Myra Christopher

Myra Christopher holds the Kathleen M. Foley Chair in Pain and Palliative Care at the Center for Practical Bioethics.  Prior to Dec. 2011, Ms. Christopher was President and CEO of the Center for Practical Bioethics since its inception in 1985.

Myra Christopher has been President and CEO of the Center for Practical Bioethics since its inception in 1985.  In addition to providing oversight to the Center, from 1998-2003, Christopher served as the national program officer of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation’s National Program Office for State-based Initiatives to Improve End-of Life Care which was housed at the Center.

These roles have allowed Christopher to continue her lifelong mission to improve care for seriously ill people and their families.

Because of Christopher’s involvement with the Nancy Beth Cruzan case, Senator John Danforth sought her assistance in drafting and introducing the Patient Self-Determination Act which became law in 1990. She consulted with the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations on patients’ rights and organizational ethics standards and developed Beyond Compliance, resource materials and a seminar for the Joint Commission that was presented across the country.

She served as a public outreach advisor to Bill Moyers on for his PBS documentary On Our Own Terms, worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid  to present the first national conference on palliative care in nursing homes, directed Community State Partnerships to Improve End-of-Life Care, an $11.25m grant award program, collaborated with the National Association of Attorneys General to establish palliative care as a consumer protection issue, edited State Initiatives to Improve End-of-Life Care, and collaborated with the RAND Institute to develop a report to congress on advance care planning in 2009.

Since the late 1990s, Christopher has expanded the scope of her work to include the under treatment of chronic pain.  She speaks and writes about both pain and palliative care.  She is currently the principal investigator on the Pain Action Initiative: A National Strategy (PAINS). This project will assess capacity and readiness across the country to develop a coordinated plan to improve care for the more than 100 million Americans who struggle with chronic pain. From 2010-11, she served as a member of Pain Study Committee at the Institutes of Medicine focused the undertreatment of pain.  The IOM report, Relieving Pain In American: A Blueprint for Transformation in Prevention, Care, Education and Research, was submitted to Congress in June, 2011.  Christopher consults with the Centers for Disease Control to promote pain and palliative care as a public health issue and to provide education for  directors of public health and aging services at the state level.  On behalf of the Center for Practical Bioethics, she participated in founding the Coalition to Transform Advanced Illness in Washington, DC and serves on its incorporating board.

Christopher is currently on the board of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Certification Corporation, , a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB), a consultant for the Duke Institute for Care at the End-of-Life after serving on their national advisory board for 10 years, and serves on advisory boards for the Federation of State Medical Boards, and the University of Kansas School of Nursing.  She was formerly on the board of the American Pain Foundation.

Christopher has received many awards for the work she has done to improve care for those suffering from advanced illness and chronic pain, including The American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Patient Advocacy Award, the American Academy of Pain Management’s “Head Heart Award, the W.F. Yates Medallion for Distinguished Service/William Jewell College, the American Academy of Critical Care Nursing’s Pioneering Spirit Award, the Marian Gray Secundy SANKOFA Award for work to improve palliative and end-of-life care for African Americans, the National Association of Attorney’s Generals President’s Award and Alumni Achievement Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Missouri Kansas City and Honorary Alumnus of the Year Kansas University School of Nursing, and Nonprofit Professional of the Year from the Kansas City Council on Philanthropy.

In December 2011, Christopher received an Honorary Doctorate from National University Health Sciences in Chicago.

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