In accordance with the ACCME® Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, Standard 3, all in control of content must disclose any relevant financial relationships. The following in control of content had no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Speakers and Bios

Plenary Speakers 

Dr. Rana Awdish is the author of In Shock, a critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir based on her own critical illness. She is a sought-after public speaker, delivering inspirational keynote addresses to groups ranging from professional medical societies, to members of Congress, to organizations combatting homelessness. A pulmonary and critical care physician, she serves as the current Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Henry Ford Hospital. She also serves as Medical Director of Care Experience for the System, where she has integrated compassionate communication strategies and Narrative Medicine practice into the curriculum. Dr. Awdish received the Schwartz Center’s National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year Award in 2017. She was named Physician of the Year by Press Ganey in 2017 for her work on improving communication and received the Critical Care Teaching Award in 2016. She has been inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Her narrative non-fiction essays have been published in The Examined Life Journal, Intima, CHEST and The New England Journal of Medicine. She has written editorials for The Harvard Business Review, Annals of Internal Medicine, The Washington Post and The Detroit Free Press. Her essay The Shape of the Shore was awarded a Sydney by the New York Times and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Prior to coming to Henry Ford, Dr. Awdish completed her training at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan. She attended Wayne State University Medical School and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

Holly G. Prigerson, PhD is the Irving Sherwood Wright Professor of Geriatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM), and Co-Director, Cornell Center for Research on End-of-Life Care. She has served as PI on numerous NIH investigations, including studies that justified the inclusion of Prolonged Grief Disorder in ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR and which have examined psychosocial influences on and outcomes of end-of-life care. She conducts studies of racial/ethnic disparities in end-of-life care, studies of religiousness and spirituality and examined online tools to detect risk of suicidal ideation in caregivers of patients with end-stage disease or in bereavement. She has been approved for tenure at Harvard, Yale, and Cornell medical schools and received the Harvard Medical School’s Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award, the 2012 NHPCO’s Distinguished Researcher Award, the NCI’s R35 7-year Outstanding Investigator Award which was renewed for another 7 years in 2022, and the 2018 AAHPM award for excellence in scientific research. 

Darrell Owens, DNP, FAAN, BSN, MS is an international expert in palliative care and a certified grief educator who has been with UW Medicine for 19 years. Dr. Owens studied under David Kessler, author, and international grief expert, to obtain his grief educator certification. In 2015, the UAB Alumni Association honored him with the Joanne Barnett Award for Compassionate Care. Over the past 19 years with UW Medicine, he founded the Inpatient and Outpatient Palliative Care Services at Harborview Medical Center and Northwest Hospital in Seattle, WA. In 2011 Dr. Owens was selected as the American Academy of Nurse Practitioner’s Nurse Practitioner of the Year for the State of Washington, and in 2012 was the first nurse practitioner to receive the Cambia Health Foundation’s Sojourn Award for Excellence in Clinical Leadership in Palliative Care. In 2019 he was honored with the University of Washington Distinguished Staff Award for outstanding dedication to the University of Washington Community. In 2020 Dr. Owens was inducted into the Washington State Nurses Association Hall of Fame. In 2021 he was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing, an honor awarded to fewer than 1% of nurses worldwide. In 2022, he was selected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Grief Counseling.

Workshop Presenters 

Drew A Rosielle, MD, FAAPHM is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.  He graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School, completed an internal medicine residency program at the University of Colorado, and palliative care fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He directed the University of Minnesota Medical School Hospice & Palliative Medicine fellowship from 2010-2018. Currently he practices ambulatory palliative medicine at the M Health Fairview Masonic Cancer Center in Minneapolis, MN. Dr Rosielle helps edits Fast Facts and Concepts, and blogs about palliative care at Pallimed.org. He is the winner of a 2013 Hastings Center and Cuniff-Dixon Foundation early career award and the University of Minnesota Medical Center Staff Award for Clinical Education in 2017.

Ruth Drazewski MSN, RN, ACNS-BC, APNP, ACHPN is an advanced practice nurse in the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin specializing in Palliative Care.  She currently works within the Community Hospital Division Palliative Care Program.  She completed nursing school with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1987.  She received her Master’s Degree in Nursing from Marquette University in 1992.  She is a board certified Clinical Nurse Specialist in Adult Health and is board certified as an Advanced Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse.  Ruth has over 29 years of nursing experience with 13 years spent as an advanced practice nurse in palliative care.

Whitney Gilbert MSW, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who majored in social work and received a Bachelor of Arts from Luther College in 2009 and in 2010 received a Master’s in Social Work from the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She has worked in a variety of social work roles and settings including: Hospital and ER based care management, primary care, acute mental health, psychotherapy, and managed care. She is currently working as an LCSW within the Froedtert Community Hospital Division Palliative Care Program.

Will Lyon, MD is currently completing his fellowship in geriatric medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He received his MD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin. His professional interests include inpatient consultative geriatrics, post-acute and long-term care, and geriatric primary care. His academic interests include medical ethics and philosophy of medicine. 

Maria Olex, PsyD completed her undergraduate degree at University of Iowa and her Master’s and Doctorate of Psychology at Adler University in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Olex went on to complete her health service internship at the Medical College of Wisconsin and health psychology post-doctoral fellowship at Henry Ford Health System with a specialization in psych-oncology and otolaryngology. She was the Clinical Psychologist at Columbia St. Mary’s before joining the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2021.

Christine Restivo-Pritzl, APNP is a family nurse practitioner with the Medical College of Wisconsin Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine’s palliative care team in the Community Hospital Division of Froedtert Health.  Her previous nurse practitioner experience included psycho-oncology and family practice. Christine began her nursing career as a bedside RN in medical and surgical neurologic care where she worked for 12 years prior to earning her master’s degree in nursing in 2009.  She is certified as an Advanced Care Hospice and Palliative Nurse.

Concurrent Presenters 

Melissa Atwood, DO, MA completed her residency in Pediatrics at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, IL.  She then came to Children’s Wisconsin for a fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care.  She became interested in Palliative Care and completed a fellowship in Hospice & Palliative Medicine through MCW.  She practiced both Critical Care and Palliative Care for several years before transitioning to full-time Palliative Care in 2020.  She is co-chair of the Ethics committee at CW and serves on the IRB.

Jordan Bauman, MD is a Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellow at MCW. He completed his medical degree at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Subsequently he completed internal medicine training at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Dr. Bauman holds particular interest in the intersection of palliative medicine and malignant hematology in management of high symptom burden while holding hope for cure. 

Alex Bear, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine. She joined the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2017. She completed her undergraduate education at Wellesley College, where she studied chemistry and nanoscience. She completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at MCW, where she subsequently has remained on the faculty for the past 6 years. Her academic interests include empathy and experiential learning models, and she is now the medical director of the inpatient palliative care service at Froedtert Hospital.

Sue Berg, BS, CCLS has been a certified child life specialist for more than 35 years. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Edgewood College in Madison, WI, and completed her masters in Thanatology from Marian University, Fon du Lac, WI. She has been working at Froedtert Hospital for 11 years. As a certified child life specialist, Sue provides psychosocial care to critically and chronically ill patients and their families as well as assisting young adults in their transition to medical care from the pediatric setting to the adult hospital.

Annie Friedrich, PhD, HEC-C is an assistant professor in the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities in the Institute for Health & Equity at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She received her PhD in Health Care Ethics from Saint Louis University with a focus on clinical ethics, pediatric ethics, and empirical research methods in bioethics. In her research, Dr. Friedrich combines theoretical and empirical analyses to explore the ethical dimensions of clinical care, family-provider communication, and decision making. Dr. Friedrich is also an ethics educator and teaches bioethics to medical students, graduate students, and other health professionals. In addition to this work, Dr. Friedrich is a certified healthcare ethics consultant (HEC-C). She works as a clinical ethicist at Children’s Wisconsin and serves on other MCW-affiliated ethics committees. 

Laura Johns, MD is a Hospice and Palliative Medicine physician as well as a practicing Emergency Medicine physician.  She completed her emergency training at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona and her Palliative medicine fellowship at Northwestern University.  She currently practices at Medical College of Wisconsin, splitting her time between the emergency department, inpatient palliative care service and medical education endeavors. 

Laura Kahn, MD completed her medical training and Master's of Public Health at University of Colorado School of Medicine, and Family Medicine residency at Northwestern McGaw/Erie Family Health Centers in Chicago. She is currently a Palliative Fellow at University of Chicago. Her clinical interests include primary palliative care, perinatal palliative care, and strength training for older adults.

Jessica Molinaro, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She completed her undergraduate training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her medical training at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She completed both her general psychiatry residency training and a fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry also at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She is board certified in both Psychiatry and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. Dr. Molinaro specializes in working with patients with a cancer diagnosis and addressing the variety of psychological, behavioral, emotional, and social issues that arise for these patients and their loved ones. Her clinical research focus is on distress in cancer survivorship.

Greg Rozansky, MD came to the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2014 from Montreal, Canada to complete a residency in Neurology. After completing his fellowship training in Neurocritical care, he joined the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology as a Neurointensivist. His research interests include monitoring for vasospasm in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Lyndsey Runaas, MD is an Assistant Professor in the division of hematology and oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin.  She completed her medical education, residency and chief residency at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health before completing fellowship in Hematology & Oncology at the University of Michigan.  She was recruited to MCW in 2017 where her clinical focuses are on myeloid malignancies and allogeneic stem cell transplant.  Her interests include patient-physician communication and shared decision making and medical education.  She is proud to serve as the program director for MCW’s Heme-Onc fellowship. 

Tom Soukup, DO is a Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellow at the University of Minnesota. He completed his medical degree at Des Moines University in central Iowa. Tom subsequently completed residency training in Emergency Medicine at SUNY-Buffalo, New York. Post-residency he has worked as a community physician splitting time between Emergency Medicine and Hospice Medical Director. 

Jen Turpen, DO, MA is a Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellow at MCW. She completed her medical degree at AT Still University, Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine where she completed a pre-doctoral fellowship in medical education. Afterwards she completed family medicine training at Deaconess Hospital in her hometown of Evansville, Indiana. Dr. Turpen's ideal future career is in academic medicine where she can combine her love to palliate and empower the next generation of physicians. 

Katy Van Schyndle, MSN, RN, AGPCNP-BC, ACHPN completed nursing and graduate nursing school at Marquette University in Milwaukee.  She has worked as a nurse practitioner on the palliative care team at MCW for 9 years; primarily working in the outpatient setting. 

The following persons in control of content disclosed the following financial relationships which were reviewed via the MCW conflict of interest mitigation process and addressed.