Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

Sally Neylan Okun, RN, BSN, MMHS

Ms. Okun's interest in palliative and end-of-life care began in the 1980s while working at The Connecticut Hospice and on the Hematology-Oncology service at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Since moving to Massachusetts in 1992, she has worked with hospice and palliative care programs in various clinical and administrative capacities, including four years as the vice president of Clinical Services at Hospice Care, Inc., an affiliate of the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston. In 1999, Ms. Okun founded and directed the Center for Life Care Planning & Support, a program of Hospice & Palliative Care of Cape Cod, dedicated to innovative community outreach and program development.

Ms. Okun has worked on numerous clinical, research, and education projects in palliative care including: project director of "Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care for Persons with Serious Mental Illness" with Mary Ellen Foti, MD, at the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health; co-author of TOOLKIT Project Resource Guide: Measurement to Improve Quality of Care at Life's End with Joan Teno, MD, at Brown University; consultant for implementation of first Palliative Care Education and Practice: An Intensive Course for Physician and Nurse Educators and co-editor of the curriculum's resource guide with J. Andrew Billings, MD, and Susan D. Block, MD, at Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care. Sally is a former board member of the Massachusetts Compassionate Care Coalition, (a group she helped to found), a member of the Hospice & Palliative Nurses Association and the Hospice & Palliative Care Federation of Massachusetts, a Last Acts Partner, and a Rallying Points Consultant. Ms. Okun serves on the Compassionate Caregiver Annual Award Selection Committee of the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center and facilitates Schwartz Center Rounds at three locations on Cape Cod.

Ms. Okun lives in Barnstable Village on Cape Cod with her husband Scott and their twin daughters, Alla and Lena.

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