Board & Staff

Board of Directors

STEVE TELFER, President, is a long-time lobbyist working on state and national levels and participating in a variety of state and local government task forces. Telfer has served as Chair of the Oregon Public Employees' Retirement System and Vice Chairman of the Oregon Investment Council. He was also a member of the Oregon Workers' Compensation Management Labor Advisory Committee. Telfer joined the healthcare field in 1987 as Vice President of Good Samaritan Hospital and Health Center in Portland. He also played a prominent role in the creation of Legacy Health System.

DAVID J. MAYO, PhD, Vice President, was Professor of Philosophy and Faculty Associate of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He also served on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Suicidology and co-authored Suicide: The Philosophical Issues. He received his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Reed College, and his PhD in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. He began teaching at the University of Minnesota in 1966 and became interested in bioethics in 1974, when he participated in a six week summer seminar in bioethics sponsored by the Council for Philosophical Studies. In 1985 he was a Visiting Exxon Fellow in Clinical Medical Ethics at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. During leaves from his position at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, Professor Mayo has taught at Macalester College in St. Paul, and at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and held Visiting Scholar appointments at both Macalester College and the School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. He has served on the boards of directors of the American Association of Suicidology, the Midwest Chapter of the Hemlock Society, and the Death with Dignity National Center. His work in bioethics has focused largely on issues related to death and dying, privacy, and AIDS. Mayo is widely published on the subjects of death and dying.

CAROL PRATT, PhD, JD, Treasurer, is of counsel in Preston Gates' Portland office, where her practice focuses on regulatory issues associated with research and marketing of new medical technologies. Dr. Pratt holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience and has an extensive background in basic and medical research. She advises clients on FDA regulations, federal regulations governing clinical and non-clinical research and contracting in federally funded or industry sponsored research. Dr. Pratt provides strategic advice regarding FDA requirements to manufacturers, distributors, importers and exporters of a wide range of medical and health products, including medical devices, drugs, dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, biologics, stem cells and cosmetics.

ALAN MEISEL, JD, Assistant Treasurer, is the Dickey, McCamey & Chilcote Professor of Bioethics and Law at the University of Pittsburgh and has published widely on health law and medical ethics. He is a leading authority on end-of-life decision making and is the principal author of the legal treatise The Right to Die: The Law of End of Life Decisionmaking (Aspen Law & Business). Meisel served on the Ethics Working Group of the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform in 1993 and the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine in 1982.

ELI D. STUTSMAN, JD, Secretary, is a practicing attorney in Portland, Oregon. Stutsman is one of the drafters of the Oregon Death with Dignity law. He served as the lead political and legal strategist during the 1994 campaign to pass the Oregon Death with Dignity law and again during the 1997 campaign to defeat a legislatively inspired repeal effort. Stutsman successfully defended the Death with Dignity law in the first federal court challenge, Lee v. State of Oregon, spanning 1994 to 1997 and prevailed against the U.S. Attorney General and the Drug Enforcement Administration in the 2004 case of Oregon v. Ashcroft, heard in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Stutsman represented a physician and pharmacist against the Attorney General in Gonzales v. Oregon, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the State of Oregon on January 17, 2006. Stutsman co-founded Oregon Right to Die, the political action committee that passed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act into law. He is also the founding president of the Oregon Death with Dignity Legal Defense and Education Center and the Oregon Death with Dignity Political Action Fund.

CHARLES "BUZZY" BARON, LLB, PhD, Officer, is a Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, where he teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Law, Medicine and Public Policy, and Life and Death Decision-making and the Rule of Law. He has lectured and published extensively in the U.S. and Europe on constitutional law and patients' rights. Baron's articles on assisted dying include "A Model State Act to Authorize and Regulate Physician-Assisted Suicide," Harvard Journal on Legislation, (1996: Vol. 33), "Pleading for Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Courts," Western New England Law Review, (1997: Vol. 19), "Assisted Dying" Trial, (July 1999: Vol. 35, No. 7), and "Physician Assisted Suicide Should Be Legalized and Regulated," Boston Bar Journal, (November/December 1997: Vol. 41). Baron also authored the chapter entitled "Hastening Death: The Seven Deadly Sins of the Status Quo" in Physician-Assisted Dying: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice, (2004: Johns Hopkins University Press, Tim Quill and Peggy Battin, editors). Baron was also the author of the Law Professors' amicus curiae brief in the two assisted-dying cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 -- Vacco v. Quill and Washington v. Glucksberg.

DANIEL A. GREGORIE, MD, MBA, Officer, has practiced as an independent consultant with a principal focus on the leadership, governance, business strategy, and organizational effectiveness of health care organizations, particularly physician led enterprises since the end of 1997. From June of 1989 until its acquisition by Humana in October of 1997, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of ChoiceCare, a market-leading health plan and public company in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a board certified specialist in internal medicine, having earned his medical degree from Tufts University and his undergraduate degree from Duke University. He also holds a master’s degree in Management Science from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has served on the boards of a number of proprietary, venture capital funded, non profit, and publicly traded companies.

CONSTANCE M. HOLDEN, RN, MSN, Officer, is the Director of Oncology Services at a hospital in Boulder, Colorado. She also serves on the palliative care committee of that hospital. She is the former Manager of the Hospice at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, MN, and is the former Executive Director of Hospice of Boulder County, CO. Holden is active with the International Work Group on Death and Dying. Holden has spent many years giving presentations dealing with end-of-life issues at professional conferences and symposiums and has authored numerous related articles.

MIDGE LEVY, ACSW, Officer, has a background in medical and geriatric social work, at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and social work administration, at a Group Health Cooperative Home Care and Hospice program. She worked on Initiative 119, Washington State's Death with Dignity Campaign, which would have legalized physician-assisted dying for qualified, terminally ill patients. Levy was a consultant to the National Association of Social Workers on their End of Life Policy developed in 1993. Ms. Levy is also Vice President of Compassion & Choices of Washington.

EDWARD LOWENSTEIN, MD, Officer, is Henry Isaiah Dorr Professor of Anaesthesia and Professor of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School and Provost of the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care at Massachusetts General Hospital. He led the formation of the world's first academic cardiac anesthesia group and provided anesthetic management of patients undergoing heart surgery for over three decades. In 1997-98, Lowenstein undertook a senior fellowship in the Harvard Division of Medical Ethics, concentrating his research on the drawbacks of depending on the doctrine of double effect to justify relieving suffering by hastening death at end of life. Since then, he has taught medical students end-of-life care, ethics and professionalism. Among his recent publications is (with S. Wanzer) the widely cited 2002 New England Journal of Medicine article, "The US Attorney General's intrusion into medical practice." He has lectured widely on end-of-life care and assisted dying, including the 2003 Peter and Eva Safar Lecture in the Medical Humanities entitled "Ethics, Physicians and Relief of Intolerable Suffering: Lessons from the Oregon Death with Dignity Act." He was the physician, along with three philosophers and two lawyers, who wrote the Philosopher's Amicus Curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v Oregon. He serves on the Board of the Greater Boston Chapter of Compassion and Choices. Dr. Lowenstein received the 2005 Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award at Harvard Medical School.

TIMOTHY E. QUILL, MD, Officer, is Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry and Medical Humanities at the University of Rochester (New York) where he directs the Center for Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics and is a practicing palliative care physician. Quill has lectured widely and published numerous articles, including a 1991 New England Journal of Medicine article about "Diane," a dying patient who requested assistance in dying. Quill is the author of four books, Physician Assisted Dying: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice (Johns Hopkins University Press, co-edited with Margaret Battin), Caring for Patients at the End of Life: Facing an Uncertain Future Together (Oxford University Press), A Midwife Through the Dying Process, Stories of Healing and Hard Choices at the End of Life (Johns Hopkins University Press), and Death and Dignity: Making Choices and Taking Charge (W.W. Norton). He was the lead physician plaintiff in the New York State legal case challenging the law prohibiting physician aid in dying -- Quill v. Vacco.

BETTY ROLLIN, Officer, is a television correspondent -- previously with NBC News and currently with PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly -- and a best-selling author. Two of her six books, First, You Cry and Last Wish, have been made into television movies. First, You Cry describes Rollin's experience with breast cancer and mastectomy; Last Wish, which has been published in 18 countries, recounts the story of her mother's request for help in dying and began for her what has been a 20-year involvement in the death-with-dignity movement. A native New Yorker, Rollin is a graduate of Fieldston Ethical Culture School in Riverdale, NY and Sarah Lawrence College. She and her husband, Dr. Harold M. Edwards, a mathematician, live in Manhattan.

SIDNEY H. WANZER, MD, Officer, is a recognized leader in the death with dignity movement. He was the lead author of the seminal medical journal articles that advocated for improvements in palliative care and challenged physicians to consider that it could be ethical under certain circumstances to assist an intolerably suffering patient in ending his or her life (*New England Journal of Medicine*, 1984 and 1989). Wanzer’s expertise in death and dying was developed over 40 years of practice in family medicine. Dr. Wanzer co-authored the book To Die Well: Your Right to Comfort, Calm, and Choice in the Last Days of Life. The book explores practical ways to achieve a peaceful dying process in the context of today’s treatment-intensive medical environment. The book is important for terminally ill patients and their family members, providing a clear explanation of all legal options available to a person facing death.

Advisory Board

MARGARET BATTIN, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah. She has authored, edited or co-edited at least a dozen books, among them a study of philosophical issues in suicide, a collection on age-rationing of medical care, a study of ethical issues in organized religion -- Ethics in the Sanctuary -- and The Least Worst Death, Essays in Bioethics on the End of Life. Battin has been engaged in research on end-of-life medical decisions in the Netherlands. In 2000, she was a co-recipient of the Rozenblatt Prize, the University of Utah's most prestigious award.

SAMUEL C. KLAGSBRUN, MD, is Executive Medical Director of Four Winds Hospitals in New York, Vice Chair and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Chair and Visiting Professor of Pastoral Psychiatry at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He also serves as Chair of the Advisory Council, Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and is a faculty member of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Klagsbrun maintains a private practice in New York City and has authored a number of articles, books and papers on end-of-life issues.

DAVID ORENTLICHER, MD, JD, is the Samuel R. Rosen Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Law and Health at the Indiana University School of Law. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and a member of the Core Faculty of the Indiana University Center for Bioethics. Orentlicher served as the Director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the American Medical Association for six years, where he drafted ethical guidelines for the medical profession on issues including withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, physician-hastened dying, and physicians' conflicts of interest. A graduate of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School, he served as clerk to the Honorable Alvin B. Rubin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Orentlicher is author of Matters of Life and Death: Making Moral Theory Work in Medical Ethics and the Law and has written or co-written more than 80 articles appearing in both legal and medical journals. In November 2002, he was elected to the Indiana General Assembly as Representative for House District 86 (Indianapolis).

SHARON VALENTE, PhD, CS, APN, FAAN, RN, is Assistant Professor of Nursing and Clinical Specialist in Mental Health at the University of Southern California. She is a post doctoral fellow at the Department of Veterans Affairs of Greater Los Angeles and serves as a consultant to the City of Hope National Medical Center. Valente is a frequent contributor to professional journals and has helped establish suicide prevention standards. Valente is an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and an Elected Member of the American Academy of Psychotherapists Oncology Nursing Society, the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, and Phi Kappa Phi. Valente is a member of the American Psychological Association Task Force on End-of-Life Care.

PEG SANDEEN, MSW, Executive Director, is a native Iowan, with a master's degree in Social Work from the University of Iowa. She is currently working on a doctoral degree in Social Work and Social Research at Portland State University. Sandeen is an experienced social worker, specializing in issues related to terminal illness and end-of-life processes. Sandeen has been a case manager with the AIDS Project of Iowa and has done volunteer work with Hospice of North Iowa and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. As a result of her extensive exploration of complex ethical, legal and medical issues related to social work, Sandeen was named 2002 Price Fellow in HIV Prevention Leadership by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In her professional capacities, as well as through personal loss, Sandeen has felt firsthand how legal and medical interaction affects people's lives in both positive and negative ways. As a result, her scholarly and professional efforts have increasingly focused on health-related ethical concerns, particularly end-of-life decisions, privacy issues and mental health. Sandeen joined DDNC in March 2005.

TERRY MILEY-MAYHEAD, Director of Finance and Operations, graduated from Portland State University with a Master's degree in Public Administration. Her BA is from George Fox University where she majored in Human Resources Management. Terry's particular area of study and interest has been non-profit administration where she has dedicated her career for the past fifteen years. For the last seven years, she held the position of Fiscal Director for a large homeless organization. Terry's father passed away from a terminal illness in January 2004. Terry became one of his support persons during his six months in a hospice program and was by his side when he passed away. Terry's other interests and passions include her two children, volunteering at local school districts, continuing her professional education, and spending time with her friends and extended family. Terry joined DDNC in October 2004.

MELISSA BARBER, Electronic Communications Specialist, a native Idahoan, has called Oregon home for over half her life. She joins the DDNC team after ten years of volunteering and working for the local nonprofit Friends of Trees, with a two-year break serving as a Health Education volunteer with the Peace Corps in the West African nation of Mali. Prior to the Peace Corps, Melissa worked as the operations manager and in-house techie for Arcadia Investment Advisors. Throughout her career she has striven to find new ways to connect people, build community, and use technology to heighten the awareness of important causes like DDNC. She graduated with a BS in Biology from Pacific University. Melissa joined DDNC in May 2010.

DeVIDA JOHNSON, Development Assistant, recently relocated to Portland from the Burlington, Vermont area. She is a graduate of Wellesley College with a degree in French. She comes to DDNC from the Humane Society of Chittenden County (HSCC) where she worked for 9 years in their fundraising and public relations department. It was her passion and love for animals that inspired her to first volunteer and then become a staff member. At HSCC she worked to increase the community's awareness of animal welfare issues and to fulfill HSCC's Mission of teaching compassion and respect for all living beings, reducing animal suffering, and encouraging responsible care for companion animals. It is there that she developed her fundraising skills through event planning, annual appeals, and collaborating with the media. Thirteen years ago she lost her mother to lung cancer. Witnessing her mother's struggle with such a debilitating disease spurred her support of an individual's right to die a good and dignified death. Upon moving to Portland she pursued the opportunity to work at DDNC in support of this right and joined us in March 2008. In her free time DeVida studies West African Dance, spoils the cats in her home (and misses her cats and dog still living in Vermont), and enjoys discovering all that Oregon has to offer.

JULIE ROSS, Program Assistant, recently graduated with a BA in Sociology from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Julie has previously interned at the National Coalition for the Homeless and Basic Rights Oregon. Through working at these organizations and participating in student-lead efforts to change campus policies while at Grinnell College, Julie solidified her desire to work on passing and securing socially just laws. She is excited to work for the leading organization in the death with dignity movement and contribute to improving end-of-life care options for dying individuals. Julie joined DDNC in August 2009.

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