About Us

The UWMC Palliative Care Program began in 2005 through the vision and efforts of Dr Stu Farber and the UWMC community of clinicians and administrators. Gradually over several years, the clinicians on the team expanded to physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers with expertise in grief counseling, pharmacist, and spiritual care clinician. Palliative care program development increased significantly for UW Medicine with the establishment of the UW Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence (CPCCE). System wide efforts thus began to establish standards for education, research and clinical care in all UW hospitals.
In 2014, the University of Washington Department of Family Medicine established the Section of Palliative Care with Lucille Marchand, MD, BSN, FAAHPM, recruited at the first section chief and UWMC Palliative Care Program Director. The section includes 3 nurse practioners: Meegan Wolczyk, ARNP, Phillip Myers, and ARNP, Carolina Collison, ARNP; operations manager Kelson Okimoto, MSW, Melissa Bender, MD, and Jackie Raetz, MD, faculty, and James Fausto, MD, MHA, UWMC Palliative Care Program Director. Other UWMC palliative care team members include social workers, chaplain, pharmacists, ethicist, and in the future, physician assistant faculty and a nurse coordinator. Other team physicians include 2 internists and psychiatrist.