Core Faculty

Christine Longaker, Education Director, Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Program. Former director and staff trainer of the Hospice of Santa Cruz County in California, Christine has provided hospice trainings internationally since 1978. She has been instrumental in developing Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Program, and serves as its International Education Director. She co-designed and serves as faculty for Naropa University's accredited training in 'Contemplative End-of-Life Care', and is author of Facing Death and Finding Hope: A Guide to the Emotional and Spiritual Care of the Dying, which is translated into nine languages.

Kirsten DeLeo, MA, International Training Manager and Senior Educator, Spiritual Care Education Program. Drawing from more than fifteen years' experience accompanying people in the last phase of life, Kirsten leads trainings for professionals and the public, and is faculty for Naropa University's 'Contemplative End of Life Care' training. She is a counselor specializing in spiritual care, and in supporting people living with illness. Kirsten completed a three-year meditation retreat under the guidance of Sogyal Rinpoche and is a Senior Meditation Instructor in Rigpa.

Pam Russell, LMSW, Senior Educator, Spiritual Care Education Program. Pamela is an end-of-life care social worker and bereavement counselor with over twenty years' experience in elder care in long-term care facilities. She is faculty for Naropa University's 'Contemplative End of Life Care' training, and a Rigpa meditation instructor.

Dr Ann Allegre MD, FACP, Director of medical programs, Kansas City Hospice, medical director of palliative care, Providence Health, professor of medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine and educator for the Spiritual Care Education Program. She was awarded the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine “Project on Death in America Community Leadership in Palliative Care Award” in 2007, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the advancement of the field of palliative medicine through the education and training of future leaders. She was named as Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2008 and honored with the Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon 2011 Award in the senior palliative care physician category. Ann is an educator with the Spiritual Care Program and faculty of Spiritual Care's "Contemplative End-of-Life Care Certificate Program" at Naropa.

with video teachings from:

Sogyal Rinpoche, world-renowned Buddhist teacher from Tibet and author of the groundbreaking bestseller, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Rinpoche is also the founder and spiritual director of Rigpa, an international network of over 130 Buddhist centers and groups in 41 countries around the world. He has been teaching for over thirty years and continues to travel and teach widely in Europe, America, Australia and Asia. In 1993 he created the Spiritual Care Program with Christine Longaker.

The Certificate Program is based on The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and the best of Rinpoche’s teachings are presented.

Online Faculty

Dr Ira Byock, MD is Director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre in Lebanon, New Hampshire, Chair of Palliative Medicine and Professor, Departments of Anaesthesiology and Community and Family Medicine, at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr Byock has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978, starting in his residency. He is past president (1997) of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. During the 1990’s he was a co-founder and principal investigator for the Missoula Demonstration Project, a community-based organization in Montana. From 1996 through 2006, he served as director for Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, a national grant program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He has authored numerous articles on the ethics and practice of hospice, palliative and end-of-life care. His first book, Dying Well (1997) has become a standard in the field. His most recent book, The Four Things That Matter Most (2004), is used as a counseling tool widely by palliative care and hospice programs. He was awarded the American College of CHEST Physicians Roger Bone Memorial Lecture Award (2003) and the Outstanding Colleague Award (2008) of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains.