User:Stephen Kastner/Patient Choices Vermont

Patient Choices Vermont is a nonprofit organization in the U.S. state of Vermont dedicated to end-of-life choice. The organization, founded in 2002, worked for more than ten years to achieve enactment of the Vermont law entitled Patient Choice at End of Life (Act 39). It seeks to influence policy, regulations and practice that affect the terminally ill.

Mission

Patient Choices Vermont works to provide Vermont citizens with knowledge and practical access to the choices that Act 39 provides. It was instrumental in the establishment of the Vermont office of Compassion & Choices, thereby providing access for Vermonters to their staff of medical and patient advisory experts. Patient Choices Vermont participates with the Vermont Director of Compassion & Choices, Linda Waite-Simpson, to bring educational programs to Vermont communities. It also works closely with the Death with Dignity National Center which provides valuable advice on policy development and implementation strategy.

History

Dick and Ginny Walters, founded Patient Choices Vermont in 2002. Their intention was to establish a Vermont law based on the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which had been in place for five years at that time. Oregon and Washington State passed similar laws by referendum, but this process was not available under Vermont law. They enlisted the assistance of national organizations to make use of their experience. Both Death with Dignity National Center and Compassion and Choices helped with advice, telephoning, funding, and connections to Oregon people who travelled to Vermont to testify in legislative committee hearings. Among them were a rabbi, the head of the Oregon hospice organization, and a researcher from Oregon Health & Science University who provided statistics on utilization of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.

From the beginning, the organization's Board of Directors included professors and medical doctors. All were committed to the mission and worked persistently through many years, enabling the group to become close-knit. Early in the process, Dick and Ginny were introduced to the lobbying firm of Sirotkin and Necrason (now the Necrason Group) who provided guidance in strategic planning.

In 2004, at the request of the legislature, the Vermont Legislative Counsel studied Oregon’s Death with Dignity law and published a report detailing its efficacy and positive outcomes. Throughout 2009, legislation was proposed in the Vermont House and Senate, and committees in both chambers conducted extensive hearings. PCV organized written and verbal testimony by a wide range of people, including those experienced with the adoption and implementation of the law in Oregon, and numerous individuals with deeply personal and familial stories. The underlying theme was freedom to choose. Repeatedly, independent polls showed Vermonters favored the bill by two to one, across political parties and religions. Many individuals with disabilities testified in favor of the legislation seeking to control their own medical decisions when diagnosed with a terminal illness. Opposition was strong and vocal, raising a number of concerns. PCV persistently presented the facts from Oregon.

By 2013, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin was a committed advocate for the law and Speaker of the House, was eager to see the legislation passed. To achieve a majority vote in the Senate, a compromise consisting of a “sunset” provision that would have allowed most of the safeguards to disappear in 2016 was necessary.

Vermont's Act 39, entitled Patient Choices at End of Life, was passed on May 20, 2013, when Vermont became the first state to pass a Death with Dignity (DWD) law through the legislative process.

In 2015, Act 39 was revised to remove the sunset provision, and the final bill was signed on May 20, 2015, thereby solidifying Vermont’s Act 39.

Organization

Patient Choices Vermont is a non-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors. Current members include:

• Betsy J. Walkerman, Esq., President, is a lawyer by training, having received her J.D. magna cum laude from Boston College in 1979. Over the past 30 years, Betsy has worked at the cross section of legal, finance and strategy to launch and build companies. In the 1980s and early ’90s, she was General Counsel, CFO and VP of Strategic Development at Aspen Technology, Inc. She founded her firm, Headwaters Strategy, LLC, in 1996, and since then has served as a consultant and/or board member for more than twenty emerging companies. Her work in the non-profit sector includes leadership roles on land trust projects, the performing arts, and most recently serving on the board of the Lake Champlain Sailing Center. Early in her career, Betsy was associated with the Boston law firm of Bingham, Dana & Gould, and previously worked in the public sector, focusing on energy and transportation policy. Betsy has worked closely with Dick and Ginny Walters since the inception of the death with dignity campaign in Vermont.

• Neil H. Mickenberg, Esq., Vice President; Until his retirement in 2010, Neil Mickenberg had practiced law since 1971. Neil’s practice included a wide range of legal issues, including personal injury, family law, zoning disputes, residential and commercial real estate, construction disputes, special education, hunting and fishing rights for Native Americans and representation of a variety of non-profit organizations involved with health, mental health, affordable housing, Head Start and anti-poverty work. The focus of Neil’s recent work was been representation of non-profit organizations. He has substantial experience in drafting legislation and in lobbying. In 1976 Neil became the Managing Attorney of the Vermont Legal Aid’s Developmental Disabilities Advocacy Project. He drafted and successfully advocated for the passage of a number of pieces of legislation, including bills dealing with zoning for group homes, special education, and community mental health agencies, and much of the State’s guardianship law. Following his role as Managing Attorney for the DD Advocacy Project, Neil became the Deputy Director of Vermont Legal Aid. Neil is a graduate of Cornell University, Fordham Law School and is admitted to the State and Federal Courts in Vermont and to the United States Supreme Court. He has published a number of law review notes and articles and co-edited the book, Native Rights in Canada.

• Donald S. Robinson, MD, Secretary, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont (now University of Vermont Medical Center). He was a member of the medical staff of UVMC and faculty of UVM College of Medicine for 10 years. Subsequently, he served as Chairman, Department of Pharmacology and Professor of Medicine, Marshall University School of Medicine and Vice-President, Central Nervous System Drug Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. He currently resides with his wife at Wake Robin senior community, Shelburne, VT. His interest is promoting death with dignity and personal choice in end of life decisions, based on his patient care experience as a medical specialist treating serious illness.

• Diana Barnard, MD, is a native Vermonter, is Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Care as well as in Family Practice. After more than 17 years in private practice in Addison County, she is a Palliative Care Medicine Physician at University of Vermont Medical Center and an Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. She has served on the Ethics and Palliative Care Committees and Board of Directors of Porter Hospital and also on the board of Hospice Volunteer Services of Addision County, and, prior to her present position, was the Medical Director and an active board member of Helen Porter Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. She is a passionate advocate for holistic, comprehensive and patient directed care at the end of life.

• Fred Crowley, MD, is a graduate of the University of Vermont College of Medicine and worked as a radiologist serving hospitals in Vermont until he retired in 2006. He was a flight surgeon for two years in the Army medical corps including one year in Vietnam. He is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology and served as President of the Vermont Medical Society. He was on the Weathersfield (VT) selectboard for ten years and was a board member of the United Way of Southern Windsor County. He is a member of the White River Junction Veterans Hospice Chorus. ​

• Missy Kraus is an investment advisor. She founded M. Kraus & Company in 1996 to provide customized investment management services to individuals and institutions nationwide. Her professional career began on Wall Street prior to moving to Vermont and positions at The Chittenden Bank and a private investment partnership. Missy is a graduate of Vassar College (BA – Economics) and NYU Stern School of Business (MBA – Finance). She is also a Board Member of Make-A-Wish Vermont.

• ​Katy Lesser is the founder and president of Healthy Living Market and Café in South Burlington, VT and Saratoga Springs, NY. A resourceful entrepreneur, Katy built the business over thirty years, thriving on providing healthy organic and local food to the community. She was honored in 2010 with the Vermont Small Business Person of the Year Award, presented by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Katy has been an articulate spokesperson for the death with dignity movement in Vermont, gracefully sharing the meaningful story of her sister, Maggie Lake, who used Act 39 in 2015.

• David Mickenberg, Esq., is a partner in the law firm of Mickenberg, Dunn, Lachs, Hazel and Smith, focusing on civil litigation, worker’s compensation, and public affairs. He served as a Dorot Fellow in Washington, DC, at the Alliance for Justice, working on research and advocacy related to Presidential appointees to the federal judiciary. Prior to law school, he spent several years at two George Soros supported projects, working on policy, communications and government relations. A graduate of City University of New York School of Law, he worked as a Law Clerk on the Senate Judiciary Committee for the committee’s Ranking Member Senator Patrick Leahy, and as a judicial intern for Judge William K. Sessions, Chief Judge of the District Court of Vermont.

• Gretchen B. Morse spent 35 years in public service initiating and implementing policies that improve the health and well being of Vermonters. She was Executive Director of the United Way of Chittenden County from 1991-2011. She was Secretary of Vermont Agency of Human Services for Governor Madeleine Kunin from 1985-1991. Morse served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1977-1985 and chaired both Education and Health & Welfare Committees. Currently, Morse is a Board member of Fletcher Allen Health Care and Fletcher Allen Partners. She is an Emeritus Member of the Board of Directors of Wake Robin Corporation. Morse graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Vermont. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from UVM in 2009 and an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from St. Michael’s College in 2011. Morse lives in Charlotte with her husband, Jim. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.

• Woody Widlund has extensive business experience, having served as President, CEO and Chairman of Noville, Inc., where he built an international business with leadership in the flavors and fragrances industry. Woody has founded and served on boards of a number of non-profit organizations, including the Adirondack Theatre Festival, the Adirondack Community Housing Trust and Adirondack TREKS (of which he is a founding member), a program for young people to teach outdoor lifetime skills . Woody currently serves as Vice President of the Wake Robin Residents Association. Woody and his wife Elise are accomplished photographers.

• Marnie Wood was raised in San Diego where her (Cape Cod-born sea captain) great grandfather chose to live when he retired and became San Diego’s first harbor pilot in the late 1800’s. She is a graduate of San Diego State University – Social Science/Education. She taught elementary-aged students for more than three decades in Phoenix, AZ, Heidelberg, Germany, Pekin, IL, San Francisco, CA, Bridport, VT. She came to Middlebury to visit her sister Nancy in January, 1983, and stayed. She retired in 2007 after twenty-three years of teaching third and fourth grade students at Bridport Central School. She is a trustee/board member of the Henry Sheldon Museum, a member of the Wellspring Singers of Hospice Volunteer Services, and serves on the Steering Committee of the Addison Central Supervisory Union Spring into the Arts Festival. She is grateful for the opportunity to have shared her sister, Nan’s journey (using Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act) during the campaign to adopt Act 39, and with PCV as we have worked to bring greater awareness about end-of-life issues to the residents of Vermont.

• Virginia (Ginny) Walters, PhD., (ex-officio PCV board member) graduated from Smith College and earned her graduate degrees in physics from Western Reserve University. She has taught physics and math at Cleveland State University, community colleges, Western Reserve Academy (a prep school) — in New York and Pittsburgh as well as in Ohio. Ginny is a co-founder of PCV. Sophisticated in computer practice, Ginny has been the behind-the-scenes organizational powerhouse of PCV during the extended campaign for Act 39.

External links

• Official website