iPEX Team
Dr. Mark Pfeifer
Mark P. Pfeifer, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine and internist in active practice with a special interest in patients with advanced illness. He was recruited to the University of Louisville after completing his residency and fellowship training at Emory and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, respectively. He is a funded investigator and National Cancer Institute Study Section member, and holds the V.V. Cooke Chair of Medicine at the University of Louisville.
Dr. Barbara Head
Barbara A. Head, Ph.D., CHPN, FPCN, is presently an Associate Professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and affiliated faculty at the Kent School of Social Work where she teaches Death and Grief. Her research interests include telehealth in palliative care, palliative case management, financial concerns in serious illness, geriatric palliative care, and interprofessional palliative education. Her work has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, the National Cancer Institute, the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, and the Human Resources Services Association. She has served as both board member and president of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association and the National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses. Prior to entering academics, she worked at Louisville’s large hospice program as a home care nurse, quality improvement director, and staff/community education director. Dr. Head has taught the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) geriatric curriculum nationally since its inception in 2006 and has also taught in Malaysia and India.
Dr. Tara Schapmire
Tara J. Schapmire, Ph.D., MSSW, CSW, OSW-C, FNAP, is an Assistant Professor in the University of Louisville’s School of Medicine and an Affiliated Assistant Professor for the Kent School of Social Work. Dr. Schapmire's research interests include psycho-social care of cancer survivors and their families, gerontology, health disparities, caregiver issues, palliative care, survivorship and inter-professional education. She is a co-investigator on several federally and foundation funded projects aimed at improving interdisciplinary palliative care education, interdisciplinary geriatrics education, and a community based intervention aimed at reducing the burden of lung cancer in Kentucky.
Dr. Monica Ann Shaw
Monica Ann Shaw, M.D., MA, FACP, is Professor of Medicine and Vice Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Dr. Shaw's interests are medical student education, palliative care and interprofessional education. She led her Division in partnering with the University of Louisville Hospital administration to create full funding support for an interprofessional Palliative Medicine Hospital Consult Service. Dr. Shaw served as principal investigator on a Robert Wood Johnson grant where she led an interdisciplinary research team as they integrated palliative care content into existing first and second year courses, created and implemented a required one-week clinical rotation for medical students, and created an elective for fourth year medical students. She served as co-investigator on a 5-year NCI R25 grant where the research team developed, implemented, and evaluated a mandatory, interprofessional palliative oncology curriculum for medical, nursing, social work and chaplaincy students.
Dr. Frank Woggon
Frank Woggon, Ph.D., BCC, is Director of Chaplaincy Services for the Louisville downtown KentuckyOne Health medical campus and a gratis faculty member in the Department of Medicine at UofL. He directs the chaplain residency program at University of Louisville Hospital and teaches about the intersection of spirituality and health. His research interests are in spiritual pain and effective clinical interventions as well as constructing a clinical theology for spiritual care giving.
Dr. Christian Furman
Christian Davis Furman, M.D., MSPH, AGSF, is the Medical Director for the Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging at the University of Louisville. She is a Professor of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine and holds the Smock Endowed Chair for Geriatric Medical Education. Dr. Furman joined the faculty in 2000 and served as vice-chair for geriatric medicine from 2005-2016. In 2015, she was appointed Medical Director for the Institute and in 2016 was named the Smock Endowed Chair. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Miami in 1992, an MD degree from UofL School of Medicine in 1996, and a master’s in public health from UofL’s School of Public Health and Information Sciences in 2003. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at UofL in 1999 and a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at UofL in 2000. She is board certified in geriatric medicine and hospice and palliative medicine. Her research focuses on palliative medicine in the nursing home setting. She was awarded a Geriatric Academic Career Award to teach palliative medicine to interdisciplinary teams in 2004. In 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services selected Dr. Furman as the only Kentuckian among 73 national health care professionals to participate in the CMS Innovation Advisors Program. She was inducted as a Fellow in the American Geriatrics Society in 2013.
Carol Jones
Carol Jones, M.Ed., is the Program Coordinator for the Interdisciplinary Program for Palliative Care and Chronic Illness at the University of Louisville's School of Medicine. Her career has been focused on educational innovation and the creation of curriculum at various educational levels. Research interests include the neuroscience of learning and the practice of learning communities.
Bonika Peters
Bonika Peters, MPH, is a Senior Program Coordinator in the University of Louisville's School of Medicine. She has over 10 years of experience coordinating the day-to-day activities of public health programs and studies in academic and clinic settings. Her experience includes program planning, management, and evaluation. Ms. Peters was previously a manager in the Maternal and Child Health Section of the Minnesota Department of Health. She also worked as an independent contractor providing consultative services to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Her research interests include health disparities in maternal and child health.