The Institute’s Impact as a Leader in Palliative Care Education is Growing!

The CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care has been hard at work this year building opportunities for palliative care education across California. The Institute operates using a campus partner model. The systemwide CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care is located at CSU San Marcos and we work collaboratively with campus partner offices at CSUs across the state. We are growing, thanks to the generous support from philanthropist Darlene Shiley and the Shiley Foundation. In 2022-2023 we had two campus partners; we added two more in 2023-2024. I am delighted to share that we have recently added two more campus partners in 2024-2025:

• CSUSM – The first campus office; Faculty Director Dr. Michael McDuffie (Philosophy)
• CSU Monterrey Bay – Faculty Director Dr. Alyssa Erikson (Nursing)
• Sonoma State University – Faculty Co-Directors Drs. Krista Altaker (Nursing) and Adele Santana (Business; 2023-2024)
• CSU Fresno – Faculty Director Dr. Helen Militades (Social Work; 2023-2024)
• San Jose State – Faculty Director Dr. Nicole Dubus (Social Work; 2024-2025)
• CSU Northridge – Faculty Director Dr. Rika Meyer (Child and Adolescent Development; 2024-2025)

These outstanding faculty members lead their campuses in integrating palliative care education in undergraduate and graduate curricula. Working with requirements from disciplinary accreditors – and with guidance from the Institute — these faculty are actively engaged in enhancing students’ training in the healthcare fields.

I am also thrilled to share that the Institute was recently awarded a $200K grant from the Hearst Foundation to support interprofessional education at two of our campus partner locations: CSU San Marcos and CSU Fresno. Under this grant, Dr. Katie Robinson, nursing faculty at CSUSM, will serve as the Co-PI and will provide training to faculty from the campuses so they can integrate interprofessional education and palliative care into their courses without adding academic units. Students will learn about the contributions that various healthcare disciplines (e.g., nursing, social work, speech pathology, kinesiology) make to quality patient care and they’ll learn best practices for working together as a team. The Institute staff will be providing critical infrastructure support and expertise in curriculum design and assessment to faculty on both campuses.

National Symposium for Academic Palliative Care Education and Research

Finally, we are deep into the planning for our National Symposium for Academic Palliative Care Education and Research on the campus of CSUSM June 2-3, 2025, with workshops offered on June 4th. This symposium has something for every palliative care professional, whether you are teaching courses to nurses or other students in healthcare disciplines, conducting research on patient outcomes, or providing compassionate care at the bedside, you’ll enjoy learning from your colleagues and sharing your experiences. We hope to see you there!