Friday's Dose of Togetherness: What Matters Most with Pastor Corey Kennard and Dr. Jessica Zitter

Dr. Jessica Zitter
After two decades of caring for critically ill patients, Jessica Nutik Zitter, MD, MPH is a strong advocate for a new approach to caring for the dying. She specializes in Critical Care and Palliative Care medicine, and practices at Highland Hospital, the public hospital in Oakland, California. Having herself participated in the default and indiscriminate use of technology on dying patients, with its resultant suffering, Dr. Zitter has come to view this situation as a public health crisis. She is committed to reorienting our care of the dying to a more collaborative process whereby the patient, rather than her organ or disease, is the primary focus of care.

Dr. Zitter’s first book, Extreme Measures: Finding A Better Path to the End of Life, (Penguin, 2017), offers an insider’s view of intensive care in America and its impact on how we die. Her essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and other publications.

Her work is featured in the 2017 Oscar- and Emmy-nominated short-documentary “Extremis,” now streaming on Netflix. This vérité film follows Jessica, her team and several patients and their families in the intensive care unit at Highland Hospital. She has also been featured on “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, “The Doctors,” “Doctor Oz,” CBS Sunday Morning, and others.

Dr. Zitter attended Stanford University and Case Western Reserve University Medical School and earned her Master of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Her medical training includes an Internal Medicine residency at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a fellowship in Pulmonary/Critical Care at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2005 she co-founded Vital Decisions, a telephone counseling service for patients with life-limiting illnesses.

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 the 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.

Corey has been involved in the field of healthcare for over 20 years with over a decade of experience in the areas of Palliative Care and Hospice. He currently seeks to enhance the patient/family experience in healthcare settings. His work has also included leading a spiritual care team at one of Detroit’s largest hospitals, and formerly serving as a Faculty Lead for Duke University’s Institute on Care at the End Of Life (ICEOL) national training program called, “APPEAL.” In this role, he was instrumental in co-creating a national teaching module for understanding spirituality at the end of life for African-Americans. He has provided intensive, hands-on consultation, as-well-as informative and motivational conference presentations to Healthcare Professionals and Faith Community Leaders on the importance and impact of a person’s spirituality while facing illness. He had also served as a National Advisory Board Member for The Hospice Foundation of America, and as a Co-Director of a Community Faith “Advance Care Planning” Project for the University of Virginia.