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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Dealing with Death by Dealing with Our Dead

Thomas Lynch

Thomas Lynch is the author of three collections of poetry: Skating with Heather Grace Grimalkin & Other Poems Still Life in Milford
His collection of essays: The Undertaking—Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, won the Heartland Prize for non-fiction, The American Book Award, and was a Finalist for the National Book Award. It has been translated into seven languages. A second collection of essays, Bodies in Motion and at Rest, won The Great Lakes Book Award. Booking Passage: We Irish & Americans

His commentaries have been recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio, RTE in Ireland and NPR. He is the recipient of grants and awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Michigan Council for the Arts, The Michigan Library Association, The Writers Voice Project, The National Book Foundation, The Arvon Foundation in Great Britain and The Irish Arts Council.

He has read and lectured at universities and literary centers throughout Europe, The United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and across the United States. He is a regular presenter to professional conferences of funeral directors, hospice and medical ethics professionals, clergy, educators and business leaders. He has been an Adjunct Professor in the graduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC, The Today Show, and the PBS-Bill Moyers Series, "On Our Own Terms."

Friday, May 14, 2010

Opening Plenary: "Live to Fight Another Day"

Malene Davis

As President and CEO of Capital Hospice, Davis leads more than 350 paid staff, including physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, home health aides, and 750 trained volunteers.

Davis has been very active in end-of-life issues on the national level with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Since 2004, she has been a member of NHPCO's National Hospice Work Group, a consortium of executives from the 25 largest and most highly-regarded hospice programs in the U.S. Davis has been an NHPCO board member since 1998 and was elected to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors of NHPCO in 2007.

As an educator, Davis helped establish the curriculum in end-of-life care at West Virginia University School of Nursing. She also taught nursing care of the elderly at the West Virginia University Center on Aging. She has spoken nationally and published numerous articles on end-of-life care focusing on rural issues, organizational growth, nursing home care and disease-specific topics.