Nancy Contro to Receive 2011 Leadership Award
Congratulations to Nancy Contro, MSW, LCSW, who has been chosen to receive SWHPN’s 2011 Social Work Leadership Award. Nancy is currently the Director of the Family Partners Program and Bereavement Services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, Palo Alto, California (LPCH). Her career includes multiple social work leadership roles in practice, administration, teaching, and research, all demonstrating outstanding performance, national recognition, and consistent dedication to the field of palliative care and bereavement. The Family Partners Program is developed from her research and demonstrates a state-of-the art model for patient and family centered care. The program includes bereaved family members working on initiatives to improve care for families facing the death of a child. In conjunction, she has established a network of Northern California community organizations serving families during end of life and bereavement.
Nancy has an MSW from University of Washington and undergraduate degrees in psychology and criminology from University of California, Berkeley. She began her work as a pediatric oncology social worker at LPCH. Her leadership skills and clinical acumen quickly earned her the position of director of Social Work Services, creating a strong clinical department that the administration of LPCH states was respected throughout the hospital. Nancy has mentored countless students and staff, including medical students, residents, and faculty at the Stanford University School of Medicine regarding the psychosocial dimensions of patient and family care. She currently teaches both a post-MSW and graduate level case based seminar to social workers at LPCH on anticipatory grief and bereavement. Her colleagues attest to the effectiveness of the now institutionalized course in raising the competence and confidence of all staff in working with these most difficult family situations.
Nancy’s groundbreaking research into the perspectives of families bereaved from the loss of a child led to the beginning of a “culture shift” at LPCH, providing the empirical validation needed to establish a comprehensive palliative care program. Her publications have also had a national impact on the care children receive at the end of life. Her needs assessment tools have been utilized by many institutions across the country and many new pediatric palliative care programs are using them to develop their programs. Nancy’s research on Mexican and Chinese families has provided new insights into the experience of these families as they negotiate multiple cultures: the culture of American medicine and the history, beliefs, and customs that they bring from their country of origin. Her research in this important area of the impact of culture in palliative care continues to be cited and integrated into the design of interventions and palliative care programs.
Nancy has published extensively in social work and interdisciplinary journals and books on pediatric palliative care, cultural issues in palliative care, family assessment, grief and bereavement. She has received funding from various sources, including the National Institute of Health (NIH), for her work on cultural issues in pediatric palliative care and the Project on Death in America’s Leadership Development Award.
Nancy comes highly recommended as a dedicated palliative social worker, exemplary researcher and powerful social work leader throughout her career. Please join us in congratulating her for being selected to receive the 2011 Leadership Award at the SWHPN pre conference on February 15, 2011 and at the Award breakfast at the AAHPM/HPNA Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC, February 19, 2011.
SWHPN has previously presented this unique Project on Death in America (PDIA) Social Work Leadership Award, made possible by the Open Society Institute, to 3 outstanding social work leaders: Debra Parker Oliver in 2007, Shirley Otis-Green in 2008, Barbara L. Jones in 2009, and Susan Blacker in 2010.