Dr. Curseen is Associate Professor, Division of Palliative Medicine, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. In addition, she is the Director of Supportive and Palliative Care Outpatient Services for Emory Healthcare and the director and primary provider for the Supportive Oncology Clinic.

Dr. Curseen is Board certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care and serves as co-chair of the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee for Emory School of Medicine. She serves as the AAHPM representative to the ACGME Health Equity Project in addition to serving on the AAHPM Board of Directors. Dr. Curseen currently sits on the board of the Georgia Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and is co-chair of the Georgia Cancer Consortium Palliative Care Working Group.

Dr. Shega is board certified in Geriatric and Hospice and Palliative Medicine and maintains an academic appointment at the University of Central Florida as an Associate Professor of Medicine. The first 15 years of his career was in academic medicine at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago doing clinical care, education, and research including NIH funding around serious illness and dementia care. For the past 10 years, Dr. Shega has practiced in Central Florida and serves as the chief medical officer for VITAS Healthcare.

In his current role, Dr. Shega has been instrumental in adapting a "mobile first" platform to bring technology to the bedside in patients homes to improve clinical care through enhanced clinical documentation, medication management, care coordination, and most recently virtual reality as an alternative treatment modality. Also, he has spearheaded efforts to integrate clinical research as a core pillar at VITAS. He has been appointed and serves on the National Academy of Medicine Roundtable on Quality Care for Persons with Serious Illness representing the American Geriatrics Society.

Dr. Shega is co-managing editor for the Essential Practices in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and has over 50 peer-reviewed publications focusing on the care of persons with serious illness. He works with medical trainees across the state of Florida including at the University of Central Florida, Veterans Administration, and HCA to create an ACGME accredited fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine as well as faculty for the fellowship at Naples Community Hospital.

In 2024, Dr. Shega received the Josefina B. Mango Distinguished Hospice Physician Award from AAHPM due to his dedicated to the practice of palliative medicine in the hospice setting.

Dr. DeSandre is the Chief of Palliative and Supportive Care at Grady Memorial Hospital and Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Division of Palliative Medicine and the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

His interests include developing primary Palliative Care skills in Emergency Medicine, creating collaborative opportunities for Palliative Care clinicians and Organ Donation clinicians to improve end-of-life care, and using visual arts and humanities to support critical thinking and well-being among healthcare professionals.

He has served on the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Test Writing Taskforce for the American Board of Internal Medicine. At Emory University, he is the former Program Director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program and teaches and currently provides the Palliative Medicine didactic and clinical curricula for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program.

He serves as regular faculty for both the NCI-sponsored program Education in Palliative and End of Life Care-Emergency Medicine and the Master of Science in Palliative Medicine program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He is also the editor of the Oxford University Press book “Palliative Aspects of Emergency Care.”

He has served on the National Donor Management Leadership Council for The Organ Donation and Transplantation Leadership Alliance and is the current Chair of the Professional Development and Clinical Practice Committee for LifeLink of Georgia.

He is a recent alumnus and faculty of the Harvard Macy Institute Fellowship in Art-Museum-based Health Professions Education and is certified in Advanced Visual Thinking Strategies. Dr. DeSandre is honored to bring the arts and humanities to healthcare professionals locally, regionally, and nationally.

Alex Gamble completed his medical education at Saint Louis University, followed by a combined Internal Medicine and Psychiatry residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at the University of Kansas. After working for several years in rural Missouri developing a palliative care program at a regional hospital, he worked two more with the inpatient palliative care team at North Kansas City Hospital and as faculty for the HPM fellowship at KU, before joining the Palliative Care Section at Stanford in 2023. In addition to working as part of both the inpatient consultation service as well as the outpatient clinic, he continues to pursue his interests in program development, education, and the integration of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic tools and concepts into the practice of palliative care.

Dr. McFarlin is an Associate Professor of Neurolgy at the Univeristy of Kentucky. She is the Chief of the University of Kentucky Division of Palliative and Supportive Care in the Department of Internal Medicine.The mission of the division is to increase patient access to palliative care and create educational opportunities for healthcare providers throughout the Bluegrass.

She received her medical degree from the University of Kentucky. Jessica then completed her residency and dual fellowship training at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. She is board certified in Neurology and Hospice and Palliative Medicine as well as Neuro Critical Care. Her current research interests include symptomatic management of agitation in dementia and the role of hope in patients living with chronic cancers. She enjoys any live music and fried chicken.

Dr. Snider is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Hosparus Health, a not-for-profit, community-based hospice and palliative care organization providing care to over 2400 patients daily across Kentucky and Indiana.

Dr. Snider earned her medical degree from the University of Kentucky followed by residency training in internal medicine at the University of Kentucky, where she served as Chief Resident of the primary care track. She then pursued a hospice and palliative medicine fellowship with Hospice of the Bluegrass (now Bluegrass Care Navigators). Dr. Snider joined Hosparus Health directly out of fellowship as associate medical director and oversaw home hospice training for all fellows. he was first promoted to Senior Medical Director and then Chief Medical Officer in February of 2018. Dr. Snider’s special interests lie in outreach and education of the community along with development of novel programs to optimize the patient experience.

She is currently serving as chair of the Strategic Coordinating Committee for Workforce and Career Development for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), member of the AAHPM Hospice Medicine Council and is serving a second, 3-year term on the Kentucky Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Advisory Council as appointed by the Governor. he was also recently named one of AAHPM’s Emerging Leaders in the field of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Most Admired Woman in Healthcare by Today’s Woman magazine, Adjunct Faculty of the year by UofL medical students, and Top 40 under 40 by Louisville Business First magazine. r. Snider was born and raised in Kentucky and lives there with her husband John and their children John Mark and Elizabeth.

Dr. VandeKieft is an inpatient palliative care consultant, hospice medical director, and clinical ethicist in Olympia, WA. He previously cared for patients in an outpatient palliative care clinic and spent 20 years practicing full-spectrum Family Medicine, both in a small-town private practice and in academic practices in a university medical center and a community-hospital residency program. He is Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Washington.

He completed the University of Washington’s Certificate Program in Health Care Ethics, Michigan State University’s masters program in Health and Humanities, and Harvard Medical School’s Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice. He has served in numerous leadership roles within AAHPM. Dr. VandeKieft received the 2018 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award in the Senior Physician category and the 2017 Stuart J. Farber Award for Excellence in Hospice and Palliative Care from the Washington State Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Dr. Barnett attended medical school at the University of Kentucky then completed residency in combined Internal Medicine & Pediatrics at UAB and fellowship training in Hospice & Palliative Medicine for children and adults at UPMC/Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He obtained a Master of Science in Medical Education at Pitt, and with that created, implemented, and evaluated a Pediatric Palliative Care curriculum for residents. He returned to Birmingham in 2012 and joined the HPM faculty at UAB and Children’s of Alabama.

Dr. Barnett served as the Program Director of the UAB Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship from 2013-2021. He has served as a faculty consultant in communication skills for the National Board of Medical Examiners, was a member of the national competency-based medical education workgroups for HPM fellowship training, and is distinguished faculty for VITALtalk. He served as Chair of the AAHPM Fellowship Director Special Interest Group in 2018 and Co-Chair of the AAHPM Pediatric Curriculum Workgroup in 2019-2020. He was elected to the AAHPM Board of Directors in 2021 and currently serves as the board liaison to the Hospice Medical Director Certification Board.

In 2023, he transitioned his clinical practice to western North Carolina where he serves as a hospice physician with Four Seasons. He does home visits in the mountains and works with the Riversong Pediatric Palliative Care & Hospice program. He remains adjunct faculty at UAB for ongoing community-based serious illness research with older African American and LGBTQ patients.

Dr. Case is a Professor of Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She is the Lee Foundation Endowed Chair Department of Supportive and Palliative Care at Roswell Park as well as one of the founding members and the Clinical Lead for Center for Translational Research on Cannabis and Cancer (CTRCC). She is also a national palliative presenter and member in the Alliance of Designated Cancer Centers (ADCC) as well the Palliative Care Research Collaborative (PCRC) and NCCN.

Dr. Case has been nominated as a AAHPM fellow, served two three-year terms as chair for the education special interest group and the chair for the fellowship director’s special interest groups, and lobbied capitol hill for the Palliative Care and Hospice Education Act (PCHETA), the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM). She serves as the Associate Editor for Education for The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 

Initially was board certified in Pain Medicine and continue to maintain her board certification in Internal Medicine, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She started the Hospice and Palliative medicine Fellowship program in 2005 and served as the program director until 2017 and again in 2024-present. Training four fellows per year. Her research focuses on medical cannabis and psychedelics for symptom management in cancer patients, the palliation of inoperable malignant bowel obstruction, non-medical opioid use, buprenorphine use for non-medical opioid use and cancer pain, and palliative medicine education.

Dr. Chammas is a palliative care physician and psychiatrist who works in the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Symptom Management Clinic. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Stanford University (2005), she attained her MD at UCSF School of Medicine (2010), where she graduated as part of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. She remained at UCSF for her residency in General Adult Psychiatry (2014), where she served as a Chief Resident at the SFVA Medical Center and was recognized for her commitment to teaching. She went on to complete a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at UCSF (2015). In addition to providing clinical care, her professional and scholarly interests include the intersection of psychiatry and palliative care, the psychological dimensions of life-limiting illness, therapeutic communication, medical education, clinician wellness, and medical humanities.

She is an active member of AAHPM, including chairing the Psychosocial and Mental Health SIG for the past 3 years. In her personal life, Dr. Chammas enjoys creating art, writing, and spending quality time with her husband and three daughters (ages 4, 6, and 8).

Dr. Malik is in the Division of Palliative Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. After graduation from Southwest Georgia Family Medicine Residency in 2013, he served for five years in South Georgia as a hospitalist at multiple sites, as well as Hospital Medicine Director at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center. His passion for palliative medicine and teaching grew during his time in hospital medicine, and he completed his fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2019. Following fellowship, he and his family moved back home to Atlanta, Georgia and he joined the faculty at Emory.

While at Emory, he has continued to develop his passions for the field and for education. Clinically, he provides inpatient palliative care for a diverse population at multiple Emory hospitals and teaches learners of all types, from whom he has received multiple awards and recognitions in teaching. He formally serves as the Assistant Clerkship Director for third-year medical students rotating in Palliative Care, as well as Physician Co-Lead for Palliative Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Education at Emory Healthcare. He has continued his growth as a teacher through additional certifications from Emory’s Woodruff Health Educators Academy (WHEA) in both teaching and education scholarship. In 2024-2025, Dr. Malik will be a fellow in the WHEA Education Leadership Fellowship.

When he is not working (and sometimes when he is working!) you can catch him doing some of the things he enjoys, such as spending time outside, laughing at something funny, and staying active. He and his wife enjoy date nights, going to Atlanta Hawks games, and exploring the city as a family with their son.

Myra Varnado has been a Certified Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse for over 20 years, having graduated from Emory University’s WOC Nursing Education Program. She lives in New Orleans and serves as the Director of Clinical Services for Corstrata, a Wound and Ostomy Telehealth company based in Savannah, GA.

Ms. Varnado provides wound and ostomy education programs for health care providers in a variety of settings both nationally and internationally. Ms. Varnado has provided extensive clinical education related to wound care for the for the palliative and hospice patient including a pre-conference workshop at the Hospice and Palliative Nursing Association’s Clinical Practice Forum.

As a member of the WOCN Society Wound Guidelines Task Force for the past 20 years, she writes the evidence-based guidelines for the Management of Wounds in Patients with Pressure Injury, Lower Extremity Venous and Arterial Disease, and Neuropathic/Diabetic Foot Disease and is the primary author of the WOCN Clinical Practice Guideline: “Management of Wounds in Patients with Lower Extremity Neuropathic Disease.”

Additionally, Ms. Varnado has published numerous wound-related papers on topics including Diabetes Charcot foot management, frostbite, biofilm, telemedicine and tissue-based products. She also participated on the Technical Advisory Panel for the development of the Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI) Wound Management Best Practice Intervention Package (BPIP).