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Speakers and Bios

Plenary Speakers 

Jessica Zitter, MD is a national advocate for improving the way we die in America. Throughout her twenty-five years as an ICU physician, she has had a front-row seat to the public health crisis of over-mechanized dying. Her mission is to unveil this hidden crisis through personal narrative and the stories of real patients— and to envision a new way forward. Whether caring for patients, making films, writing, or speaking on the national stage, her message is clear: We must bring more honesty, compassion, and justice to the care of patients with serious and end-stage illness. In that way, we will achieve the best life possible for all.

Caroline Dorsen, PhD, FNP-BC, FAAN, is a nurse practitioner, scholar and educator whose passion is the intersection of health and social justice. She is currently the Associate Dean for Clinical Partnerships at Rutgers School of Nursing and an Associate Professor of Nursing and Public Health. For the last 20 years, she has focused on the complex causes of health disparities in the LGBTQ+ community, with a particular interest in the role of providers in perpetuating and mitigating them. In 2021, she was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing for her pioneering work in this area.

Eric Widera, MD is a professor of medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California San Francisco. His main goal is to improve the care provided to elderly patients with severe chronic or terminal conditions. Eric accomplishes this through various leadership roles, including Director of the Hospice & Palliative Care Service at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and Associate Program Director for the Geriatrics Fellowship at UCSF. He is also on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM). Eric has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award, AAHPM Hospice and Palliative Medicine Leaders Under 40 award, and the AAHPM PDIA Palliative Medicine National Leadership Award. He is also a co-founder of GeriPal, a Geriatrics and Palliative Care blog and podcast, as well as ePrognosis, an online set of prognostic calculators for the elderly.

Workshop Presenters 

Toby Campbell, MD, MSCI, FAAHPM is Professor of Medicine, Chief of Palliative Care and the Ellen and Peter O. Johnson Chair in Palliative Care. He is also a thoracic medical oncologist in the division of hematology, oncology and palliative care at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Campbell completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Virginia; his internal medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin; and fellowships in medical oncology and palliative medicine at Northwestern University where he also received a master’s degree in clinical investigation. His research interests are in high-risk shared decision-making, communication education, empathy, and models of care for palliative care implementation. He has received numerous awards related to both his research and his compassionate care.

Rhiannon Talbot, DO is a Medical Education Fellow and Clinical Instructor with the section of Palliative Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She completed her Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship at UW-Madison in 2021 after completing Family Medicine residency with certificates in Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment and Integrative Medicine through Research Family Medicine Residency in Kansas City, MO.  She attended Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences and graduated in 2017 with her DO and MA in Bioethics.  Professional interests include health humanities, bioethics, and teaching communication skills.

Sarah Nickoloff, MD is an associate professor in General Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She is fellowship trained in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and she currently serves as the Community Living Center Medical Director and the Chief of Inpatient Medicine at the Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, WI. Her interests include complex transitions of care and trainee education.

Katherine Recka, MD is an Associate Professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, specializing in hospice and palliative medicine at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center. She graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2006. Dr. Recka completed a residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics through the Medical College of Wisconsin and Affiliated Hospitals in 2010 and a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at the University of Michigan in 2011. Dr. Recka is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and has an interest in bioethics and in quality improvement.

Samantha Wojnowiak, APNP is a Nurse Practitioner at the Medical College of Wisconsin, currently working on Froedtert Hospital’s inpatient Palliative Care team. She has worked in Palliative Care for nearly 6 years. She is particularly interested in end of life nursing education, and is an active member of the Froedtert Hospital Schwartz Rounds Committee.

Concurrent Presenters 

Nyembezi Dhliwayo, MD received her medical degree from the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin; she completed Internal Medicine residency at Captain James A Lovell VA Hospital/Chicago Medical School in 06/2021 prior to joining the Palliative/Hospice medicine fellowship at Cook County Hospital/Rush University Medical Center. Prior to medical school, she undertook biomedical research in Diabetes & Regenerative medicine, and a Wellesley women’s leadership fellowship. Her clinical interest is mainly in the growing international field of palliative care in global health, as well as racial/ethnic disparities in the management of cancer related pain as a budding oncologist. Nyembezi will be joining the Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Rush University Medical Center in the fall of 2022.
Outside of work, she enjoys reading biographies, travelling and fusion culinary arts; she’s a newly certified spinning/cycling instructor with a huge interest in raising awareness on holistic health/wellness.

Liana Eskola, DO is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Palliative Medicine in the Division of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care within the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She is heavily involved in the education of UW’s Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellows as an Associate Program Director, director of the Narrative Medicine Program, co-director of the Well-being and Resiliency curriculum, and fellowship site director at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. Her academic interests include medical humanities, clinician well-being, simulation-based communication training, and palliative care for people with heart failure. Originally from California, she enjoys gardening, reading, and spending quiet time with her husband and cat at home in Madison.

Leanne Groban, MD is a Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellow at Advocate Aurora Health. She did an anesthesiology residency and cardiothoracic anesthesia fellowship at Wake Forest School of Medicine (aka Bowman Gray School of Medicine) prior to staying on as a faculty member. Besides her exemplary perioperative care of the older surgical patient, teaching and mentoring numerous medical students and residents, she’s been the primary investigator of several NIH-funded grants focusing on the underpinnings of female sex-specific diastolic dysfunction.

Lara India, MD, originally hailing from the Chicago suburbs, is an anesthesiologist and palliative care physician at the Medical College of Wisconsin. During her brief stint in Baltimore while completing her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering, Dr. India realized how deeply she valued communication and shared human experiences over the technical, behind-the-scenes systems that she'd been studying. This new awareness ultimately led her to medical school, where meaningful interactions occur surrounded by science. She is passionate about bringing novel pain management techniques from the perioperative world to the palliative world.  

Divya Patel, MD is a Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellow at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She attended Saba University School of Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine with MedStar Health Internal Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. She plans to continue a career in Hospice and Palliative Medicine on the West Coast.   

Wendy Peltier, MD received her medical training at Rush Medical College, completed Neurology residency and Neuromuscular fellowship at the University of Michigan, and has been a faculty member MCW since 1996.  As a busy neurologist, residency director and clinician-educator, she developed a passion for teaching and end-of-life care, which led to pursuit of a Faculty Vitality Award in 2011.  This award supported clinical time at Zilber Hospice and with the MCW Palliative Care Team, and led to board certification in Hospice and Palliative Medicine.  She then served as Palliative Care Section Head for eight years, working to grow palliative care services across F&MCW and also helped in launching a floating hospice service at Froedtert Hospital.  More recently, Dr. Peltier has served on the Faculty Pillar of the MCW Kern Institute, which is striving to transform medical education through focus on Caring and Character.  In her free time, Dr. Peltier enjoys yoga, family time, dog walks and eating delicious Sunday suppers cooked by her husband and son.

Michelle Wildgen is the author of four novels, a longtime literary journal and freelance editor, and the cofounder of the Madison Writers’ Studio. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review and Modern Love column, O, the Oprah Magazine, Poets & Writers, and elsewhere. She has run a writing group with the UW Palliative Care fellows and other interested physicians since 2017.

Planning Committee

Co-Directors of Activity: 

Renee Foutz, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin 

Paul Stellmacher, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin

NP and PA Committee:

Katy Van Schyndle, AGPCNP-BC, APNP, ACHPN, Nurse Practitioner, Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin

Susan Stolz, PA-C, Physician Assistant, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Medical College of Wisconsin

Program Coordinator

Amanda Szymkowski, BA, Administrative Coordinator, Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine