My years as a chaplain and as a spiritual care service director have prepared me to help you grow professionally, remain more resilient in our professions, and advocate for systemic change. In addition to educating health care workers at Stanford Health Care and Montage Health, I have spoken at conferences, including the American Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Assembly, the American Geriatricians Society, the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, and the American Conference on Physician Health.
Contact me for more information about speaking at your next continuing education session, conference, grand rounds, or team meeting: Let’s Connect
“This class should be part of orientation and mandatory for all employees,” AT, participant in class at Montage Health on moral distress for health care workers.
“The richness of your studies was so evident, not just in a scholarly way, but also in terms of the peace it brought to those of us in the room,” Janet Sims, conference organizer, Santa Clara University.
Upcoming Workshops, Classes, Conference Presentations
Moral Distress, Injury and Repair: Self- and Team-Care for Health Care Workers, upcoming at Montage Health, April 2026
“Moral Distress, Interventions, Self-Care when Caring for Patients with Dementia,” coming 2026 at Montage Health
Examples of recent teaching topics:
- Moral Distress, Injury and Repair: Self- and Team-Care for Health Care Workers, Montage Health, 2023-present
- Relationships Define Us As A Team: Addressing Horizontal Violence at Work, 2025
- What We Carry: Trauma Informed Care for Health Care Workers, Montage Health, 2023-present
- We Are Better As A Team: Transdisciplinary Care, Montage Health, 2023-present
- Spirituality and LGBTQ+ Mental Health, Santa Clara University, 2023.
- Spiritual Care during medical crises
- Neuroscience and Spiritual Care
- Becoming a cultural broker; cultural humility and literacy
- Patient and family-centered listening and communication
- Attending to workplace grief and stress
Related Publications and Videos:
Spiritual Care and Clinical Practice Transformed: At the Intersection of Vulnerabilty and Awe, co-editor (forthcoming Palgrave 2026).
- “Harnessing the Chaplain’s Capacity to Identify Unmet Palliative Needs of Vulnerable Older Adults in the Emergency Department” J Palliative Care
- “Spiritual Care in the shadow of loss and uprising: A Year in the Life of a Team,” in Postcolonial Practices of Care: A Project of Togetherness during COVID-19 and Racial Violence
- “Cultural Humility and Reverent Curiosity: Spiritual Care with and Beyond Norms,” Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care: Challenges of Care in a Neoliberal Age
- “The Value of Listening During the COVID-19 Pandemic” San Jose Mercury News
- The Chaplain’s Role When A Patient is Considering VSED (Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking)