Board of Directors

Teresa Chiftis

President

Teresa’s involvement with End of Life Washington is a direct result of supporting her husband as he faced a progressive, degenerative neurological disease.  Together, with the support of EOLWA, he was able to make his own decisions around the end of his life when he chose to Voluntarily Stop Eating and Drinking (VSED).  Choosing VSED requires an incredible amount of courage and fortitude, and Teresa serves on the Board to ensure that her husband’s journey was not in vain and that his story can help others facing a similar choice.  She is passionate about everyone having access to information about end-of-life choices and the support needed to make those choices for oneself. 

Teresa has served on the Board since March 2020 and has been President since July 2022.  She is a Pacific Northwest native whose professional background is in corporate tax, specializing in US state income tax audits and controversies. 

Midge Levy, LICSW

Vice President & Founding Member

Midge is a retired social worker with extensive experience in hospice. She has been involved in the right-to-die movement since her student days as a member of the Exit Society in the UK. She was a founding member of the Hemlock Society of Washington State, and served as its president from 1993-2005. Midge was Co-President of the board from 2005-2006.

She is active with the Washington State Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), served on their board and Executive Committee, and was a consultant for the NASW Policy on End-of-Life Decisions in 1993. Midge received the “Social Worker of the Year” award in 2000 for her legislative activities. She served on the leadership team of the Initiative 1000 (Washington Death with Dignity) campaign in 2008.

Sue Curry, PhD

Treasurer

Sue Curry, PhD, is an emeritus Dean and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy of the University of Iowa College of Public Health.

Dr. Curry joined the University of Iowa as dean of the College of Public Health in 2008 and served in that role until her service as Interim Executive Vice President and Provost from 2017-2019.  Dr. Curry’s prior positions include professor of health policy and administration and director of the Institute for Health Research and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, professor of health services in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington and senior investigator and director at the Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative. 

Dr. Curry is recognized internationally for her expertise in behavioral science and translation of research findings into health policy. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and currently serves on the Governing Council and the Council’s Executive Committee.  She is also a member of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Dr. Curry served on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 2009-2019 and served as chair of the Task Force from 2018-2019.  Other completed professional activities include service as vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Truth Initiative (formerly the American Legacy Foundation), member of the Board of Scientific Advisors for the National Cancer Institute, and member of the NAM’s Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice.

Cindy Nover, PhD, LICSW

Secretary

Cindy Nover started teaching in EWU’s School of Social Work in 2013 after completing a doctorate in social work at the University of Utah. She previously received a master’s degree in social work from California State University, Sacramento, and worked as a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW/LICSW) in California and Washington, D.C.

In addition to her work at EWU, she worked in K-12 education, public radio and welfare-rights advocacy. She served in the U.S. Peace Corps (Philippines) from 2003-2005. Nover currently works as a licensed independent clinical social worker in Washington and has a private practice providing clinical supervision to LICSW and LMHC candidates working in the fields of mental health, domestic violence, hospice, developmental disabilities, and Native mental health/domestic violence. She is also the founder and owner of Sagebrush Crossing, an End-of-Life Space. She has served on the board of directors for the Center for Justice and Odyssey Youth Movement and currently facilitates workshops for the Alternatives to Violence Project, an initiative that promotes conflict resolution and nonviolence in prisons, schools, and the community.

Nover teaches diversity and practice classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as courses on clinical diagnosis and evidence-based treatment in the advanced Master of Social Work curriculum. Nover’s current research projects and interests include Death with Dignity and disability. 

Beth Rudolph

Board Member

Beth has been a Volunteer Client Advisor for the nine years since her retirement.  During her career as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner she combined clinical work in the public sector with teaching nursing in several universities including The University of Washington and Seattle University.  Beth became a VCA because she wanted to assist clients and their significant others as they confront and problem solve the difficult issues of terminal illness.

Lashanna Williams

Board Member

Lashanna is an intentional tender.  A tender of people and spaces, a recovering corporate employee and avid learner.  A mistake maker, community lover, a consensual hugger, a garden witch and a mother; a midwest grown University of Michigan graduate, artist, facilitator and holder of heavy things. Creating space for belonging is at the core of their work from teaching medical professionals, to working with youth and play; from to shrouding a community member to hand grinding herbs for tea. Lashanna regularly lives and works in the intersections of death, art, education and love. As member of multiple community and national boards, she gathers, guides, and supports efforts to remain purposeful, creative, sustainable, and free from the anti-Black patriarchal western structures currently in place. Lashanna is a Scorpio, which means they were born an agent of change and has lived that life.

Sunil Aggarwal, MD, PhD, FAAPMR

Board Member

Sunil Aggarwal, MD, PhD, FAAPMR is a Board-Certified Physician in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Medical Geographer and serves as the Past Chair of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) Integrative Medicine Special Interest Group and an inaugural member of the Safe Use in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies Forum. He is a co-investigator on the AIMS Cancer Outcomes Study, the AIMS Medical Outcomes Study, and the 
Canadian Psilocybin Safety Initiative Registry. He is an Affiliate Assistant Clinical Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, and an Affiliate Clinical Faculty with Bastyr University. He is a Co-Founder, Co-Director and Practitioner at the Advanced Integrative Medical Science (AIMS) Institute in Seattle, a multispecialty teaching clinic and research institute offering cutting edge care in oncology, psychiatry, neurology, rehabilitation, pain, and palliative care. 

Kristen Baker

VCA Liaison – Western WA

Kristen is a Volunteer Client Advisor, a marketing professional, and someone who cares for people and their loved ones at the end of life. Kristen became a VCA because she wants everyone to know what their choices are at the end of life and feel empowered to make them. With each client, she is deeply honored to be invited into their lives at what can be the most vulnerable time, allowing her to support and witness their death, and their loved ones’ grief. But most of all, she has discovered a passion for advocating for every individual’s right to understand all their choices at the end of their lives.

Loretta Bell

VCA Liaison – Eastern WA

Loretta Bell is an advocate for people, families, and communities who are faced with the complex process of finding a way to a peaceful, gentle death. Early personal experience, and much later, as a critical care and flight RN, she forged a dogged determination to move the needle in this world to a place where dying may be experienced as beloved, choice driven, and person centered. As a VCA liaison for Eastern Washington, she is honored to bring a voice to the many challenges that distinguish the region, to listen and learn from her Western colleagues, and to further the goal of providing broad statewide access to the law.

Rev. Justin Almeida, MDiv

Board Member

Rev Justin Almeida is an ordained and endorsed Unitarian Universalist community minister and staff chaplain at Cherry Hill Swedish Medical Center. Rev Almeida’s spiritual care focus has been on palliative care/hospice, mental health, and neurology. He is affiliated with University Unitarian Church in Seattle, WA, and also serves on the advisory counsel for Seattle University’s Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement.

Ele Hamburger

Board Member

Ele is a partner at Sirianni Youtz Spoonemore Hamburger, a boutique law firm in Seattle, Washington.  Ms. Hamburger represents healthcare consumers and persons with disabilities when they are denied coverage by their health insurers and plaintiffs in other consumer class action lawsuits.  She lives with her husband, mother-in-law and three teenagers and spends her spare time driving the teens to punk rock concerts, flea markets and anime conventions.

Erin Crisman Glass, JD

Board Member

Erin Crisman Glass is an estate planning, elder law, and adoption attorney at Barron Smith Daugert PLLC in Bellingham, Washington.  Erin believes every person deserves to have an estate plan that is shaped by their own set of unique circumstances, whatever those may be.   Erin is especially dedicated to ensuring that her client’s end of life wishes are thoughtfully considered and documented so that their values can be honored at the end of life.  Additionally, Erin prepares special needs trusts to assist families as they navigate the often complex legal and financial issues that are raised when a loved one has a cognitive or physical impairment.  Erin advises clients on the myriad of issues encountered regarding access to public benefits, particularly long-term care Medicaid and veterans’ benefits planning.  Many times, these issues require the appointment of a guardian, as well as trust creation and administration.  Erin is a frequent speaker on these and other issues.  Erin graduated cum laude from Seattle University School of Law where she served as editor-in-chief of the Seattle Journal for Social Justice.