His Eminence Francis Eugene Cardinal George, O.M.I., is the eighth Archbishop of Chicago and the first native Chicagoan to serve as Archbishop. Cardinal George earned a master’s degree in philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1965 and a doctorate in American philosophy at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1970. In 1971, he received a master’s degree in theology from the University of Ottawa in Canada. During those years, he also taught philosophy at the Oblate Seminary, Pass Christian, Mississippi (1964-69), Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana (1968) and at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska (1969-1973). He was a papal appointee to the 1994 World Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life and a delegate and one of two special secretaries at the Synod of Bishops for America in 1997. He was a delegate of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to the 2001 World Synod of Bishops and elected to the Council for the World Synod of Bishops in 2001. He is a member of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, the American Society of Missiologists and the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs. Cardinal George was recently elected president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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Gislason joined UIC in 1969 and served as head of chemistry from 1993-1999 and interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1997-1998 before being named vice chancellor for research. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard. As interim chancellor, Gislason overses Chicago’s largest university, with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff and a budget of $1.6 billion. UIC consists of 15 colleges, including the nation’s largest college of medicine and regional health sciences sites in Peoria, Rockford, Urbana-Champaign and the Quad Cities. UIC also operates the State of Illinois’s major public medical center, with its hospital and clinics serving more than 600,000 patient visits annually.
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Father Pacholczyk is the director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia and directs the Center’s National Catholic Certification Program in Health Care Ethics. His studies include earned degrees in philosophy, biochemistry, molecular cell biology, and chemistry, and laboratory research on hormonal regulation of the immune response. His Ph.D. research in Neuroscience from Yale University focused on cloning genes for neurotransmitter transporters. He also worked for several years as a molecular biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He has done numerous media commentaries, including appearances on CNN International, ABC World News Tonight, and National Public Radio.
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Eugene F. Diamond, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Past Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine. He was Visiting Professor at Rush Medical College from 1967-69. He is a member of numerous organizations including the American Board of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Midwest Society for Pediatric Research. Dr. Diamond has held Presidential positions at the Catholic Physician's Guild, Illinois Academy of Pediatrics, World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Life, Calumet Branch of Chicago Medical Society, St. Francis Hospital Staff, National Federation of Catholic Physicians' Guilds, and Illinois Family Institute. He received various awards including Pediatrician of the Year-Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics, in 1980; George Award in Clinical Pediatrics in 1981; and Summerhill Award from Birthright International in 1995. An accomplished writer, Dr. Diamond has published several books including The Large Family-A Blessing and a Challenge and Aids and the Contraceptive Mentality.
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Father O'Rourke received his J.C.D. (Juris Canonici Doctor) from St. Thomas University in Rome and his Doctorate in Canon Law, and S.T.M. (Master of Sacred Theology). His most significant publications include Health Care Ethics: A Theological Analysis, with B. Ashley, and, Medical Ethics: Sources of Catholic Teachings, with P. Boyle. Father O'Rourke has published over a hundred journal articles. His more recent articles examine the ethical issues of genetic testing, surrogate decision making, and physician assisted suicide. Father O'Rourke is currently involved in research on decision making in the Catholic tradition, and the use of hydration and nutrition for patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS).
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Jay Olshansky received his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1984. He is currently a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The focus of his research to date has been on estimates of the upper limits to human longevity, exploring the health and public policy implications associated with individual and population aging, forecasts of the size, survival, and age structure of the population, pursuit of the scientific means to slow aging in people (The Longevity Dividend), and global implications of the re-emergence of infectious and parasitic diseases. Dr. Olshansky is the first author of The Quest for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging (Norton, 2001).
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Dr. Brehany is Executive Director and Ethicist of the Catholic Medical Association. Where he provides direction on health care ethics and public policy issues, supports membership and guild development, is the media spokesman, and coordinates publications, advertising, and ongoing development of the Catholic Medical Association. Dr. Brehany served as Executive Director of Mission Services and Ethics for Mercy Medical Center, Sioux City, Iowa. Prior to that, Dr. Brehany taught courses in systematic and moral theology at Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Oregon, from 1992-1997.
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Virginia L. Burton, PhD, RN, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Regional Nursing Program at University of Illinois Chicago. She has her Master's degree in nursing and teaches Community Health, Families in Crisis and Foundation Concepts to Junior and Senior nursing students. She actively works in Hospice care with patients and patient’s families.

Jim MAnzardo, STB is a chaplain at Children's Memorial Hospital with Oncology as well as Neurosurgery patients and their families. His is part of the palliative care and ethics committees and is board certified with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains.

Anthony J. Perry is board certified in Internal and Geriatric medicine on staff at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. His special interest is delirium in the elderly. Dr. Perry is president of the Illinois Geriatrics Society.

Dr. Preodor is a practicing internist and palliative medicine physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was Medical Director of Horizon Hospice, Chicago’s first hospice, for twenty years and was its President for five years. Dr. Preodor is currently at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Section of Palliative Care and a Clinical Instructor of Medicine. Dr. Preodor has been an Educator in Palliative and End-of-life Care (EPEC) Project Master Facilitator since 1999 and now serves as the EPEC Project Director. Dr. Preodor is also a member of the Board of Directors of Catholic Health Partners and a faculty and staff member of Buehler Center on Aging, Health and Society at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Lisa Anderson-Shaw, DrPH, MA, MSN, serves as director of the Ethics Consult Service at the University of Illinois Medical Center (UIMC). She helped design and implement the current hospital based consult service in 1998. Dr. Anderson-Shaw conducts most of the clinical case consultations and worked to develop the consult service secured web-board for case consultation peer review. She has been a member of the UIMC ethics committee since 1989 and currently serves as the committee co-chair. She is a member of the University of Illinois at Chicago Institutional Review Board # 1. In June 2003, after initial research and development, she launched the UIMC sponsored “Illinois Health Care Ethics Committee” virtual discussion board and serves as the web board’s moderator.

John Hardt, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of boethics at Loyola University Chicago's Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy. He holds a doctorate in theological ethics from Boston College and was a Fellow at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. He has testified before the President's Council on Bioethics on the topic of "Physician Conscience and the Ends of Medicine," and published articles on this topic as well as end-of-life care in the Catholic tradition. His work includes teaching, writing and ethics consultation.

Kelly Michelson, MD is assistant professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and an attending physician in the Division of Critical Care at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Dr. Michelson received her medical degree at Duke University Medical School and her Master’s in Public Health at The University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health in Chapel Hill. She completed her residency in pediatrics at The University of Chicago Children’s Hospital and her fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Michelson’s research interests include end-of-life care and ethics. Currently, her research focuses on communication and decision making in end-of-life care among patients, family caregivers, and professional caregivers in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Kathleen J. Neely, MD is an assistant professor, division of general internal medicine, in the department of medicine, and course director for Patient, Physician, and Society at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Dr. Neely is undertaking a two-year project to expand the Difficult Conversations curriculum of the PPS communication skills course in order to promote communication skills.