Winners of the Project on Death in America (PDIA) Social Work Leadership Award, a new award for social workers advancing their role in hospice, palliative and end-of-life care, have been announced by the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN).

SWHPN and PDIA established the annual Social Work Leadership Award last year to honor individual social workers who demonstrate outstanding leadership and who have advanced the field in end-of-life, hospice and palliative care. The 2007 PDIA Social Work Leadership Award winners are:

Debra Parker Oliver, MSW, Ph.D., respected as a social work professor and researcher with a rich background in hospice work. She is Director of Doctoral Studies and Associate Professor at University of Missouri-Columbia’s School of Social Work. Before earning her doctorate at the University of Missouri she held leadership positions in hospice organizations for over ten years.

Debra was awarded a National Cancer Institute R-21 Grant Award as Principal Investigator in Patient and Family Participation in Hospice Interdisciplinary Teams, an innovative care strategy aimed at using videophone technology to bring cancer patients and their families into hospice care planning meetings. This was the first NCI grant ever awarded to the University of Missouri School of Social Work.

Shirley-Otis Green, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, OSW-C worked for more than a decade as a licensed clinical oncology social worker before her current position as Senior Research Specialist in the Nursing Research Department at the City of Hope National Medical Center. Her extensive research, presentations and publications over the past five years highlight transdisciplinary palliative care and integrated symptom management, with a special focus on underserved populations.

Shirley’s funded research includes being the primary investigator of a major 5-year National Cancer Institute R-25 Grant Award for development and implementation of the ACE Project, a palliative care educational experience to improve the delivery of care by social workers and other professionals through an intensive advocacy and leadership training program (ACE Project: www.cityofhope.org/ACEproject).

The Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network is proud to announce these two very deserving winners and encourages future nominations for 2008. The PDIA Social Work Leadership Award is an extension of the five-year program from the Open Society Institute’s Project on Death in America to expand social work leadership in care at the end of life.

The Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network is an emerging network of social work organizations and leaders who seek to further the field of end-of-life, hospice and palliative care and improve quality of life for the seriously ill and their families. Grace Christ, Professor, Columbia University School of Social Work, is the current chair of this organization.

To learn more about the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network, please visit:
http://www.swhpn.org/

To learn more about the 2007 PDIA Social Work Leadership Award winners, please visit:
http://www.swhpn.org/leadershipaward/

The Call for Nomination for the 2008 award will be distributed early in 2008.

Press Contact Information

National Assoc. of Social Workers
anadelhaft@naswdc.org
202-336-8228

Source URL: http://www.socialworkers.org/

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