Living Well with a Serious Illness
Speaking Engagements
Robin is a passionate advocate for the role of palliative care in healthcare, particularly for those facing a serious illness or injury. She speaks with authority as both a nurse and a mother, who lost her son to cancer without the benefit of palliative care support. She has recently published her first book, Living Well with a Serious Illness, A Guide to Palliative Care for Mind, Body, and Spirit (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023).
Robin has been a featured presenter at numerous health conferences, universities and medical institutions. In addition to her book, she has also been published on the topic of palliative care in a number of respected clinical journals including the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, American Journal of Nursing, Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, Journal of Palliative and Supportive Care and Journal of Palliative Medicine.
CONFERENCES
International Conference on Communication in Healthcare – Baltimore, MD
Creating a Palliative Care Curriculum: From Pain to Promise (2017)
International Conference in Healthcare Communications – Montreal, Canada
End of Life Issues in Pediatric Oncology (2013)
7th Annual Conference of the Connecticut Coalition to Improve End-of-Life Care – New Haven, CT
Reflections on Personal Experiences: Improving Conversation in Pediatric Palliative
Care (2010)
3rd International Conference of Cancer and the Adolescent at the Royal College of Physicians – London, England
The Parent’s Perspective of Teenage Cancer (2004)
HEALTHCARE
Greenwich Hospital (an affiliate of Yale New Haven Health System) – Greenwich, CT
Healing the Whole Patient: From Diagnosis to End-of-Life, a four-week mandatory course, co-presented with Rabbi MJ Newman (palliative care chaplain), for all nurses who work in the ICU, telemetry and oncology units to become humanistic providers of care (2020)
Stamford Health Bennett Cancer Center – Stamford, CT
Palliative Care From a Parent's Perspective and Its Crucial Role in Healthcare, a presentation at the Bennett Cancer Center’s Annual Oncology Symposium (2017)
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center – New York, NY
The After Effects of the Loss of a Child (2016)
Dying in America: Nurses Leading the Conversation, Carolyn Jones Productions,
New York, NY (2015)
Connecticut Hospice Department of Nursing Education – Branford, CT
Navigating End of Life Conversation from a Parent’s Perspective (2015)
UNIVERSITIES
Fairfield University Egan School of Nursing – Fairfield, CT
Grief, Bereavement & Loss from a Parent’s Perspective (2022)
Fairfield University Egan School of Nursing – Fairfield, CT
Acknowledging the Important Role of Spirituality in Healthcare (2022)
George Washington University – Washington, DC
Pediatric Spiritual Distress (2019)
Fairfield University Egan School of Nursing – Fairfield, CT
The Role of the Kanarek Center for Palliative Care (2017)
Sacred Heart University – Fairfield, CT
How Do You Respond to 'THE' Difficult Question? (2016)
Sacred Heart University – Fairfield, CT
Palliative Care’s Role in Healthcare (2015 and 2016)
Sacred Heart University – Fairfield, CT
How to Have a Difficult Conversations in a Health Care Setting (2015)
Sacred Heart University – Fairfield, CT
A Personal Perspective of Nursing, Communication and Pediatric Palliative Care in the Health Care Setting (2013 and 2013)
Fairfield University Egan School of Nursing – Fairfield, CT
Improving End of Life Communication, a pediatric and adolescent palliative care educational workshop (2009)