Comprehensive Palliative Care Program

Meet Our Staff

Robert Arnold, MD, is the Leo H. Criep Chair in Patient Care; professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine; chief, Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics; and assistant director for education, University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law. He also serves as the assistant medical director of palliative care for the Institute for Quality Improvement at UPMC.

He is currently a faculty scholar on the Project on Death in America and is working to teach physician leaders how to educate peers to better communicate regarding ethical, psychosocial, and existential issues at the end-of-life. His clinical activities focus on providing palliative care consults in a tertiary care hospital and providing primary care to HIV-positive inpatients. His research activities focus on teaching ethics to residents, doctor/patient communication regarding end-of-life issues, and organ donation. He is a past president, America Society of Bioethics and Humanities.

David Barnard, PhD, is a professor in the Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics, Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and in the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law, where he is director of palliative care education. Dr. Barnard is an authority in the integration of the humanities into the education of health professionals. He has devoted the last 20 years to teaching and writing about the ethical, spiritual, and psychological dimensions of medical practice. Before coming to the University of Pittsburgh in 1999, Dr. Barnard was university professor of humanities and chairman of the Department of Humanities at The Pennsylvania State University College
of Medicine, the first Department of Humanities established at a medical school. He has held teaching positions at Harvard Divinity School, Northeastern University, and the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Dr. Barnard received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and master's degree in comparative history from Brandeis University. He also received a master of theological studies from Harvard Divinity School and a doctorate in religion and society from Harvard University.

He has published and lectured extensively on ethical issues at the end of life. He is the co-editor, with William R. Rogers, of Nourishing the Humanistic in Medicine: Interactions with the Social Sciences, and, with S. Kay Toombs and Ronald A. Carson, of Chronic Illness: From Experience to Policy. Crossing Over: Narratives of Palliative Care, co-authored with Anna Towers, Patricia Boston, and Yanna Lambrinidou, was published by Oxford University Press in 2000.

In 1994, Dr. Barnard organized a Humanities Advisory Group within the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Palliative Care and the Journal of Palliative Medicine and was co-chair of the National Consensus Conference on Medical Education for Care Near the End of Life in May 1997.    

Linda A. King, MD, is an associate professor of medicine in the Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics and the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She participates in the UPMC Comprehensive Palliative Care Program on the inpatient consultation service and in an outpatient clinic. Dr. King completed a fellowship in palliative care at Massachusetts General Hospital. She graduated from Northwestern University Medical School in 1995 and completed a primary care medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1998.

Paul K. Han, MD, is assistant professor of medicine, Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics, Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a consulting physician on the inpatient palliative care program and a general internist with the Internal Medicine Residency Program at UPMC Shadyside. Dr. Han received his medical degree at New York University School of Medicine and completed residency training in internal medicine at UCLA Medical Center and a master's degree in bioethics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Elizabeth K. Chaitin, DHCE, is the director of the Medical Ethics and Palliative Care Programs Department at UPMC Shadyside. In this role, she provides ethics consultation services hospitalwide for UPMC Shadyside, evaluative services for palliative care, and direct supervision for the certified registered nurse practitioner employed within the department. Dr. Chaitin is on the faculty of the Consortium Ethics Program of the University of Pittsburgh. She is a clinical instructor in medical ethics and palliative care for the Family Practice and Internal Medicine residency services of UPMC Shadyside and in the Masters of Ethics Program of the University of Pittsburgh as well as the master and doctoral programs in Health Care Ethics at Duquesne University. She has been co-chairperson of the Bio-Medical Ethics Committee at UPMC Shadyside for the past eight years and serves as an ethics consultant for the Ethics Consultation Service for the Center for Bioethics and Health Law of the University of Pittsburgh.

Ronald Stiller, MD, received his Ph.D. from Boston University and a master's degree in public health from Harvard University School of Public Health. After spending two years in the laboratory of Dr. Ronald Herberman at the National Cancer Institute, he enrolled in George Washington University School of Medicine, where he received his medical degree in 1982. He has worked as a critical care physician at UPMC for the past 14 years. Dr. Stiller also treats patients in the UPMC Comprehensive Lung Center. He has considerable experience working with critically and terminally ill patients and their families. Dr. Stiller is the co-chairperson of the Bio-Medical Ethics Committee at UPMC Shadyside and serves as the medical advisor to the Medical Ethics and Palliative Care Programs Department at UPMC Shadyside.

Ellen Redinbaugh, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and research instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She brings to the palliative care program her expertise in behavioral medicine and aging. Her clinical work addresses the stress and strain of end-of-life care as it affects patients, families, and health care professionals. Dr. Redinbaugh’s research interests include stress, coping, quality of life, caregiving, and health care professionals’ grief reactions. Her teaching activities include educating health care professionals and trainees about psychological issues in end-of-life care.

Rafael Sciullo is President of Family Hospice and Palliative Care (FHPC). He is chairperson of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and has been active on their board of directors since 1997. His interest in the cultural aspects of dying led to his living and working with Hispanic and Navajo communities. He also serves on the board of the Canadian Palliative Care Association. He holds an MA from the University of San Diego, MSW from the University of Connecticut, and MS in Health Care Management from the Hartford Graduate Center.

Carolyn Longest, MA is the editor of the UPMC Palliative Care and Hospice Newsletter, an educational/informational resource for UPMC physicians. She received her master’s degree in medical ethics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991, with her thesis on “Selected Aspects of Ethical and Legal Obligations of Physicians to Inform Terminally Ill Patients About the Alternative of Hospice.” Her most recent publication in this area is “End of Life Care: Whose Responsibility?” published in Sensabilities, Vol. 3, No.1 (Fall 1999). Her professional background is in bereavement, and her specific interest is in end-of-life care: making it more readily available to patients who need it and making resources for end-of-life care more readily known to physicians. She serves on the Advisory Committee of UPMC’s Comprehensive Palliative Care Program.

Justin Engleka, RN, MSN, CRNP, is the nurse practitioner for the Comprehensive Palliative Care Program. He has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree from the Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Program at Carlow College. His nursing experience includes acute care oncology, hospice home care, and palliative care research with caregivers.

Nicole Fowler, MHSA, is the administrator for the Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics. In this capacity, she acts as a coordinator of ongoing projects and oversees the administrative responsibilities of the section's research and consult service. In addition to having experience as a researcher and a nursing home administrator, Ms. Fowler frequently speaks to professionals and organizations about improving end-of-life care within health care systems.

Lisa Huntley is director of volunteer and community services for the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). She joined UPCI in 1997 as a communications assistant and became director of volunteer and community services in 1999. Ms. Huntley is a graduate of Robert Morris College with a bachelor's degree in marketing. She is a volunteer for the American Cancer Society and founder of the Grant Channell Memorial Golf Outing, which benefits melanoma research at UPCI.    

Sharon Carmody is a student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is spending the 2001-2002 academic year working with the program on a number of research projects. Sharon is a graduate of Allegheny College, where she majored in Geology and Economics and the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, where she earned an MBA. Before coming to medical school, she worked for a number of years as a manager for several New England businesses. Sharon was awarded a 2001-2002 Student Scholar Grant from the American Society of Nephrology and is working on a project to investigate whether symptom management interventions can improve quality of life for patients with end stage renal disease who are receiving dialysis. At the School of Medicine, Sharon is pursuing a concentration in Geriatrics. She participates in the GEMS program (Geriatric Experience for Medical Students) and the Pittsburgh Schweitzer Fellows Program, where she was a 2000-2001 fellow and now serves as a mentor to current fellows. Sharon also volunteers for Family Hospice.