Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, MD

Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, MD is a Professor of Medicine, Humanities, and Public Health Sciences. She joined the faculty of Penn State College of Medicine in 2013 and practices Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and was recently awarded the Parker B. Francis Jo Rae Wright Award for scientific excellence. Her research studies end-of-life issues and includes advanced care planning, communication, and end-of-life decision-making. She is the director of Project Talk, a research program that studies the impact of innovative conversational tools in a variety of settings including the intensive care unit and community groups. Her research includes theory-based approaches to the assessment of communication quality and behaviors related to end-of-life conversation. She is the author of an ICU family meeting tool, ‘Let’s Talk’ that is currently under study.

Dr. Van Scoy is also a mixed methodologist with expertise in using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine behavioral interventions in randomized controlled trials. As co-founder and co-director of the Penn State Qualitative and Mixed Methods Core (QMMC), she serves as a methodology consultant for a wide variety of mixed-method projects and topics, including large, randomized controlled trials, pharmacological drug trials, and education projects.

Her research profile including grants and publications can be found here: https://pennstate.pure.elsevier.com/en/persons/lauren-van-scoy

A listing of publications can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/lauren.van%20scoy.1/bibliography/public/

Pamela Witt

Pamela Witt is a research project manager at Penn State College of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care.  Pamela has managed and conducted IRB-approved research at Penn State (NIH, PCORI, NCATS, SCCM, foundations), including publication of findings. She also served as a community engagement coordinator with Penn State College of Medicine Clinical and Translational Science Institute and has extensive experience working with community organizations. Prior to joining Penn State, she served in full-time ministry as an administrative director for the senior pastor and church ministries of a large multicultural congregation, as well as a health ministry leader. In these roles, she coordinated church and community-wide special events; led and mobilized volunteer teams, and developed new ministries and initiatives. As a health ministry leader, she coordinated and led health fairs and screenings, educational workshops, fitness classes, and health awareness campaigns, among other responsibilities. Pamela lends this expertise to provide community-focused, patient, and family-centered perspectives to community-engaged research and initiatives.

Maria Katsaros MS, CCC-SLP

Maria Katsaros MS, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist whose clinical expertise is vast in the critical care and acute care setting. Her areas of special interest include: improving health outcomes and quality of life associated with disorders of airway protection in the critically ill; establishing treatment paradigms in the critically ill to facilitate improved outcomes with swallowing; and improving communication and decision making with swallowing disorders at the end of life. Ms. Katsaros currently conducts her clinical work as an independent contractor in an array of hospitals in both Pennsylvania and New York, while maintaining a research position with Dr. Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care at Penn State’s College of Medicine.

Emily Wasserman, MAS

Emily Wasserman has been a Research Data Analyst in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Penn State Hershey’s College of Medicine since 2016. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics and Master of Applied Statistics degree from The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. Emily has been a collaborative study team member for a number of Dr. Van Scoy’s research projects, along with Dr. Vern Chinchilli. Research objectives for these studies assessed communication quality and evaluated end of life care and advanced care planning behaviors. Emily is also the consulting statistician analyzing quantitative data for the Qualitative and Mixed Methods Core at Penn State, co-directed by Dr. Van Scoy. 

Amy Tucci

Amy Tucci is President and CEO of Hospice Foundation of America (HFA). She began work with HFA in 2004, directing its national annual Living with Grief^® educational event and its Washington, DC office and staff. She has produced numerous educational programs on advanced illness care and grief and has edited more than a dozen books on topics involving end of life, including ethics; pain management; child and adolescent grief; grief theory; aging; diversity; and spirituality. In addition to carrying out HFA’s core mission, Amy has overseen or is actively engaged with several national grant-funded initiatives related to advance care planning, children and funerals, and autism and grief. She serves as director of the TAPS Institute for Hope and Healing® at the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. Prior to joining HFA, Amy was a press secretary on Capitol Hill for the Committee on Ways and Means; vice president of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, and director of communications and membership for the American Public Human Services Association. She began her career as a newspaper journalist. Amy is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and currently serves on HFA’s Board of Directors, the Board of Consultors for the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University, and the Leadership and Development Committee for the Association for Death, Education, and Counseling.

Cindy Bramble

Cindy Bramble, Director of Development for Hospice Foundation of America (HFA), oversees HFA’s development, membership, marketing, and outreach programs and has served as project manager for several major grant projects, including Being Mortal and Hello. Prior to her role at HFA, Ms. Bramble served as a board member and committee chair for Southeastern Diabetes Education Services and secured the necessary funding to establish a day camp for children with Type 1 diabetes in her community. She also served as community outreach project coordinator through the University of Alabama’s Office of Health Promotion & Wellness and was integral in her role on several diabetes awareness community campaigns.

Lindsey Currin

Lindsey Currin, Senior Program Officer at Hospice Foundation of America (HFA), previously conducted research events and focus groups for the Hello grant project partnership between HFA and Penn State and Dr. Van Scoy. Lindsey has a BA in sociology from the College of Wooster and has completed course work for her MSc in Palliative Care at King’s College in London, her thesis will be completed in 2021. In her role at HFA, Lindsey has been a producer for HFA’s annual Living with Grief^® professional education program for the past several years and is managing editor of Journeys: A Newsletter to Help in Bereavement.

Denise Grant

Denise Grant is the Digital Media Manager at Hospice Foundation of America (HFA). She joined HFA in 2019 to design print and digital media using the established design system and brand guidelines as well as produce creative content for social media and marketing platforms. She received her Bachelor of Science in Graphic Communication Systems at North Carolina A&T State University in 2018 and her Master of Art in Interaction Design at The George Washington University in 2020. She specializes in using the Human-Centered Design Process to produce valuable prototypes that focus on social change. She also serves as the marketing assistant for the Project Talk Trial.