Academic Retreat

Retreat Leadership

Rachelle Bernacki is the Director of Quality Initiatives in the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bernacki is also the Director of Care Transformation and Post-Operative Services at the Brigham and Women’s Center for Geriatric Surgery, and served as the Associate Director of the Serious Illness Care Program at Ariadne Labs. Her areas of expertise are focused on advance care planning (ACP), communication, implementation science and the integration of palliative care and geriatrics into population health and surgery. Dr. Bernacki is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) and the American Geriatrics Society, and on the board of AAHPM.

Dr. Elise Carey is Associate Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and Chair of Education & Faculty Development for the enterprise-wide Center for Palliative Medicine. She has held multiple national leadership roles, including currently serving as a Strategic Partner and Distinguished Faculty of VitalTalk (vitaltalk.org) and as a Director-at-large of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She teaches communication and teaching skills to practicing clinicians across the country.

Dr. Laura J. Morrison is Associate Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics) and clinician-educator at Yale School of Medicine, serving as Director of Palliative Medicine Education and Director, Yale Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship. She’s clinically active on the Yale New Haven Hospital Palliative Care Consultation Service. Dr. Morrison continues to lead national work on competency and accreditation standards for hospice and palliative medicine fellowships and advance the approach to learner assessment in the field. Dr. Morrison is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) and the American College of Physicians and is a board member of AAHPM.

Dr. Lynn O’Neill is Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Faculty Development, Department of Family & Preventive Medicine; Associate Director of the Palliative Care Center; and Program Director of the Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She works clinically as a staff physician in palliative care at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. She is the Vice President for Internal Education provides oversight to annual courses including the ENRICH Faculty Development Course and the Winter Course for faculty members and faculty-in-training.  She developed the communication course, Geritalk, designed to provide fellows in geriatrics and palliative care with the essential skills necessary to discuss serious news and goals of care, and is Distinguished Faculty of VitalTalk. 

VJ Periyakoil, MD, Professor of Medicine; Associate Dean of Research (Geriatrics and Palliative Care), Founding Director, the Stanford Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program and Founding Director, the Stanford Palliative Care Education & Training Program. Dr. Periyakoil is the Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Palliative Medicine, Associate Editor, of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and Associate Director of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. She is the Chair emerita of the Ethnogeriatrics Committee of the American Geriatrics Society. She served as a Board member and founding chair of the Diversity Committee of the CFAS, American Association of Medical Colleges. Her work is funded by grants from NIH, HRSA, foundations as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dr. Sanchez-Reilly is the Associate Chief of Staff for Geriatrics and Extended Care at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System. She has successfully led and expanded programs for the homebound and frailest Veterans of the System. A nationally recognized leader, Dr. Sanchez-Reilly is a professor, board certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Hospice/Palliative Medicine. Dr. Sanchez-Reilly is the Division Chief of Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Sanchez-Reilly was instrumental during the COVID-19 pandemic as a core leader for palliative care services, home COVID programs and post-COVID initiatives.

Dr. Jane deLima Thomas is the Associate Director for the Harvard Interprofessional Palliative Care Fellowship and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Thomas’s academic focus is teaching clinician self-awareness in communicating with patients, families, other clinicians, and learners. She has taught widely about mindfulness of emotion in the clinical encounter, the role of hope in palliative care, and clinician self-care. Her teaching has roots in her clinical practice as a palliative care physician; the desire to teach others to be effective, empathic communicators springs from her own deep pleasure when she can achieve that with her patients.