PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Cambia Health Foundation has announced the selection of 12 new emerging palliative care leaders for its Sojourns® Scholar Leadership Program. In its fifth year, this program identifies, cultivates and advances the next generation of palliative care leaders.
The latest cohort was chosen following a rigorous selection process from a highly competitive pool of candidates that included all members of the interdisciplinary team and health systems professionals working to advance palliative care.
Each Sojourns Scholar receives a two-year, $180,000 grant ($90,000/year over a two-year period) to conduct an innovative and impactful project tied to a leadership development plan that positions the scholar for growth as a national leader in the field of palliative care. Scholars also join a collaborative learning community where they receive one-to-one mentoring from an established palliative care leader and targeted training on key leadership skills.
“We are excited to support the development of these emerging leaders and enhance their expertise so that they can influence health care system change,” said Peggy Maguire, president and board chair, Cambia Health Foundation. “These palliative care professionals demonstrate that care is better when we focus on what matters to people instead of what’s the matter with them. We hope their leadership will influence compassionate, person-focused care throughout the system.”
Listed below are the 2018 Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program Grant Recipients:
| Name | Institution | Innovative Project |
| Carey Candrian, PhD | University of Colorado School of Medicine | Communication guidelines to improve the quality of hospice admission interactions |
| Abby R. Rosenberg, MD, MS, MA, FAAP | University of Washington, Seattle Children's Hospital | Promoting Resilience in Adolescents and Young Adults with Serious Illness |
| Rebecca Wright, PhD, BSc (Hons), RN | Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing | The emergency department- A safety net model for palliative care |
| Stephen H/ Berns, MD | University of Vermont College of Medicine | Telecocaching Palliative Care Communication Skills for Rural Clinicians |
| Allison Kestenbaum, MA, MPA, BCC, ACPE Certified Educator | University of California San Diego | Palliative Care Specialty Spiritual Care Education |
| Jennie W. Kung, MBA | University of California LA Health | Advance Care Planning (ACP): Building the Foundation for Comprehensive Delivery of Personalized Medicine |
| Bridget Sumser, MSW | University of California San Francisco Medical Center | Palliative Care Education for Social Workers (PCE-SW) |
| Cardinale B. Smith, MD, PhD | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | The Role of Implicit Bias on Outcomes of Minority Patients with Advanced Cancer |
| Charlotta Lindvall, MD, PhD | Dana Farber Cancer Institute | Deep Learning in Palliative Care (DeepLeaP) |
| Deborah Fisher, PhD, RN, PPCNP-BC, CHPPN | Children's National Health System | Preparing the adult community based palliative care (CBPC) provider to care for the pediatric patient |
| Elizabeth Anderson, DSW, LCSW | Western Carolina University | Best practices to engage rural families and caregivers in the palliative care needs of patients with kidney disease |
| Joanna Paladino, MD | Ariadne Labs | Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: A Surveyt to Measure Palliative and End-of-Life Care Culture |
To learn more about the individual scholars, please visit the Sojourns Scholars Scholar page on the Cambia Health Foundation website.
The Cambia Health Foundation launched the Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program in 2014 with the goal of advancing capacity, leadership and innovation in the field of palliative care. The Foundation’s purposeful investment in palliative care leadership supports a larger vision of a transformed health care system that is more compassionate and person-focused. Since the program started, Cambia has awarded more than $9 million to 52 scholars around the country, each focused on different areas of palliative care, but all committed to improving the experience of people facing serious illness and their caregivers.
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