A Year of Honors for Our Zelda Foster Studies Community

The 2018-19 academic year has been particularly fruitful for NYU Silver’s Zelda Foster Studies Program in Palliative and End-of-Life Care, with nine fellows, mentors, and faculty receiving significant honors, and three collaborating to edit a seminal textbook on palliative care social work, which was published in winter 2019.

Nancy Cincotta, an MSW Mentor, received the Outstanding Education and Training Award at the American Psychosocial Oncology Society Conference this year and will receive the LLS Hematology/Oncology Lifetime Achievement Award at the Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) Annual Conference in June.

Leadership Mentor Penny Damaskos was named to the inaugural (2018) cohort of AOSW Fellows.

Richard Dickens, an MSW Mentor, Tara Schapmire, a Leadership Mentor, and Cecilia Chan, a Leadership Mentor, have been named to the 2019 cohort of AOSW Fellows.

Karen Hartman, an MSW Mentor, will receive the LLS Hematology/Oncology Social Worker of the Year Award at the upcoming AOSW Conference

Avery Levine, an MSW Fellow graduating in May 2019, was chosen to receive the AOSW’s Palliative Care and End-of-Life/Betty Vargo Scholarship.

Faculty Member Virge Luce received the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network’s 2019 Award of Excellence in Professional Education.

MSW Fellow Bridget Sumser was chosen by the Cambia Health Foundation for the Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program - the first year social workers were eligible to receive the honor.

Finally, Bridget Sumser, Meagan Lyon Leimena (MSW Fellow) and Terry Altilio (Faculty Member) had their book Palliative Care: A Guide for Health Social Workers, published by Oxford University Press.

We are pleased to congratulate all these members of our Zelda Foster Studies Community on their achievements.