CEO of the Center for Practical Bioethics from 1984-2011 and Foley Chair in Pain and Palliative Care. Served as National Program Officer for $11.25m the RWJF, directed the PAINS Project. Helped draft the Patient Self-Determination Act, advised Bill Moyers on On Our Own Terms. Worked with CMMS to present 1st conference on palliative care in LTC, collaborated with National Assoc. of Attorneys General to establish palliative care as a consumer protection issue and with RAND Institute to create a Congressional report on advance care planning. Speaks and writes about both pain and palliative care. Served on the IOM Committee that published Relieving Pain in America, the NIH Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee and Oversight Committee for the National Pain Strategy. Reviewer on the National Academies report, Dying in America and consulted with many other organizations, including the Joint Commission, CDC, CMMS, and AARP. A founder of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Illness in Washington, DC. Served on many boards and advisory groups: Coalition for Physician Accountability, American Assoc. of Critical Care Nursing Certification Board, Duke Univ. Institute for Care at the End of Life, Fed. of State Medical Boards, American Bar Assoc. COLA, and American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation.Received awards from the American Academy of Pain, American Academy of Integrative Pain Management, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Wm. Jewell College, GE Healthcare, National Assoc. of Attorneys General President. Was named Outstanding Alumni from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Missouri-KC, Honorary Alumnus Kansas University School of Nursing, and Nonprofit Professional of the Year, and an Honorary Doctorate from National Univ. Health Sciences in Chicago. Inducted into the Starr Women’s Hall of Fame at UMKC and holds Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Bioethics + Humanities.

The Center is a free-standing bioethics center. Our work is focused on ethics and health policy. Strategic areas of interest include care of those with advanced illness, medical decision making, chronic pain, and life science research ethics. It has been widely recognized by organizations as diverse as the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the National Association of Attorneys General. My life mission is to improve care for the seriously ill and dying and those who live with chronic pain. Currently, I am working to organize the Pain Action Alliance to Implement a National Strategy (PAINS) to advance recommendations in the IOM report, Relieving Pain in America. It was MU privilege to serve on the committee that issued this report. Currently, I am serving on the Interagency Pain Research coordinating Committee at NIH.