Finding Humanity at End of Life
This event explores faith and inequity among the seriously ill and dying in our healthcare system. What role does spirituality play at end of life and in a health care setting? How can healthcare providers build trust with patients across cultures and faith traditions? How can we address the inequities faced by African Americans when seeking care at the end of life?
Join Pastor Corey Kennard, Healthcare Activist and Lead Pastor of Detroit’s Amplify Christian Church, and Dr. Jessica Zitter, author and physician at Oakland’s Highland Hospital, for a rich series of conversations about improving end of life care.
Corey L. Kennard is Pastor of Amplify Christian Church and also serves as an activist in the field of healthcare. His holistic approach (body, mind, and spirit) serves as the foundation for his desire to see all human beings treated with dignity, honor, and respect in all facets of life. He began his active work in ministry as well as the business sector over 25 years ago. Corey earned a Masters Degree from Ashland Theological Seminary and carries out his passion for people as a daring and devoted agent of change. In addition to serving as a Pastor and healthcare activist, Pastor Corey is a Spiritual Life Coach, Motivational Speaker, and Partner/Board Member for several community organizations that seek to uplift poor and vulnerable in society. As a credit to his work, he has received the Michigan Chronicle’s Men Of Excellence Award as being one of the Top 50 Most Influential African-American Men in the Metropolitan Detroit Region.
Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH, practices ICU and Palliative Care at the county hospital in Oakland, California. She is the author of Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life. Her essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Huffington Post, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and other publications. Her work is featured in the Oscar and Emmy-nominated short documentary, Extremis, now streaming on Netflix. She is a nationally recognized speaker on the topic of dying in America.
Rev. Cynthia Carter Perrilliat, MPA, is Co-founder and Executive Director of the Alameda County Care Alliance Collaborative (ACCA), a faith-based program in partnership with local clinical, academic, and community organizations. The ACCA Advanced Illness Care Program™ helps persons needing advanced illness care and their caregivers address spiritual, advance care planning, health (physical and psychosocial), social and caregiving needs by empowering participants and linking them to trusted resources in the community. Since the ACCA began in 2014, the Advanced Illness Care Program™ has expanded to over 14 African American churches in Alameda County and Contra Costa County.
