COMPANIONING THE DYING - Key Persons


Aaron Charles

Job Titles:
  • Medical Director, ACE Unit

Christina Puchalski

Job Titles:
  • Director, George Washington University Institute for Spirituality and Health

Cindy Arno

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors

Diana Goroff

Job Titles:
  • Treasurer of the Board of Directors

J. Joe Hart

Job Titles:
  • Chaplain

Jane Lewis

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors

Janet Will - President

Job Titles:
  • Co - Director
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • President

Joyce Rupp

Job Titles:
  • Author, Lecturer, Co - Director of the Institute of Compassionate Presence

Judie Blanchard

Job Titles:
  • Vice President of the Board of Directors

Lee Blank

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors

Mary Aguilera Titus

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • LMT, Secretary

Micheline Toussaint

Micheline Toussaint, LCSW, OSW-C, RYT A social worker for more than 20 years, Micheline developed an interest in complementary mind-body approaches to healing while growing up overseas in Asia. In addition to being a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she is a registered yoga teacher, a certified psychodramatist, and a certified end-of-life counselor. She provides individual, couples, and family counseling for cancer patients and their loved ones. She helped develop a mind-body education series, leads yoga and meditation classes for patients and caregivers, facilitates support groups, and speaks to community groups about issues related to cancer. Micheline has a particular interest in using mind-body practices to strengthen resiliency in cancer patients and their caregivers.

Monica Escalante - CEO

Job Titles:
  • CEO

Patricia Wudel

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director

Peter Fitz

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors

Priscilla Norris

Job Titles:
  • Registered Nurse
  • Hospice Nurse, Former Co - Director
Priscilla Norris is a registered nurse with a long history of hospice care, particularly of people with HIV. Most recently she worked for 13 years as clinical coordinator at Joseph's House, a facility in Washington, DC offering comprehensive nursing and support services to homeless men and women with advanced HIV disease and terminal cancer, where Priscilla oversaw the care of the residents and served as teacher and mentor for the year-long interns. She has a nursing degree from Catholic University and is a graduate of the Metta Institute End-of-Life Counselor Program. She is a former Co-Program Director of Companioning the Dying.

Rev. Joe Muth

Job Titles:
  • Pastor, St. Matthew Catholic Parish, Baltimore

Rose Mary Dougherty

Rose Mary Dougherty, SSND, (1939-2019) was the former Co-Director of Companioning the Dy ing, which she co-founded in 2008 with her friend Amy Hoey. She ministered in the area of contemplative spirituality for over thirty years, and authored two books on group spiritual direction and one book on discernment. Rose Mary accompanied the dying as friend, daughter, sibling, spiritual director, and hospice volunteer. She graduated from the Metta Institute End-of-Life Counselor Program, an outgrowth of the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco. She was also a retired Senior Fellow of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation where for many years she directed Shalem's program in Spiritual Guidance. Rose Mary stepped back from active teaching in 2015 as she continued to live with the challenges and invitations of Parkinson's disease. Rose Mary died peacefully in March 2019.

Steve Wilks

Job Titles:
  • Director of Palliative Care

Ted Keating

Job Titles:
  • Religious Leader, Canon Lawyer

William Dietrich

Job Titles:
  • Spiritual Director