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Professor Taimie Bryant joined the UCLA Law School faculty in January of 1988, after earning a Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA (1984) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1987). In 2016, she completed a Masters in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. Professor Bryant teaches courses about elder law, property law, animal law, and nonprofit organizations. Her interest in aid in dying emerged from her interest in client-centered elder law, and her first encounter with the aid-in-dying movement was in 2014 when she visited Dignitas to learn of their approach. She is the author of an article on the availability of ideal medications for aid in dying and is currently writing about the role of aid-in-dying nonprofits in using and reforming laws pertaining to aid in dying.
Stewart Florsheim has been involved in end of life choice since 2003. He recently served a term as EOLCCA Vice President, before joining the Advisory Council. He served on the board of Compassion & Choices of Northern California for ten years, including four years as co-chair. While holding that position, he was very involved in the passage of the End of Life Option Act. Stewart has given many presentations on end of life choice, including stints on radio and TV. (See Perspectives for his most recent piece.)
Stewart is “semi-retired” from Salesforce, after a 40-year career in high tech. Most recently, he managed a large global team of individuals who produced technical documentation and training materials. Stewart also has a strong background in marketing communication.
Betsy Jacobson is a sociologist and published author of several articles on leadership, mentoring, storytelling, and career development in respected professional journals, and books. She is the founder of Betsy Jacobson Consulting (BJA Consulting). Since 1982, her company has provided a wide range of consulting, coaching, and customized training services to companies and governments around the globe. Additionally, she is the co-owner of ForAffect the Message Makers. www.foraffect.com, a small company that offers cutting-edge skills to rapidly engage listeners for optimal results when communicating ideas in business and daily life. Betsy’s expertise is creating strategies and innovative processes and interventions for communicating and implementing change. Among her clients, in both the public and private sector, she’s worked with Apple Computer, Citigroup Inc, The World Food Program, United Way of San Diego, The City of San Diego, San Diego Jewish Federation, and ABB (Asia Bavaria, Brown).
Ms. Kiefaber, former Executive Director of Coastal Community Foundation is Founder and CEO of Red to Black Consulting. She is a strategic planner, project manager, philanthropy teacher and fundraiser. She knows a little bit about so much and when she doesn’t, she is resourceful and seeks out skill sets in her team, giving them the help they need to grow, and adding good people including volunteers at levels of leadership and doing, as well as staff that can be trained and empowered to do their jobs. Lane has helped her husband achieve Captain in the Navy and Major Command and raised children while working full-time consulting the past ten+ years and been an executive prior to that in nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. She is ready to focus her energies with work to one mission and vision, complex as it may be. And to become part of a team of good people on the same path to doing something great in our community. She is a hard worker, a doer and high quality producer. Her main goal in life is to help others achieve their passions to do good and have fun with great people at the same time.
Mr. Leven was the Executive Director of End of Life Choices New York from 2002 until 2016 and now serves as Executive Director Emeritus and Senior Consultant for EOLCNY. A leading advocate for patients and an expert on advance care planning, patient rights, palliative care and end-of-life issues, David has played a key role in having legislation introduced and enacted in New York to improve pain, palliative and end-of-life care, including the Palliative Care Information Act. David lectures frequently to diverse professional groups, students and citizens. A graduate of the University of Rochester and Syracuse University College of Law, he is the recipient of numerous awards including the Public Interest Law Award of the New York State Bar Association, Public Interest Law Committee.
A Seattle resident since 1978, Robb became the Executive Director of Compassion & Choices of Washington (C&C of WA, now known as End of Life Washington) in 2000 and has more than 30 years of administrative experience in both for-profit and nonprofit fields. He holds bachelors degrees in music theory and performance from Miami University and was a professional trumpet player for many years.
In 2005, Robb received the Hugh Gallagher Award, a national social justice award given to the person who has most effectively advocated for the rights of people from diverse populations. He also created a new C&C of WA advance directive that set a new standard for advance planning documents in Washington, was the coauthor of a first-of- its-kind Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia Mental Health Advance Director, and a second groundbreaking document for people dealing with dementia or Alzheimer’s called My Instructions for Oral Feeding and Drinking.
Marisol Muñoz-Kiehne PhD (‘Doctora Marisol’), clinical community psychologist, contributes to human well-being through teaching, writing, and media. She worked in community mental health for 30+ years. Has provided information and inspiration through radio/podcasts (‘Nuestros Niños’, ‘Cuerpo Corazón Comunidad’) and TV/video programs for 15+ years. She has taught at various universities, speaks at conferences and community events, and writes for print and digital outlets. Hundreds of her articles and dozens of her books, short stories, and poems have been published. Her work has won national, regional, and local awards, and the appreciation of many.
Sue D. Porter, Founding Executive Director of End of Life Choices Oregon, has a Masters of Science in Bioethics and a Masters in Business Administration. She completed a diploma at the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and was a scholar in residence at the Hastings Center for Bioethics Research in New York. Sue has also served as Director on both the National and the Oregon boards for Compassion and Choices.
Since 2001, Sue has worked with terminally ill people availing themselves of Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act. Sue has spoken nationally on the right-to-die and was a participant in How to Die in Oregon, the documentary that won Sundance (2011).
Dr. Tom Preston is a retired cardiologist who lives in both Washington state and California. He was one of the early pioneers of medical aid in dying in Washington and very instrumental in legislation being passed to allow medical aid in dying for the terminally ill. He spent years traveling the state educating physicians and the public about end of life choice. As a part-time California resident in beautiful Palm Desert, he has joined End of Life Choices’ Advisory Council to provide his expertise, experience and wisdom to help educate physicians and the public in California.
Dr. Reagan is a retired family physician living in Portland, Oregon. His practice included hospital care, surgical assisting, pediatrics and obstetrics.
He was trained at Haverford College, with a BA Physics; Reed College in Portland with Master of Arts in Teaching, after which he taught high school in Portland and in Alaska. During this time and partly related to his Quaker upbringing, he became politically active in the movement to oppose the Vietnam War. He was a war resister, and was convicted for refusing to serve under the Selective Service Law in 1970. (3 years on federal probation.)
Dr. Reagan then attended Medical School at Oregon Health Sciences University, graduating in 1977. He went into private practice in Oregon from 1983 to 2011. During this time he served as Adventist Hospital Family Practice Chair, Adventist Hospital Medical Staff President, and Adventist Hospital QA chair. Dr. Reagan also was an Associate Adjunct Professor at OHSU. He served as a member of the Board of Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland, and is a current member of the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians.
He has been instrumental in teaching physicians across the country how to become more comfortable in supporting their patients’ end of life wishes.
Rabbi Singer, a former EOLCCA Board member, is Rabbi Emerita at Temple Beth El in Riverside, CA and co-founder of the “Healing Together” project supporting Israelis impacted by PTSD, through Animal Assisted Psychotherapy.
As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, she is keenly aware of the need to make our world a better place. She recently served as a member of the Reform movement’s Commission on Social Action, as President of PARR (Pacific Area Reform Rabbis), as a member of the City of Riverside’s Task Force on Police Reform, and as a commissioner for the City of Riverside’s Human Relations Commission. She has led advocacy efforts through local interfaith organizations and succeeded in helping pass alternative to jail and aid-in-dying legislation.
Rabbi Singer grew up in New York City and attended the Lycée Francais de New York. She holds three Masters Degrees: a Masters of Arts in Hebrew Letters and a Masters of Arts in Judaic Studies from Hebrew Union College (HUC); and a Masters in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where she also earned a Bachelors Degree in Comparative Literature. Rabbi Singer was ordained by HUC in 2003. Prior to attending HUC, Rabbi Singer spent twenty years as a television producer and programming executive, primarily for national public television (PBS).