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 ACE Project Team

Investigators

Shirley Otis-Green, MSW, LCSW, ACSW, OSW-C 
Principal Investigator
Shirley Otis-Green 
Ms. Otis-Green is a licensed clinical social worker and Senior Research Specialist in Nursing Research and Education Division at City of Hope. Her research, presentations and publications focus on end-of-life care and integrated symptom management with emphasis upon underserved populations. As the Principal Investigator for the ACE Project, Shirley Otis-Green is a Project on Death in America Social Work Scholar and brings more than 15 years of experience in palliative care research, education and practice to this study. Ms. Otis-Green was one of six national experts to be named a 2006 Mayday Pain Fellow. Ms. Otis-Green is also the Principal Investigator for the NCI-funded “Cancer Care for the Whole Patient (IOM, 2008): An Oncology Social Work Response.” (2010 – 2015). 


Betty Ferrell, Ph.D., FAAN
   
Co-Investigator
Betty Ferrell 
Dr. Betty Ferrell has been in oncology nursing for 32 years and has focused her clinical expertise and research in pain management, quality of life, and palliative care. Dr. Ferrell is a Professor and Research Scientist at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and she has over 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts. She is Principal Investigator of a Program Project funded by the National Cancer Institute on “Palliative Care for Quality of Life and Symptom concerns in Lung Cancer” and she is also Principal Investigator of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) project. She directs several other funded projects related to end-of-life care and QOL issues. Dr. Ferrell is a member of the National Cancer Policy Forum and was Chairperson of the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care. She served on the National Quality Forum Committee for Preferred Practices in palliative care. She is also the chairperson of the Southern California Cancer Pain Initiative. She has authored eight books – Cancer Pain Management (1995), a text on Suffering (1995), Pain in the Elderly (1996) and the 2nd and 3rd editions of Textbook of Palliative Nursing Care published by Oxford University Press (2006 and 2010). She is also co-author of the text – The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing Spirituality into Patient Care (Templeton Press, 2010). Dr. Ferrell also completed a Masters degree in Theology, Ethics and Culture from Claremont Graduate University in 2007.


Marcia Grant, R.N., DANsc, FAAN
Co-Investigator
Marcia Grant 
Dr. Grant is the Director of Nursing Research & Education, and Professor in the division of Population Sciences. She is also the Co-Leader of the Cancer Control & Population Science Program of the Cancer Center. Her primary program of research focuses on symptom management and quality of life in cancer patients. Dr. Grant’s current studies focus on the effects of an advanced practice nurse-led post discharge intervention for bone marrow transplant survivors, quality of life in ostomy patients, and improving end-of-life and cancer survivor care. She is Principal Investigator on several grants including the NCI-funded studies in Standardized Nursing Intervention Protocol and “Survivorship Education for Quality Cancer Care.” She received her training at Wayne State University and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Grant has published more than 200 articles. Dr. Grant serves on several national committees including the Review Committee for the National Palliative Care Research Center and Subcommittee G, Education, at the National Cancer Institute. She is on the editorial boards for CA: A Journal for Clinicians, Seminars in Oncology Nursing and is a reviewer for several journals including Journal of Cancer Survivorship, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Qualitative Research Journal, Journal of Palliative Medicine, and others. She recently received the Oncology Nursing Society Distinguished Award for Lifetime Achievement.


Faculty and Consultants


Terry Altilio, MSW, ACSW
    
ACE Consultant & Faculty
Terry Altilio 
Ms. Altilio is Coordinator of Social Work for the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care, Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City and a Project on Death in America Social Work Leader.  In 2003, she was selected as Social Worker of the Year by the Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) and received a Professional Recognition Award from the American Cancer Society.  She is on the Advisory Board of the Alliance of State Pain Initiatives. She was also a key consultant in the development of the AOSW Web Course: Pain and Symptom Management: End of Life (2001). In 2006 Ms. Altilio was named a Mayday Pain Fellow. In 2010, she was elected as a Distinguished Social Work Practitioner in the National Academies of Practice. Ms. Altilio and Ms. Otis-Green are co-editors of the Textbook of Palliative Social Work (Oxford University Press, 2011).


Rev. Pamela Baird
    
ACE Faculty
Rev. Pamela Baird 
Rev. Baird is an ordained minister who serves as an end-of-life practitioner providing end-of -life training to both medical professionals and lay persons in the community. Rev. Baird has worked for many years as a hospice and hospital chaplain. She is a graduate of the Metta Institute, End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program and is a recipient of the Southern California Cancer Pain Initiative (SCCPI) Award of Excellence in Pain Management. In 2008, she created Seasons of Life, an innovative community-based program to explore the nature of suffering and the spiritual and existential issues experienced at the end of life.


Rev. Ken Doka, Ph.D.
    
ACE Consultant & Faculty
Rev. Ken Doka, Ph.D. 
Rev. Doka is Professor of Gerontology at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle, NY, an ordained Lutheran minister and Senior Consultant to the Hospice Foundation of America.  In 1998, he received the Association for Death Education and Counseling  (ADEC) Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Death Education, in 2000 the Scott and White Award for Outstanding Professional Contributions in the Field of Thanatology, and in 2001 he was selected to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from Concordia College, Bronxville, NY.  He is the editor of Omega: The Journal of Death and Dying.  In 1995, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Work Group on Dying, Death and Bereavement and served as its chair from 1997-1999.  In his numerous publications, work with the Hospice Foundation of America’s annual National Bereavement Teleconference, as well as his work on many national boards, professional associations, and advisory committees, Rev. Doka has strived to create evidence-based bereavement support.


Julia Kasl-Godley, Ph.D.
  
ACE Faculty
Julia Kasl-Godley, Ph.D. 
Dr. Kasl-Godley is Coordinator of Psychology Training at the Palo Alto Veterans’ Administration Inter-Professional Palliative Care Fellowship Program, Palo Alto, CA.  Dr. Kasl-Godley was among the distinguished faculty chosen by the American Psychological Association’s End of Life Task Force for the committee to encourage the expansion of the role of psychologists in palliative care.  She has published on interventions for anticipatory grief and end-of-life care. In 2003, Dr. Kasl-Godley was awarded the 2003 Theodore Blau Award from the American Psychological Association which recognizes a Clinical Psychologist who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.


Betty Kramer, Ph.D., MSSW
   
ACE Consultant & Faculty
Betty Kramer, Ph.D., MSSW 
Dr. Kramer is a Professor in the School of Social Work and member of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a Project on Death in America Social Work Leader and Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar. She received the 2004 Faculty Achievement Award (from the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work) and an Alumni Fellows Award from the University of Louisville. Her research has focused on the experience of family caregivers, innovations in end-of-life care for elders with advanced chronic disease, and the phenomenon of family conflict at the end-of-life. Dr. Kramer seeks to effect change through her research, teaching and service. She has documented gaps in end-of-life content in leading social work textbooks, participated in developing the lead social work professional organization for palliative care and national mentoring programs, and with colleagues has put forth the national research agenda and competencies for the profession relevant to palliative care.


Lisa Lynne
    
ACE Experiential Consultant & Faculty
Lisa Lynne 
Ms. Lynne is the first Musician-in-Residence at City of Hope.  Her accomplishments as an internationally acclaimed Celtic Harpist include releases that have placed in the Top 10 of the Billboard music chart as well as holding top positions in the Celtic, New Age and World Music radio airplay charts.  Ms. Lynne is active in the harp therapy movement and she and Shirley Otis-Green developed the Hands on Harps Program at City of Hope in 2002 to explore the relaxation and distraction benefits of music for oncology patients, their families and staff.  In recognition of the diversity at City of Hope, Ms. Lynne’s network of touring performers (representing a variety of musical styles) provides monthly free concerts to patients and staff. Based on the success of Hands-on-Harps at City of Hope, Lisa has been invited to speak at several Los Angeles hospitals resulting in  similar programs implemented at Eisenhower Hospital, Riverside Community Hospital Huntington Memorial and two Kaiser Permanentes where Lisa provides music and musicians for their patient care areas.


Robert Twillman, Ph.D.
    
ACE Consultant & Faculty
Robert Twillman, Ph.D.
Dr. Twillman is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS.  Dr. Twillman was previously the Pain Management Program Director of the University of Kansas Hospital, and served for 9 years as Director of Psychosocial Services at the University of Kansas Cancer Center. Dr. Twillman is a nationally recognized expert in pain and palliative care and is the past chair of the Board for the American Alliance of Cancer Pain Initiatives and the past-chair of the Analgesic Regulatory Affairs Committee of the American Pain Society. His publications have centered on pain management and the emerging role of psychologists in palliative care and he maintains an active interest in the impact of public policy on pain management.

Staff

Eunice Yang, MPH
ACE Coordinator
Eunice Yang, MPH 
Born and raised in Atlanta, Ms. Yang graduated from the University of Georgia with a BA in Political Science and a minor in Korean. After graduating from college, she went on her first trip to Africa on a medical mission, which changed her career path to public health and humanitarian efforts. Ms. Yang graduated from the George Washington University with a MPH in Global Health summer of 2009. She returned from a three-month trip in the summer of 2009 to Uganda working with the AIDS Support Organization on a global health fellowship through her university. Ms. Yang is the ACE Project Newsletter Editor.


Lisa Kilburn, BA

Ace Project Staff Member
Lisa Kilburn 
Originally from Boston, Ms. Kilburn recently moved out to Southern California with plans to pursue her passion in healthcare and education. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island and completed her BA in Political Science and Spanish.  She then went to work for two years in Barcelona, Spain where she sharpened her Spanish speaking skills and is currently a licensed ESL and Spanish Teacher in MA. Ms. Kilburn is assisting Ms. Altilio and Ms. Otis-Green in the publication of their book, Textbook of Palliative Social Work.

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