樱花动漫

Black Maternal Health: Addressing Disparities, Bridging Gaps, and Building a Better Future

FRIDAY, October 24, 2025
10:00 am 鈥� 12:00 pm (eastern time)
Live Webinar on Zoom
(You will need to register to receive login information)

Registration: 2 CEU Credit Hours
General:  Through Oct.16: $50; Oct. 17-23: $60
Wurzweiler Alumni and Current WSSW Practicum Instructors: Through Oct.16: $40; Oct. 17-23: $50
All Current Students: $15

Registration closes on 10/23/25 at 5:00 Eastern Time (EST)

This program will examine the persistent disparities in Black maternal health and mental health, with a focus on the systemic factors that have contributed to them. 

Based on her practice and research, Dr. Monique Rainford provides an overview of the issues, including consideration of the role of health disparities and their causes. She will also highlight evidence-based strategies and innovative solutions to close these gaps, offering a path toward more equitable and effective models of care. 

Dr. Dominique Phinn will explore the unique clinical risk factors that contribute to disparities in mental health. She will apply evidence-based interventions, illustrated by clinical practice, integrating trauma-informed and anti-racist practices.

Learning Objectives

As a result of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Increase their awareness of disparities in Black maternal health and mental health and their underlying causes.
2. Identify and explore evidence-based solutions to reduce disparities and improve outcomes.
3. Analyze the role of structural racism, systemic inequities, and intergenerational trauma in shaping mental health outcomes.
4. Develop clinical strategies to support advocacy, healing, and culturally affirming care.
    

Presenters

 

Monique Rainford, MD, MBA, is the CEO and Co-founder of Enrich Health, LLC, a maternity healthcare delivery center in Connecticut dedicated to eliminating disparities in maternal health. She is a board-certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist, author, public speaker, and leading voice on health disparities affecting Black women in America. 

Dr. Rainford is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, where she earned the Robert H. Ebert Award in Primary Care Medicine. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In addition to her current leadership roles, Dr. Rainford has served as Center Medical Director at Baltimore Medical System and as Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale Health. She currently holds an appointment as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine.  

Dr. Rainford鈥檚 third book, Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America, was published in 2023. She has been featured on numerous media platforms, and was recognized as one of Poets & Quants鈥� Best & Brightest Executive MBAs of 2024.

Dominique Phinn, DSW, LMSW, brings over a decade of experience in clinical practice, higher education, and community-based work, with a strong focus on trauma-informed care, maternal mental health, and reproductive justice. She has worked with adolescents, young adults, and parents navigating depression, anxiety, birth trauma, racial stress, and identity exploration. She integrates culturally responsive care, narrative therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and solution-focused approaches in her work. 

Dr. Phinn received her PhD from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, where she is currently an adjunct professor. She is especially passionate about supporting Black birthing people through postpartum transitions, perinatal mood disorders, and grief and loss.

25 Years of Palliative Care: Looking Back and Projecting Forward

Co-Sponsors: Plaza Jewish Community Chapel
Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC)

FRIDAY, November 21, 2025
10:00 am 鈥� 1:30 pm (eastern time)
Live Webinar on Zoom
(You will need to register to receive login information)

Registration: 3.5 CEU Credit Hours
General:  Through Nov. 11: $75; Nov. 12-20: $90
Wurzweiler Alumni and Current WSSW Practicum Instructors: Through Nov. 11: $60; Nov. 12-20: $75 
All Current Students: $15

Registration closes on 11/20/25 at 5:00 Eastern Time (EST)

The development of palliative care over a quarter of a century ago has transformed serious illness and end-of-life care.

From its modest beginnings, palliative care 鈥� which addresses pain, psychosocial and spiritual care 鈥� has grown throughout the US and internationally.

Long-time healthcare leaders will explore the evolution and growth of hospice and palliative care programs over 25 years, and forecast where they anticipate the field may be headed as it responds to the dynamic growth of an aging society and other socioeconomic trends.

Interprofessional leaders from palliative care practice, policy, ethics, and research will join with consumer advocates to present both historical and visionary perspectives.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Become familiar with the factors influencing the rapid spread of palliative care in the US.
2. Identify at least 3 strategies for embedding palliative care sustainably in health systems.
3. Appreciate the ethical, workforce policy, inequity, and social drivers in serious illness and end-of-life care.
4. Identify foundational aspects of the palliative practice landscape that invite curiosity and creativity to build on the past and inform the future.

Program Overview

10:00-11:00   Introductions & Plenary - Palliative Care: Looking Back and Projecting Forward 
Diane Meier, MD, Center to Advance Palliative Care
Terry Altilio, LCSW, Palliative Social Work Leader and Author
Rabbi Richard Address, DMin, Jewish Sacred Aging (Moderator) 

11:00-11:30   A Quarter Century of Bioethics in End-of-Life Care
Tia Powell, MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

11:30-11:45   Break

11:45 -12:15   Workforce Needs to Support Serious Illness Care
Connie Dahlin, MSN, Center to Advance Palliative Care

12:15-1:15   Supporting Caring Families, Maintaining Caring Communities: A Vision for the Future
Karen Bullock, PhD, Boston College School of Social Work, President-Elect, National Association of Social Workers
Kimberly Curseen, MD, Emory University School of Medicine, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, President-Elect
Rabbi Shira Stern, DMin, American Red Cross
Brynn Bowman, MPA, Center to Advance Palliative Care (Moderator)

1:15-1:30   Personal Perspectives on the End of Life
Ruth Messinger, MSW, American Jewish World Service; former Manhattan Borough President

Presenters

Terry Altilio, LCSW is a Palliative Social Worker with over 30 years鈥� experience of direct practice on palliative care teams in acute care settings. She is an author, editor, teacher, architect of a social work fellowship that continued for over two decades, and the anchor for a listserv that links over 950 social workers.

As the co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work, Palliative Care: A Guide for Health Social Workers, and most recently, Mirrors and Windows: Reflections on the Journey of Serious Illness Practice, she has helped document a path from the academic to the bedside.

Diane Meier, MD is immediate past CEO of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC.org), a national organization devoted to increasing access to quality palliative care for people living with a serious illness and their families. Under her leadership the number of palliative care programs in US hospitals has more than tripled in the last 10 years.

She is co-director of the National Palliative Care Center; Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine; Professor of Medical Ethics; and was the founder and Director of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, 1997-2011, all at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC. Dr. Meier has over 200 peer-reviewed publications. She was named one of 20 People Who Make Healthcare Better in the US by HealthLeaders Media 2010 and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Tia Powell, MD is Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, where for 15 years she was director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics. Dr. Powell鈥檚 bioethics work focuses on public policy, aging, dementia, end-of-life care, and public health disasters. She served as Executive Director of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, which was New York State鈥檚 bioethics commission. 

Dr. Powell wrote Dementia Reimagined: Building a Life of Joy and Dignity from Beginning to End, published by Penguin Random House in 2019. She is working on a book about surrogate decision-making, as well as a podcast.

Constance Dahlin, MSN is a palliative care specialist with experience in hospice, home health, acute and clinical based palliative care. She is Co-Director of the Palliative APRN Externship; Adjunct Associate Professor for the University of Maryland, Baltimore, MSN in Palliative Care; consultant to the Center to Advance Palliative Care; and a Palliative Nurse Practitioner for Salem Hospital.  

Ms. Dahlin is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, a Fellow of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, and a 2016 recipient of a Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Leadership Scholar Award. She was named a 2018 Visionary in Hospice and Palliative Medicine by the Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the 2020 Distinguished Practice Award from the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association.

Karen Bullock, PhD is the Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor in the Boston College School of Social Work; President-Elect, National Association of Social Workers, and in Global Public Health. She is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Work (LICSW) with mental health practice experience and expertise in health disparities, health equity, serious illness care, aging and gerontology, hospice, palliative and end-of-life care decision making. 

She has served as Principal Investigator and/or Co-Investigator for over $5 million in federal grant funding focused on equity and inclusion for workforce development, aging, and health network sustainability. Dr. Bullock was the 2024 recipient of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Richard Payne Outstanding Achievement in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.

Kimberly A. Curseen, MD is a Professor of Medicine at Emory University and Director of Supportive & Palliative Care Outpatient Services and Winship Palliative Care.  She is President-Elect of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Board certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Hospice & Palliative Medicine, she is a statewide and national leader in palliative care innovation and equity. 

She is the palliative care provider for the Emory Hemophilia Clinic, managing the supportive care needs for adults living with hemophilia. Her work focuses on advancing equitable and innovative models of palliative care; integrating mental health services, cannabis therapeutics, and AI into clinical practice; and expanding statewide palliative access through policy and systems change.

Rabbi Shira Stern, DMin is a Board Certified Chaplain and a Past-President of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains. Rabbi Stern provides pastoral care as a Disaster Spiritual Care Manager for the American Red Cross for national deployments. She also serves during non-disaster times as Division Advisor for the Northeast, and Lead for Massachusetts and Northern New England. 

She has been a hospital and hospice chaplain, Director of the Joint Chaplaincy Program of Greater Middlesex County (NJ), and the Director of the Jewish Institute for Pastoral Care in New York City, part of the HealthCare Chaplaincy. Rabbi Stern was founding Director of the Center for Pastoral Care and Counseling in Marlboro, NJ and served as Rabbinic Associate at Temple Rodeph Torah in Marlboro, NJ until she retired in 2020.

Ruth W. Messinger, MSW served as President of American Jewish World Service from 1998 to 2016 and is currently their inaugural Global Ambassador. She continues her work advocating for oppressed, persecuted and poor communities worldwide, engaging rabbis and interfaith leaders to learn about global justice issues and speak out for change. Ruth also works as a social justice consultant and facilitates learning for rabbinic students and women social justice entrepreneurs. 

Ms. Messinger had a 20-year career in public service, including roles as a New York City Council member and Manhattan Borough President. She has been a strong advocate for children, public education, campaign finance reform, LGBTQ+ rights, neighborhood development, and small business support. She recently walked alongside her husband, Andrew Lachman, during his accompanied suicide journey, honoring his wishes with compassion and strength.

Rabbi Richard F Address, D.Min is the founder and director of Jewish Sacred Aging, the website jewishsacredaging.com, and hosts the weekly 鈥淪eekers of Meaning鈥� podcast/tv show.  Rabbi Address led congregations in California and New Jersey for over 25 years, and served on the staff of the Union for Reform Judaism for over three decades as the regional director for the Pennsylvania Council and as founding director of the URJ鈥檚 Department of Jewish Family Concerns. 

He continues to teach and consult with congregations on the impact of longevity on congregations, families and organizations. He has edited numerous articles and books dealing with issues of aging and is the author of Seekers of Meaning: Baby Boomers, Judaism and the Pursuit of Healthy Aging. In 2024 he received the Isaac Mayer Wise award for lifetime service from the Reform Jewish community of Denver, CO.

Brynn Bowman, MPA is the CEO of the Center to Advance Palliative Care and Assistant Professor at Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She was previously CAPC鈥檚 Chief Strategy Officer and Vice President of Education. An expert in palliative care education, she specializes in health care leadership, palliative care business and financing, palliative care program design, palliative care education for nonpalliative care specialists, and palliative care delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In 2016, she won the Brandon Hall Group Silver Excellence in Learning Award for Best Use of Mobile Learning for the CAPC Online Curriculum. Ms. Bowman has portrayed palliative care clinical education for nonpalliative care specialists in multiple peer-reviewed publications.

Podcast

Rabbis, chaplains, and social workers are often called on to provide spiritual care near life鈥檚 end. Whether in response to serious illness, advanced cognitive or physical decline in old age, or unexpected, tragic violence, health care professionals and clergy need to respond compassionately and effectively with families facing spiritual, emotional, and existential crises. Clips from Wurzweiler School of Social Work鈥檚 鈥淪pirituality Near the End of Life鈥� Conference in July 2019 include leading clergy, chaplains, and social workers offering their knowledge, skills, and wisdom to assist professionals seeking to better integrate spiritual care into their professional and community work.

Episode 1

Episode 2