in achieving recognition of a 2007 OCS Vision Award to Seacoast Hospice for exceptional efforts in strategic initiatives that improve quality of care and organizational excellence. Andrew has achieved Level II Designee of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's Hospice Manager Development Program (2007). He is also an approved educator by both the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Training Program (2006) and the Hospice and Palliative Nurse Association Clinical Review Trainer Program (2007). Hospice industry networking is important to Andrew. He has been the volunteer mentor (2005-2007) for the New Hampshire Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's initiative to successfully increase statewide participation in the NHPCO National Data Set (NDS).
Program presentations:
833: Performance Improvement Projects (PIPs)
655: Emergency/Disaster Management
654: Nutrition at End-of-Life

Polly Mazanec - RN, MS, APRN, BC, AOCN
Polly is the Nurse Practitioner of the Cancer Support Team at the Ireland Cancer Center, University Hospitals of Cleveland. She has been in oncology for more than 30 years. In the past 10 years, she has been focusing on palliative care and has been involved with ELNEC since 2001. She speaks nationally and locally on palliative care topics.
Program presentations:
822: ELNEC: Introduction to Palliative Care Nursing
823: ELNEC: Loss, Grief and Bereavement

Melanie Merriman - Ph.D., MBA
Melanie P. Merriman, founder of Touchstone Consulting in North Bay Village, FL, provides clients with quality measurement, market research, strategic planning, and program evaluation services with a focus on chronic illness and end-of-life care. Recent clients include The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Merriman is also the project director for EDELE (Epidemiology of Death and End of Life Experience), a federally-funded initiative to provide Internet access to public data for healthcare providers and policy-makers. From 1992-1998, Dr. Merriman was Director of Quality and Compliance for VITAS Healthcare Corporation. She is also a co-author of the Missoula-VITAS Quality of Life Index and The QAPI Requirement: Resources for Hospice Programs. Dr. Merriman earned a Ph.D. in Biology and an MBA in Health Care Administration.
Program presentations:
216: Introduction to Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (QAPI)
514: QAPI Series - Session 2 Program Data and Performance Measures
515: QAPI Series - Session 3 Program Activities
517: QAPI Series - Session 5 Patient-level and Hospice-level QAPI Measures
518: QAPI Series - Session 6 The QAPI Opportunity
827: QAPI: What Hospices Need to Know and Do
828: QAPI: Developing and Implementing a QAPI Program

Mary Michal - JD
Mary Michal is a national authority on hospice, palliative and end of life care and has published and lectured extensively on issues such as corporate compliance planning, anti-kickback considerations, physician contracting, managed care contracting and HIPAA compliance. She is a national presenter on a broad array of end-of-life issues and regularly presents for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and numerous state hospice and palliative care associations. Mary has authored and co-authored a number of publications throughout her career, including most recently: Hospice and Nursing Home/Assisted Living Contracting Toolkit, Medical Director and Physician Contracting Toolkit for Hospice and Palliative Care, One Patient, One Day: Making Your Hospice a Leader in End of Life Care, a Manual for Growing Hospice the Right Way and a series of manuals on HIPAA privacy compliance for health care providers and health plans. In 1969, Mary received her undergraduate degree in Sociology, cum laude, from St. Norbert College. She received her law degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1977. Mary is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin and its Health Law and Elder Law Committees. She has also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America.
Program presentations:
215: Fraud & Abuse and Corporate Compliance: A Primer for Hospices
779: Hospice in the Nursing Home: Contracting, Quality, & Regulatory Considerations
780: Medical Director Contracting: Hospice Physicians and the New CoPs
375: Pre-Hospice Care

Erin Murray - RN, BSN, MHA, CLNC
Ms. Murray is a Registered Nurse (RN) who received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN) from Boston College. Additionally, she has a Master's Degree in Health Care Administration (MHA) from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts and a Certification in Legal Nurse Consulting (CLNC) from the Medical-Legal Consulting Institute in Houston Texas. She has worked in several medical settings, including nursing homes, hospitals, and home care. Ms. Murray has a variety of clinical and administrative experience. Her clinical nursing experience includes general medical/surgical nursing, cardiothoracic surgery, transplant surgery, and home care (visiting nursing).
Program presentations:
187: OSHA Annual Update

Rhonda Perrin Oakes, RN, CHPN
Rhonda is a Certified Hospice and Palliative Registered Nurse with more than 15 years of experience.  She is currently a clinical informatics nurse with Describing Function, LLC.  In this role, Rhonda works with clients to facilitate communication from the clinical end users across the patient care departments, while collaborating with the vendors and IT experts. She is an active member of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, the Tennessee Hospice Organization, the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) and the SNOMED Nursing Working Group.  She has networked with hospices across the nation in finding best practices, utilizing the electronic health record. Rhonda was a site investigator and a collaborator and co-author of the international project "Palliative Nursing to Promote Dignified Dying".
Program presentations:
1075: Describing Functional Status: Beyond KPS/PPS and The Adult Failure to Thrive Syndrome

Sally Okun - RN, MMHS
Sally is a Senior Consultant with the Hospice Education Network and Weatherbee Resources, Inc. and an independent project consultant, educator, researcher and personal health coach through Caretography LLC, a company she founded in 1996. Sally recently joined the Research Team at Patients Like Me, a web-based networking site for people to share information that can improve the lives of patients diagnosed with life-changing diseases. Sally is the author of numerous publications and presentations on advance care planning, and consumer-centered health care, including a featured article in the on-line journal Innovations in End of Life Care. She co-authored "Community-based Palliative Care for the Older Adult", a chapter in the advanced practice nursing textbook titled Gerontologic Palliative Care Nursing and The Resource Guide: Achieving Quality of Care at Life's End for Brown University, a web-based publication; and was coeditor of The Resource Book for the inaugural class of Program in Palliative Care, Education and Practice at Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care.
Program presentations:
201: Hospice & Palliative Care: Past, Present & Future
202: Interdisciplinary Team: An Introduction for Hospice Staff
240: Trajectory of Illness: Stages of Dying
277: Levels of Care: An Overview for Hospice Staff

Judith Paice - RN, MN, OCN
Judith is the Director for the Cancer Pain Program at Northwestern University; Feinberg School of Medicine. She has been in advanced practice nursing roles for the past 26 years, caring for patients with severe pain. In addition, during this time she has been involved in nursing, medical and other professional education as a faculty member. Furthermore, Judith has conducted research and has published and presented her findings. These presentations have been locally, nationally and internationally to nurses, physicians, basic scientists, psychologists, patients and to the public, primarily on the topic of pain.

Program presentations:

676: ELNEC: Final Hours of Life

819: ELNEC: Pain Management in Palliative Care

Kathleen J. Rusnak - B.A., M. Div., S.T.M., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Dr. Rusnak is an ordained Lutheran pastor with a doctorate in Psychology and Religion. All of her endeavors throughout her career or vocation have been directed by interests developed as a child of the sixties, from civil rights, to the Holocaust and post-Holocaust theology for Christians and Jews, to her work in hospice. She is deeply influenced by Martin Luther King and by the German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who, at 39, was hanged in a concentration camp by the Nazis for his active resistance to Hitler. Dr. Rusnak has always been interested in the ultimate questions of life, the psychology behind religious beliefs and actions, and human transformation. She, in her own thinking, felt her only choice was to become a pastor and theologian. She was convinced that this was her niche to influence and change the world. To that end, Dr. Rusnak has been the pastor of three Lutheran congregations, has served as a hospice chaplain in two hospices, was the director of spiritual care and bereavement at another hospice. She lived and worked in Israel for over two years as the director of the theological department of a post-Holocaust Christian European kibbutz in the Galilee, and focused on repentance and renewal towards the Jewish people.
Program presentations:
836: After They Forget - The Thriving Spirit of Alzheimer's
650: Appearances: Paranormal Experiences at the End of Life and in Bereavement
571: Because you've never died before: Exploring the Spiritual Mind and Worldview of the Dying
835: Choosing Hope at the End of Life
837: Compassion Fatigue: The Professional Caregiver's Dilemma                                                                          1122: Loss, Grief & Faith: A Guide for Professionals

Cathy Schutt - APRN-BC, CHPN, RN-BC
Cathy is founder and president of Pain Resources Network. She is an advanced nurse practitioner with clinical specialties in both pain and palliative care, and she has been a certified hospice trainer since 1997. She is also certified with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as an RN-BC in pain management. With more than 20 years of experience in training and managing clinical and occupational health staff in the development and delivery of integrated healthcare systems, Cathy has a thorough working knowledge of operations in both acute and non-acute care settings. She has created and implemented clinical competency programs in pain management and palliative care for major Boston teaching hospitals, long-term care facilities, hospices and home care organizations throughout the Northeast. She has also lectured on pain and symptom management nationally and consulted with nursing and interdisciplinary staff members on both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions. Cathy has consulted, developed programs with, or written materials for the National Cancer Institute; the American Cancer Society; Raytheon Company; and the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. She has published articles with the American Occupational Health Nursing Journal, the American Cancer Society Publications and Programs, and Nutrition Research.
Program presentations:
561: Hospice Nursing Assistants/Hospice Aides - Certification Prep. Course

Douglas C. Smith, M.Div., M.A., M.S.
Douglas C. Smith is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant with over 25 years experience as a counselor, therapist and health care administrator. He has worked in hospitals, hospices and social service agencies.  He is the author of several books and has also published in several journals.  Doug's three masters degrees in three different health care disciplines give him a truly holistic perspective that takes into consideration the physical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of patients.  He has given workshops in all 50 states. In addition to Doug's speaking, consulting, and writing, he actively participates in delivering patient care for Beloit Regional Hospice in Beloit, Wisconsin.   He also has much experiential knowledge in the fields of terminal illness and grieving, having lost to death a brother and two daughters.
Program presentations:
1095: Advantages of Strength Based Assessments with Hospice Patients
1096: Being Wounded Healers: Helping Ourselves and Others Find Meaning in Suffering
1097: Client-Centered Care Plans with Minimal Paperwork
1098: Tools, Tools, and More Tools to Help the Grieving
1099: Virtual Dreams: Getting Clients to Open Up Quickly and in Depth

1313: Final Rights #1: Promoting A Patient's Right To Be In Control

1314: Final Rights #2: Promoting A Patient's Right To Cry, Be Angry, Be in Denial, and To Laugh

1315: Final Rights #3: Promoting A Patient's Right To Touch and Be Touched

1316: Final Rights #4: Promoting A Patient's Right To Have a Sense of Purpose

1317: Final Rights #5: Promoting A Patient's Right To Have Personal Beliefs and Values Respected

Lynn Stange - RN, BSN, MAOM, CLNC
Lynn Stange, Director of Consulting Services for Weatherbee Resources, Inc., is a registered nurse with more than 16 years of experience in a variety of healthcare settings, including as a CMS Surveyor in Nevada and Montana. Lynn's hospice expertise also includes staff education, serving as the HIPAA Privacy Officer, and coordinating JCAHO-readiness activities. Lynn has taken innovative approaches to ensuring continuous JCAHO readiness and maintaining ongoing compliance with Medicare Conditions of Participation. She received training in the proposed Conditions of Participation (CoPs) for Hospice and, in conjunction with the California Hospice Association, provided regulatory training to other hospice providers in Southern Nevada. Most recently, as part of a non-profit hospice, Lynn supervised the Medical Records, Purchasing, Infection Control, Utilization Review, and Performance Improvement departments. Lynn has extensive experience and success in responding to Additional Development Requests (ADRs) from Regional Home Health and Hospice Intermediaries (RHHIs) as well as navigating the appeal process, including testifying before Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). Lynn is a member of HPNA and APIC as well as a past Board member for the Nevada Nurses Association. She is also member of the nurse's honor society, Sigma Theta Tau.
Program presentations:
218: Adverse Events / Incident Reporting
219: Infection Control and You
220: Safety in the Home
221: Safety in the Workplace: Workplace Violence

Martha Tecca - MBA
Martha Tecca is a healthcare measurement and management strategist, working with hospice and palliative care agencies, associations and vendors to accelerate the ability of organizations to demonstrate and improve quality and value. She has been advancing data-driven management in hospice since 1997. She founded Perforum, the hospice industry's only comprehensive benchmarking program, which later became OCS Hospice, part of the healthcare information solutions provider, Outcome Concept Systems, Inc. She has designed and implemented benchmark databases across the healthcare industry. Martha worked with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) to develop the NHPCO National Data Set and the Quality Partners initiative. She is a board member of the American Hospice Foundation, and sits on the technical expert panel developing a hospice consumer report card. She was Founding Partner of The Healthcare Management Council, Inc. (HMC), one of the healthcare industry's first benchmarking programs. She also worked with Bain & Company, a leading strategy consulting firm, and Genzyme Corporation, now a major biotechnology company. She is co-author of The QAPI Requirement: Resources for Hospice Programs and is a frequent industry speaker and contributing writer. Martha holds an MBA from The Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a BA degree in Biology from Harvard University.
Program presentations:
572: Get Ready. Get Smart: CR 5567 ' The CMS Claims Visit Reporting Series
573: Do It Now. Do It Right. CR 5567 ' The Centerpiece for a Strong Data Strategy

Paul Thayer - M.Div., D.Min.
Paul Thayer is an Assistant Professor of Child Life and Family Studies at Wheelock College. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses including Care of Chronically Ill Children, Child Health Systems, Clinical Issues in Child Life, Death Dying and Bereavement, Children and Their Environments, and Cross Cultural Perspectives on Human Development. Previously he was the Director of Palliative Care at Franciscan Children's Hospital and has held leadership positions at a number of Boston area hospices and hospitals. Dr. Thayer completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Connecticut, a Master of Arts degree in psychology at Assumption College, a Master of Divinity degree at Yale University and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Boston University. His research interests include helping children cope with death and dying, spirituality and illness, and bereavement care for children.
Program presentations:
194: Children of Adult Hospice Patients
222: Professional Boundaries in Hospice Care

Rita Wells - RN, MSN, CLNC
Rita, a Master's prepared RN with focus in Nursing Leadership and Business Management, is a candidate for a post-masters certificate in nursing education. She has thirty years of nursing experience with expertise in end-of-life and hospice care for the past twelve years. Rita has developed and implemented numerous continuing education presentations for licensed professionals throughout New England on topics including hospice and end of life care; comprehensive pain management; ethical dilemmas; advance care planning; nursing theory; and case management. Additionally, Rita is certified as a Legal Nurse Consultant and she is currently writing a manuscript to publish her Master's thesis: A qualitative phenomenological study on the death experience of a terminally ill patient through the perspective of the spouse.
Program presentations:
195: Decision Making and Advance Directives
196: Managing Stress, Boundaries and Burnout
198: Principles of Pain & Symptom Management

Thomas Williams - BBA, MA  (1949 - 2009)
Tom Williams was the president of Stony Hill Management, Inc. (Fredonia, WI) and CEO of the Home Care Information Network. He was also publisher of Home Care Automation Report and served as executive director of the Home Care Information Technology Council. Tom was involved in the home care industry from more than 20 years and was the former head of the nation's largest Medicare Regional Home Health & Hospice Intermediary and was an executive with a leading home care software vendor. He was author of The Buyer's Guide to Home Health Automation and wrote dozens of articles and made hundreds of presentations to industry groups throughout his career. Tom had a BBA in Information Systems and a MA in Management, both from the University of Georgia.
Program presentations:
213: HIPAA Privacy Training - Admin Staff
214: HIPAA Security Rule
266: HIPAA Privacy Training - Clinical Staff

Heather Wilson - Ph.D
Dr. Heather Wilson is the founder and a principal of Weatherbee Resources, Inc., and  the Hospice Education Network, Inc.  She is the author or co-author of numerous hospice regulatory manuals including  The HIPAA Privacy Rule: Compliance Resources for Hospices and The HIPAA Security Rule, Compliance Resources for Hospice, CoPs in a Book the Final Edition and The QAPI Requirements: Resources for Hospice Programs.  She is also the primary author of The Compliance Program Toolkit: Resources for Hospice Compliance Officers published by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in 2000.  Dr. Wilson is a member of NHPCO's Regulatory Committee, and was the the leader of its Education Workgroup for five years. She has expertise in assisting hospice programs with compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation, developing corporate compliance programs and meeting the new HIPAA regulations. Dr. Wilson has presented workshops on corporate compliance, HIPAA, regulatory compliance and forgiveness at many state and national hospice conferences. She has a Ph.D. in Pastoral Psychology from Boston University. Her dissertation was one of the first empirical studies on the topic of forgiveness.
Program presentations:

652: Medicare Hospice Benefit
513: QAPI Series - Session 1 Introduction to QAPI
514: QAPI Series - Session 2 Program Data and Performance Measures
515: QAPI Series - Session 3 Program Activities
516: QAPI Series - Session 4 Performance Improvement
CoP:  CoP by CoP - What You Need to Know and Do

Carol Wogrin - Psy.D., RN
Carol Wogrin is a licensed psychologist specializing in grief and loss, with a private practice in Newton Center, MA. She is currently the Director of the National Center for Death Education, Mount Ida College, and was formerly the Director of their Bereavement Studies Program. Dr. Wogrin was a founding member and first Executive Director of the Massachusetts Compassionate Care Coalition, a statewide coalition to improve end of life care, formerly the Project Director for the Massachusetts Commission on End of Life Care's End of Life Services Resource Guide, and Clinical Instructor in Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
Program presentations:
182: Grief and Loss: Caring for the Bereaved

Debra Wood - RN, CRNH
Deb Wood is a Certified Hospice & Palliative Care Nurse who has worked in hospice for over 21 years. She has held various positions from primary nurse to after hours triage to staff development educator and Clinical Services Director. She has been a presenter at the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization's national conference as well as other national and state conferences. Her most recent teaching has focused on implementation and utilization of electronic medical records in the clinical bedside setting. Deb has 25 years of nursing experience and a background in pediatric critical care for organ transplants. She credits her most important teachers as being the patients and families to whom she has provided care.
Program presentations:
183: Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation
186: Sexual Harassment