Washington, October 18, 2023 – C-TAC’s (Coalition to Transform Advanced Care) Chief Executive Officer, Jon Broyles, announced the national nonprofit’s first Blue Chair Fund honorees, who will be recognized for their leadership to improve the quality of life for people with serious illness and their caregivers, in a ceremony to be held on October 24, 2023, at the CTAC-CAPC Leadership Summit in Washington, DC.
The C-TAC Blue Chair Fund was founded to honor the legacy of Shirley Roberson, a patient advocate, who envisioned the day when our health system provides high-quality care based on patient-clinician connection and empathy. Shirley’s story of asking a clinician to sit in a blue chair and listen to her is symbolic of C-TAC’s mission to ensure that all people with a serious illness are seen and heard.
The Blue Chair Fund supports C-TAC’s Moonshot Goal that the 12 million people experiencing serious illness will have a high-quality of life on their terms. C-TAC is proud to recognize the following individuals.
Amy Berman, Senior Program Officer at The John A. Hartford Foundation, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for her commitment and dedication to improving the lives of older adults, especially those living with serious illness. She is well known for her work to increase access to palliative care and for leading the development and dissemination of innovative, cost-effective models of care that improve health outcomes for older adults. Ms. Berman helped launch the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, which has now spread evidence-based practices that reduce harm and focus on what matters to older adults to over 3,000 care settings. Ms. Berman is a stage 4 breast cancer patient who openly shares her experiences and continues to speak out about her health care choices, palliative care, and implications for patients, practice, and policy.
Mona Negm, Founder of The American Muslim Senior Society, based in the Washington, DC area, will be recognized with the Patient Advocate Award, for her decades of work to empower diverse seniors and caregivers by giving them access to culturally sensitive tools and resources to improve their quality of life and live in dignity. Ms. Negm is the caregiver of her husband who has dementia.
Dr. Brad Rosen, Vice President, Physician Alignment and Care Transitions at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, is receiving the Clinician Leadership Award for advancing patient-centered care in medical education, clinical practice, and healthcare policies. In 2013, Dr. Rosen assumed responsibility for Cedars-Sinai’s palliative care program (now called Supportive Care Medicine), where a multi-disciplinary team provides inpatient and outpatient consultive support for patients and their families who are experiencing serious illness. Based on his learnings caring for patients and overseeing these clinical programs, Dr. Rosen recognized an opportunity to better ensure that all patients receive care that is consistent with their goals, values, and preferences. So began a multi-year initiative called “goal-concordant care” that has now touched almost every area and department of Cedars-Sinai. The program has recently evolved to focusing on engaging all members of the Cedars-Sinai medical staff on the topic of Serious Illness Communication Skills
Ashley Thompson, senior vice president of the American Hospital Association, a supporter of the Blue Chair Fund, will host and present the awards to the honorees in a special ceremony with over 500 healthcare leaders and policy makers in attendance along with patients and caregivers, to celebrate these three outstanding individuals.
Other Blue Chair Fund supporters include David Jones, Jr., Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and Shirley Roberson’s grandson and caregiver, Ennis Roberson. Mr. Roberson said, “I am honored and privileged to continue Shirley’s legacy of asking others to sit in the Blue Chair so the voices and choices of all people with serious illness are heard and respected.”
About C-TAC’s Blue Chair Fund:
The Blue Chair Fund improves quality of life for patients and caregivers. It ensures the voices of 12 million people with serious illness are heard and respected. After Shirley Roberson’s death in 2022, C-TAC launched the Blue Chair Fund to honor and act on her legacy by both advancing C-TAC’s mission and recognizing extraordinary leaders who embody Shirley’s vision of a person-centered healthcare system. For more information or to get involved, contact Joy Braun, Vice President of Development, JBraun@thectac.org
