Living With Grief: Alzheimer's Disease

Hospice Foundation of America
Eleventh Annual Bereavement Teleconference
April 28, 2004

PANELISTS

Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv, is a Professor of Gerontology at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle. He is also Senior Consultant to Hospice Foundation of America. Dr. Doka has written or edited 16 books and published 60 articles and book chapters. He is editor of Omega, a professional journal, and Journeys, HFA's monthly bereavement newsletter. Dr. Doka was elected President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) in 1993. He was elected to the Board of the International Work Group on Dying, Death and Bereavement in 1995, and served as chair from 1997 to 1999. In 1998, ADEC recognized him for outstanding contributions in the field of death education. Dr. Doka is an ordained Lutheran minister.

Parag Dalsania, MD, is director of the Geriatric Clinic for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington, DC. Serving with a faculty appointment as Assistant Professor of Medicine for the George Washington University School of Medicine and on the faculty for the fellows in Geriatric Medicine Fellowship, he has lectured widely on medical topics related to aging, including Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Dr. Dalsania is a member of the American Geriatric Society and serves as a board member for the local chapter. He also serves as staff Geriatrician for Providence Hospital in Washington, DC. 

Lisa P. Gwyther, MSW, LCSW, is a clinical social worker with 30 years experience in aging and Alzheimer's services. In 1980, she started the Duke University Center for Aging's Alzheimer's Family Support Program, a model state clearinghouse, training and technical assistance center for families and professionals caring for people with Alzheimer's disease. In 2003, Ms. Gwyther was named a distinguished social work practitioner by the National Academies of Practice. Since 1985, Ms. Gwyther has directed the education/information transfer core of the National Institute on Aging-funded Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Duke University Medical Center.

William E. Haley, PhD, received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He completed a clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship in Geriatric Psychology at the University of Washington-Seattle School of Medicine. After 12 years on the faculty in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Haley joined the University of South Florida's Department of Gerontology as Professor and Chair in 1995.

Richard J. Ham, MD, is Director of the West Virginia University Center on Aging. He is also Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Psychiatry at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center in Morgantown. Dr. Ham's research, teaching, and clinical practice focus on improving health care for older persons living in remote areas. A major goal is earlier detection and better clinical management of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Dr. Ham has edited or co-edited ten textbooks on geriatric medicine and contributed chapters to several others. For ten years, he chaired or co-chaired annual regional professional conferences co-sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association. He also helped organize the First Annual Dementia Congress, which was held in Chicago in September, 2002. He is a principle author of Best Practices in Service Delivery to the Rural Elderly, prepared for the Administration on Aging and its 2003 report to Congress.

Lin E. Noyes, PhD, RN, is Clinical Director of the Alzheimer's Family Day Center in Falls Church, Virginia, where she has worked since it opened in 1984. She has developed holistic programs for people with Alzheimer's disease and their families from the early stages of illness to end-stage care. Dr. Noyes is a founding member of the Alzheimer's Association, Northern Virginia Chapter, and was a member of the Public Policy Committee of the national Alzheimer's Association from 1989 to 1994. She received her PhD in Administration, Health Policy and Ethics in Nursing at the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at George Mason University in May, 2001. Dr. Noyes is an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University and is a frequent lecturer for professionals and families on Alzheimer's disease.

Therese A. Rando, PhD, BCETS, BCBT is a clinical psychologist in Warwick, Rhode Island. She is the Clinical Director of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss, which provides mental health services through psychotherapy, training, supervision, and consultation. Dr. Rando specializes in loss and grief, traumatic stress, and the psychosocial care of chronically or terminally ill persons and their families. An internationally recognized researcher, author, and lecturer, Dr. Rando's current work focuses on complicated mourning, loss of a child, the interface between posttraumatic stress and grief, and intervention techniques in the treatment of traumatic bereavement.