C-TAC’s (Coalition to Transform Advanced Care) Chief Executive Officer, Jon Broyles, announced the national nonprofit’s 2024 Blue Chair honorees, Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Jo Ann C. Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer of AARP, and Ebony Lowman, pediatric cancer caregiver, will be recognized in a ceremony on October 22, 2024, at the C-TAC 2024 National Leadership Summit in Washington, DC.
The C-TAC Blue Chair Initiative 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.
Congressman Earl Blumenauer will be recognized with the Blue Chair Lifetime Achievement Award for his decades of support for compassionate end-of-life care and bringing these policies to the national stage with bi-partisan support. This includes his advocacy for Medicare payment codes for advance care planning services and allowing physicians to discuss end-of-life care with their patients.
Congressman Blumenauer also advocated for the Improving Access to Advance Care Planning Act to help more Americans access critical advance care planning services by allowing social workers to provide ACP services, make the benefit free for patients, and promote education for providers on current ACP codes. In addition, he called on CMS and the Office of the Inspector General for greater oversight and administrative policy changes to address reports of increased fraud within Medicare’s hospice benefit.
Jo Ann Jenkins will also be recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her innovation and leadership to improve the quality of life for people with serious illness and their caregivers. Ms. Jenkins has transformed AARP, the world’s largest non-profit nonpartisan membership organization, into a leader in social change, dedicated to empowering people to choose how they live as they age. She has led efforts to redefine AARP’s vision, challenging outdated beliefs and sparking new insights that allow people to adapt to the new realities of aging – with relevant solutions to everyday issues such as health, financial resilience, digital and social connectivity, work opportunities, and personal fulfillment.
AARP has been a leader in highlighting and advancing the role of family caregivers, from specialized care across diseases, to self-care and coping skills, and calling for support for caregivers. AARP has supported regulatory and legislative initiatives to provide access and coverage to medical care and social services for people with serious illness and their family caregivers. AARP has been a long-time supporter of C-TAC’s mission and vision to advance access to quality care for people with serious illness and their family caregivers.
Ebony Lowman, a young mother and pediatric cancer caregiver from Louisville, Kentucky, will be awarded the Blue Chair Caregiver Award for her advocacy work to raise funding for pediatric cancer research and to bring awareness on the importance of blood stem cell donations. Ms. Lowman’s four-year old son, Trey, has been fighting a very rare and aggressive brain cancer, atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT) of the central nervous system which occurs mostly in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls movement, balance, and basic body functions.
Ms. Lowman has worked tirelessly to encourage and facilitate people to join the bone marrow donor registry alongside representatives from NMDP (formerly Be the Match and National Marrow Donor Program). Some children with cancer need a bone marrow transplant, also known as a blood and marrow transplant. This is especially important in the African American community where there is only a 29% chance of finding a donor match.
Ms. Lowman’s extensive advocacy includes speaking at events locally, across the state, and nationally. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear recently invited her to speak on pediatric cancer at an event to support the Kentucky Pediatric Cancer Research Trust Fund at the Commonwealth capital.
Ms. Lowman publicly shares the challenges she and her family encounter, from the financial impact to the emotions and trauma, as well as her quest for better treatment options as Trey continues his treatment and battle against this rare pediatric cancer.
Bill Novelli, C-TAC board co-chair, presents Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP CEO with Award.
Ebony Lowman, a young mother and pediatric cancer caregiver, awarded the Blue Chair Caregiver Award.
About C-TAC’s Blue Chair Initiative: After Shirley Roberson’s death in 2022, C-TAC launched the Blue Chair Initiative 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
