Silver School Faculty Member and Alumna Receive Major Awards for Palliative Care Work

Susan Gerbino, clinical associate professor and the founder and director of the Zelda Foster Program in Palliative and End of Life Care will be honored by the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) with their major award, the 2014 Project on Death in America Career Achievement Award.

The award recognizes Gerbino’s commitment to quality in palliative and end-of-life care; her exemplary theory, research, and practice contributions to the field; and her exceptional leadership in the field and as the Zelda Foster Program director. The Zelda Program has educated over 100 leaders in the growing field of palliative care and includes programs for social workers at various career levels: an MSW fellowship, a post-master’s certificate program post-master’s, and a leadership fellowship.

Gerbino has previously been recognized as Social Worker of the Year (2005) of the New York State Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, as a Distinguished Practitioner of the National Academies of (Social Work) Practice, and with the Education Issues and Training Award at the 6th Annual International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health in Dublin, Ireland.

The Zelda Program graduates have won over 40 awards, and Christine Wilkins, PhD ’11, an adjunct lecturer at the Silver School and a Zelda Leadership Fellow, will receive the SWHPN Emerging Leader in Professional Practice and Education Award for her outstanding contributions to the field and her excellence in professional practice.

Gerbino and Wilkins will be presented with the awards at SWHPN’s General Assembly Meeting on March 10-11. These honors are a testament to the high quality of research, education, and practice in palliative care at NYU Silver.