Join us
Thursday, November 9, 2023
OMNI BOSTON HOTEL AT THE SEAPORT
450 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210
The pandemic has brought new urgency to supporting the well-being of the healthcare workforce so that they can provide compassionate care to patients and families. With 27 years of experience supporting, educating and training hundreds of thousands of professional caregivers, we are uniquely positioned to meet the needs of our healthcare community.
Thanks to donors like you, we have been able to enhance our evidence-based programs, including Schwartz Rounds® and Stress First Aid, and launch the Healing Healthcare Initiative. This senior leadership team education and support program will guide healthcare leaders to reimagine their system’s operations, so their health workers can find strength and safety in prioritizing their mental health and well-being and deliver equitable, compassionate patient care, ultimately resulting in lasting organizational change.
As we look to the future, we will continue to support individual caregivers and teams while also expanding support for leaders to drive organizational change. This evening, you’ll hear from Corey Feist, co-founder and president of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, about their affiliation with the Schwartz Center to create a comprehensive organization that will work across health systems and inspire hope for the future of healthcare.
You will also hear the inspiring stories of the National Compassionate Caregivers of the Year® awardees, who are helping create healing environments for patients, families, colleagues, and communities.
Tonight, we gather to honor and celebrate the commitment, resilience, and compassion of healthcare workers. Funds raised this evening will provide programs and crucial resources to support the mental health and well-being of all caregivers so that they can provide compassionate patient care.
Thank you for joining us in our vision of a world where all who seek and provide care experience compassion.
Ellen R. Cohen
Board President
Mark E. Reynolds
Board Chair
Elizabeth Hickman
Interim CEO & COO
Support the Schwartz Center
Every year, this event raises vital funds for programs that support the well-being of healthcare professionals so that they can provide compassionate care to patients. If you haven’t already, there is still time to make a gift. Please donate now.
Dinner Program
WELCOME
MARK REYNOLDS
Schwartz Center Board Chair,
President & CEO, CRICO
NATIONAL COMPASSIONATE CAREGIVERS OF THE YEAR® AWARD
SUSAN DONAHUE
Dinner Co-Chair, Schwartz Center
INTRODUCTION OF DR. DEBLIEUX
TRAVIS MCCREADY
Dinner Co-Chair, Executive Director/National Practice Leader, U.S. Life Sciences Markets, JLL
SUPPORTING SCHWARTZ CENTER PROGRAMS
PETER DEBLIEUX, MD
Chief Experience Officer and Emergency Physician, University Medical Center New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
MR SPEED
INTRODUCTION OF COREY FEIST
DEBORAH MARCUS
Dinner Co-Chair, Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation Board Member, Executive Director, CAA Foundation
KEYNOTE REMARKS
JOHN BERMAN, CNN Anchor
DESSERT RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT
Leadership & Donor List
We’re so grateful for our volunteers and donors who help make this event possible.
Who We Are
Founded in 1995, the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare is a national organization whose mission is to put compassion at the heart of healthcare through programs, education and advocacy.
With 27 years of experience supporting, educating and training professional caregivers, the Schwartz Center worked with urgency to help address the mental and emotional health needs of healthcare providers during and in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The Schwartz Center has nearly 600 member healthcare organizations across 45 states in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The benefits of membership extend to all staff within the member organization. There are also more than 200 healthcare organizations in the U.K. and Ireland conducting the Schwartz Rounds program through a partnership.
Our evidence-informed programs and resources have proven to be versatile, sustainable and effective across diverse settings, including acute care and rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient clinics, cancer centers, Veteran’s Administration medical centers, organ procurement organizations, nursing homes, hospice providers, and health insurers.
Schwartz Center members rely on our offerings to support clinician mental health and well- being, enhance the quality of care, enable better outcomes and create a more positive and rewarding experience for all members of the care team, patients and their families.
We partner with healthcare organizations and systems to achieve a shared vision of a world where all who seek and provide care experience compassion.
What We Do
We provide training, support, education, community and recognition programs that enable healthcare professionals to create and sustain a culture of compassion.
Our innovative Schwartz Rounds program makes a unique and important contribution to the culture within healthcare organizations. They allow for interdisciplinary conversation about some of the most complex and compelling dilemmas that health professionals face as they balance compassionate care with the strenuous demands of their daily work.
The program has shown to improve teamwork, decrease feelings of stress and isolation, and increase feelings of compassion toward patients and families. Since 2020, we have launched two successful variations of the program: Unit-Based Schwartz Rounds, which brings the program to a specific unit in a time of need, and Virtual Schwartz Rounds, which enables remote connection, community and engagement.
In addition to Schwartz Rounds, we offer Stress First Aid, a program aimed at identifying and mitigating the negative impacts of stress before they impair staff health and well- being. We also offer educational webinars, facilitation workshops and our Compassion in Action Healthcare Conference, which is focused on action-oriented tools and strategies to drive culture change in healthcare organizations.
This year, we’re also launching the Healing Healthcare Initiative. The Healing Healthcare Initiative (HHI) is a senior leadership team education and support program for organizational change. HHI will guide healthcare leaders to reimagine their system’s operations, so their health workers can find strength and safety in prioritizing their mental health and well-being and deliver equitable, compassionate patient care.
Keynote Speaker
John Berman, CNN Anchor
Event Committee
Ann Muschett and Michael Blau, Retired, Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
Gloria Respress-Churchwell and Kevin B. Churchwell, MD, President and CEO, Boston Children’s Hospital
Ellen Cohen, MSW, Founder, Schwartz Center Board
Wendy Cohen
Robert Coughlin, Managing Director, JLL
Ethan Crain, Managing Director, Northeast Health Practice Leader, Marsh McLennan
Mishele and Robert Fields, Executive Vice President & Chief Clinical Officer, Beth Israel Lahey Health
Kerry A. Flynn
Betsy Pingree Frawley and James M. Litton
Elizabeth Maringer and Jay Shiland, Partner, MTS Health Partners LP
Sharon McNally, President, Camp Harbor View Foundation; Chief of Staff, Connors Family Office
Jo Frances Meyer, Director, Puddingstone Consulting
Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, Esq., Chief Executive Officer & President, MassBio
Clare Reilly and Mark Reynolds, President, CRICO
Colette and Daniel Stanzler, Portfolio Manager, Beaumont Financial Partners, LLC
Marjorie and Paul Stanzler
Elizabeth Vernaglia, PhD and Lawrence Vernaglia, Partner, Foley and Lardner LLP
Peter and Ellen Zane
Dinner Chairs
Sree Chaguturu, MD
Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, CVS Health
Susan Donahue
Peter L. Slavin, MD
Operating Partner, Advent International and Former President, Massachusetts General Hospital
Recipients
Since 1999, the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare has honored outstanding healthcare professionals who display extraordinary devotion and compassion in caring for patients and families.
The National Compassionate Caregivers of the Year Award recognizes extraordinary healthcare professionals from across the country who embody the characteristics of compassionate care and whose professional achievements have helped to create healing healthcare environments for patients, families, colleagues, and communities.
Six award recipients were chosen by a national review committee, and represent a variety of healthcare professions and interdisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals.
Kristy Capps, BSN, RN
Laura Harmon, MD
Complex Discharge Team UK Healthcare, KY
Kathryn B. Kirkland, MD
Assumptah (Summie) Mwai, CHPNA
Sonia Sutherland, MD
With a performance by:
The ‘greatest Kiss tribute band in the world’ “Mr. Speed” pays homage to the rock icons, hot off their three day set at the Stark County Fair.
Doctor Elvis Francois “Dr. Elvis” is an Orthopedic spine surgeon practicing in Atlanta, GA. Having completed his residency in Orthopedic Surgery at Mayo Clinic, he went on to complete his Spine Surgery fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess, Harvard Medical School.
Beyond his practice as an orthopedic surgeon, he has a unique passion for sharing his voice via uplifting music both in and outside of the hospital. Clinically, he has published many peer-reviewed scientific publications and lectured at national and international conferences on a variety of medical topics.
In 2018, he gained national attention for an impromptu rendition of “Alright” performed after a trauma call shift, and again after a cover of “IMAGINE” promoting hope during Covid-19.
Since that time, Dr. Elvis has been featured on The Ellen Show, Forbes, Rolling Stone,Good Morning America, Today and The View, among countless other mainstream media appearances. Dr. Elvis also starred on the Smash Fox TV Show, The Masked Singer, and was praised repeatedly by another doctor, Dr. Ken Jeong. He was also named to People Magazine’s sexiest men alive 2020.
Furthermore, Dr. Elvis has performed live at the Indianapolis 500, Monday Night Football, The Presidential Inauguration and more. His music covers have amassed well over 10 million views on Facebook and Instagram,and in 2020 he produced an album of song covers that peaked at No. 2 on the iTunes charts and was in the Top 20 on the Billboard charts.
In another example of the size of his heart, 100% of the proceeds from his album were donated directly to a COVID-19 relief charity.
Dr. Elvis is also a speaker at numerous national conferences where he interacts with people seamlessly to motivate, inspire, entertain and uplift audiences across the world.
During the Covid crisis Dr. Elvis is making the best use of his time, not only performing much-needed surgeries, but also in the studio working on original music with some of the music industry heavyweights.
History
The Schwartz Center reflects the vision of Ken Schwartz, a Boston healthcare attorney who died of lung cancer at age 40 and found that what mattered to him most was the human connection he felt with his caregivers, which he said made “the unbearable bearable.” He established the Schwartz Center in 1995 – just days before his death – to ensure that all patients and families are treated with compassion.
Special Thanks
The Schwartz Center is grateful to everyone who helped make this 28th Annual Dinner a success by contributing time and in-kind support.
The Schwartz Center is grateful to everyone who helped make this 27th Annual Dinner a success by contributing time and in-kind support:
Our dinner chairs, Bob Coughlin, Deborah Marcus, and Travis McCready for their enthusiasm, commitment and time, and our dinner event committee for its dedication to making the dinner a success
Our underwriters and dinner sponsors for making the Schwartz Center and compassionate healthcare a philanthropic priority
All contributors to the Schwartz Center for their support of this evening, our mission and programs, as well as for their donations made in memory and in honor of loved ones and compassionate caregivers
LaunchPad Media, including Jacob Eidsmoe and Alex Poulos, for their ongoing pro bono help in creating Schwartz Center videos and other materials
For their ongoing support we also thank:
Our incredible Board, chaired by Mark Reynolds, Honorary Board led by Betsy Frawley and Tony Starr, and our Leadership Council, co-chaired by Michael Blau and Kerry Flynn, for their strategic help, hands-on support and generosity
Our many volunteers who assist us in so many ways, especially the dedicated members of our Finance Committee, co-chaired by Candace Young and Jean-Paul Rebillard, our Development Committee, led by Jay Shiland, our Program Committee co-chaired by Rushika Fernandopulle, MD, MPP, and Lynn Buttolph, MD, PhD, and our Governance Committee led by Marjorie Stanzler and Jeffrey Sánchez.
Massachusetts General Hospital and Mass General Brigham for 27 years of generous support at many levels, in particular: Brit Nicholson, MD, Julie McLaughlin, Natalie Derrick, Sarah Christopher, Heather Leonardo, Beth Moyer, Sam Foreman, Todd Weekley, Gabriel Manchon, and Harry Moulis.
Steve Weiner, Peter Biagetti, Dianne Bourque, Sue Finegan, Cassandra Paolillo, Cody Keetch, Emily Paone, Jean Krebs, Pat Ouellette, Kate Stewart, and the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC, for its pro bono legal work
Our interns, Dina Bash and Sophia Yee, and loyal volunteers for helping us throughout the year