Biographical Information of Past Fellows

2007-08 MAYDAY FELLOWS

2007-08 Mayday Fellows
Starting on the left: Mary Elizabeth Lynch, MD; Elizabeth Ely, RN, PhD; Annie Louise Oaklander, MD, PhD; Jennie Tsao, PhD; Paula Tanabe, RN, PhD; Edward Michna, MD, JD.

2006-07 Mayday Fellows

The six fellows for 2006-07 are currently in the midst of their coaching and are developing and implementing their advocacy plans. This page will be updated as they complete the coaching phase.

Terry Altilio LCSW, Department of Pain Medicine & Palliative Care, Beth Israel Medical Center.

Paul M. Arnstein, R.N., PhD., FNP-C, Associate Professor, Boston College, William F. Connel School of Nursing.

James Patrick Murphy, M.D., Medical Director, Murphy Pain Center, and Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Steven D Passik, Ph.D., Associate Attending Psychologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Associate professor of Psychiatry, Weill College of Cornell Medical Center.

Shirley Otis Green, MSW, LCSW, ACSW, OSW-C, Senior Research Specialist, Nursing Research and Education Department, City of Hope National Medical Center.

Steven J Weisman, M.D., Jane B. Petit Pain and Palliative Care Center, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

2005-06 MAYDAY FELLOWS

In the second year of the Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship, six pain experts expanded their horizons in the areas of media and policy, and have taken leadership to continue to move the pain field forward. Pediatric pain and pain education were the key issues this time around. During their training and coaching time, all of the Fellows had minor and major victories on their way toward their goals.

During the five month coaching period:

1. An op-ed was published in a national Canadian newspaper.

2. Key messages about children and pain were honed and practiced in national and local media interviews.

3. A leader in pain policy is emerging in one state through the use of solid messaging and networking.

4. A new campaign in one state is mobilizing health care professionals to put pain at the forefront of medical issues.

Georgia L. Brown, R.N., Director of Research and External Relations in the Department of Health Evaluation Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and Director of the Pennsylvania Cancer Pain Initiative

Larry C. Driver, M.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

G. Allen Finley, M.D., Professor of Anesthesia and Psychology at Dalhousie University Medical School

Walter B. Forman, M.D., Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center

Beth B. Murinson, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Pain Education and Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Gary A. Walco, Ph.D., Director of the David Center for Childrenís Pain and Palliative Care at the Hackensack University Medical Center, and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School

2004-05 MAYDAY FELLOWS

The 2004-05 Mayday Pain & Society Fellows established diverse goals to begin to build awareness of pain management in their institutions, communities, states and on the national level. During their training and coaching time, all of the Fellows had minor victories on their way toward their goals. For some, building awareness in their own institutions about the need for good pain care has to happen first. For others, making changes in State or Federal regulation to require doctors and nurses to have pain management training is critical. And for some, addressing a national and even international audience about their issue is important, such as targeting parents with information about children and pain, or encouraging political leaders in Canada to embrace the issue of pain. Here are snapshots of the work of the first six Fellows:

Patrick Coyne, R.N., Clinical Nurse Specialist and Clinical Director of the Thomas Palliative Care Unit at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals/Virginia Commonwealth Health Systems

Coyne was already busy raising awareness for pain management in Virginia, when the Mayday Fellowship steered him toward success on the legislative front. He arranged a meeting on Capitol Hill with a Virginia Congressman to discuss making pain management curriculum for medical students a Federal policy. The Congressman helped him map out his first steps securing a line in the Virginia budget for a pain management curriculum for medical students.

Carmen R. Green, M.D., Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Medical Director for Acute Pain Services at the University of Michigan Medical School

Green had the honor of being a guest editor in the January 2005 issue of the journal Pain Medicine devoted to disparities in pain treatment. She also co-authored a key article in the journal, and worked with her public affairs office at the University at Michigan and the journal staff to successfully leverage publicity for the special issue. As a result, she was interviewed for television programs and for The New York Times. As part of her role as spokesperson, she brought the journal articles to the attention of Members of the US Congress as a first step in educating them about the human face of disparities.

Celeste Johnston, R.N., James McGill Professor in the School of Nursing at McGill University, Quebec

Johnston worked with Burness Communications to develop a campaign plan to raise awareness of pain management in Canada centered on the second National Pain Awareness Week in 2005. Her primary goal is to expand the focus of this special week by collaborating with unlikely partners such as surgeons, who often put pain concerns low on their priority list. She expertly managed the first National Pain Awareness Week in 2004. One of her goals is to use the strategies she learned at the coalition-building workshop of the Fellowship training to expand on her efforts.

Jerome Kurent, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine & Neurology at Medical University of South Carolina

Kurent is making great strides toward instituting a pain and end-of-life care curriculum in graduate programs at MUSC. He has also embarked on a campaign to improve his state's C+ grade for pain policy (the grades are reported by the Pain and Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin). Excited by the challenges of translating his messages about pain care to the broader public, he is busy meeting with the local media and policymakers to drum up support for improving state policy.

Allen Lebovits, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychiatry, and Co-Director of the Pain Management Center at the New York University Medical Center

Lebovits seized on recent research supporting the mind-body connection, and wrote an opinion-editorial, ìMore Than Mind Matters,î on the need for better mental health coverage that ran in the Washington Post in December 2004. He is also creating a brochure for patients and doctors that will highlight the broad range of services available at the NYU Pain Management Center.

Lonnie Zeltzer, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, and Director of the Pediatric Pain Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California at Los Angeles

Zeltzer just released a book in January 2005, Conquering Your Child's Chronic Pain: a Pediatrician's Guide to Reclaiming a Normal Childhood (HarperResource, 2005). As part of her work with Burness Communications she crystallized her messages for the media and policymakers. Prior to the release, she took her message to the policy community and visited with several members of Congress and potential funders to explain how she will address better pain care in her film on palliative care and children. (in progress).

Burness Communications