Dr. Mildred Z. Solomon is the director of the Center for Applied Ethics and Professional Practice (CAEPP) and principal investigator of PainLink at EDC, where PainLink was developed and is being managed. An expert in the design of behavior change interventions, Dr. Solomon is a social scientist and an educator who implements and evaluates educational programs for healthcare professionals and the public. Over the past 20 years, she has been responsible for the development of many nationally acclaimed projects with a reputation for improving healthcare practices and encouraging behavior change among physicians, nurses, and patients. An adolescent school health program she developed is now in use in 20,000 school systems in the United States. She developed an award-winning series of patient education videotapes on sexually transmitted diseases, one of very few interventions in the United States to result in the adoption of risk reduction behaviors by inner-city young men and women. In 1987, Dr. Solomon co-founded the Decisions Near the End of Life program, a joint initiative of Education Development Center, Inc. and The Hastings Center, to improve terminal care in American hospitals and nursing homes. The program is now being used by 200 healthcare institutions in 32 states. In 1994, she received the John R. Hogness Award from the Association of Academic Health Centers in recognition of her distinguished career in educational research, public health, and medical education. A graduate of Smith College, Dr. Solomon received her doctorate from Harvard University, where she specialized in educational research methods and adult learning.

Judith A. Spross, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a senior research associate in CAEPP and project director of PainLink. She has held clinical nurse specialist and graduate educator positions. She also has experience in hospice and medical-surgical nursing. Prior to joining EDC in 1996 Judy worked at a rehabilitation hospital, where she established an interdisciplinary pain management team and helped institutionalize appropriate assessment and treatment of pain. While working at Massachusetts General Hospital she collaborated with a physical therapist to initiate a graduate course in pain management at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She also worked with physician colleagues to establish the MGH Cancer Pain Center, where she cared for outpatients suffering from pain due to cancer and other serious illnesses. She was co-author of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Position Paper on Cancer Pain (1990) and co-chaired the group that developed the 1998 ONS Cancer Pain Management Position Paper. She received a BSN from Villanova University, an MS in nursing from the Medical College of Virginia, and a doctorate in nursing from Boston College. She is certified in oncology nursing. Honors include the 1985 ONS Schering Award for Excellence in Practice, election to the Academy of Nursing (1992), and the 1993 Distinguished Alumna Award (Villanova University).

Joanne Baggerly, RN, was a consultant to PainLink and co-founder of Argosy Health Resource Associates. On PainLink she provided technical assistance to PainLinkers on institutional approaches to improving pain management and program evaluation. As an expert in neuroscience and rehabilitation nursing, she has held clinical and leadership roles in acute care and rehabilitation facilities. While a clinical nurse specialist at MGH, she was a member of an interdisciplinary pain team. As a member of the team, her primary responsibilities centered around the management of patients with epidural/intrathecal catheters for cancer and chronic pain, including patient and staff education and continuity of care issues. When she was director of clinical nursing development in a rehabilitation facility, she was responsible for investigating and analyzing outcomes, resource consumption, and costs associated with various programs of care and HCFA rehabilitation categories. She also developed and implemented programmatic approaches to nursing care that led to improved outcomes and served as a foundation for information-based resource allocation. She received an MS in nursing from Boston University and is a doctoral candidate in nursing at the University of Rhode Island. She is certified in neuroscience and rehabilitation nursing.

Erica Jablonski is Senior Research Assistant for the Center for Applied Ethics and Professional Practice. She has been a Research Assistant at the Center for approximately four years. In addition to working on PainLink, she serves in the same capacity on several other CAEPP projects. As Senior RA for PainLink, she has created and maintained project databases, coordinated survey administration, conducted analyses, generated reports, written website reviews, and currently manages the listserves for the on-line discussions. Prior to joining the Center for Applied Ethics and Professional Practice Erica served for approximately two years as the primary Research Assistant at the University of Massachusetts - Boston, on the Supportive Housing Evaluation Project for which she coordinated service to, and evaluation of, up 19 grant funded agencies. Her academic pursuits have led her to research in the areas of education, criminal justice, and mental health policy, as well as housing and homelessness. She is presently enrolled as a master's degree candidate in the Applied Sociology program with a focus on research methodology. Her thesis work is devoted to predictors of success in a transitional housing program for the homeless. In the past Erica has served as a co-author on grant progress reports and evaluation project analyses and has given presentations at regional and national sociological conferences. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Clark University in 1989.

Pamela Metz is an Independent Consultant who designed the website for PainLink. She has worked with other projects at EDC, designing and maintaining dynamic web sites and databases that support the project's mission and goals. She received her MA in Clinical Psychology from University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Last Updated: May 13, 2001