Panelists:

Rev. James L. Brooks

Rev. James L. Brooks is the Executive Director of Project Compassion, a community-based organization in Chapel Hill, North Carolina providing education, advocacy and support for all people as they deal with serious illness, death and grief as a natural part of life. Prior to his work at Project Compassion, James worked for five years at Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee, Florida, directing services in the areas of spiritual care, grief support, volunteer support and professional/community education. James also directed youth and family services and older adult services for five years for Eastern Area Community Ministries in Louisville, Kentucky. He has lived and worked in Venice, Italy and Caracas, Venezuela.

Rev. Brooks holds an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University and Master of Divinity degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC). James was born in Raleigh, North Carolina and grew up in the North Carolina towns of Wake Forest, Laurinburg and Wilmington.

Lisa P. Gwyther, MSW

With 30 years experience in aging and Alzheimer's services, Lisa P. Gwyther is an associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, a Core Faculty member of the Institute on Care at the End of Life at the Duke Divinity School and a Senior Fellow of Duke's Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. She received her graduate training in social work at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. In 1980, she started the Duke University Center for Aging's Alzheimer's Family Support Program, a model state clearinghouse, training and technical assistance center for families and professionals caring for people with Alzheimer's disease. Ms. Gwyther also directs education for the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Duke University Medical Center.

Ms. Gwyther has published over 80 articles, book chapters and books on Alzheimer's care and research on family caregiving. She served on the U.S. federal advisory panel on Alzheimer's disease for nine years. In June 1998, Ms. Gwyther was recognized in the 20th anniversary issue of Contemporary Long-Term Care as one of the 20 people who made a difference in U.S. long-term care in the last twenty years. Ms. Gwyther was honored the previous month as one of 30 founders of the national Alzheimer's Association. She is the author of the Alzheimer's Association 2001 book, Caring for People with Alzheimer's Disease: A Manual for Facility Staff. She has received two major North Carolina awards for leadership in aging services and won two documentary film awards for films on aging and Alzheimer's.

Dr. Sharon Williams

Dr. Sharon Wallace Williams is a research scientist with The Center on Minority Aging at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on chronic disease and the family, with a large portion of her research dealing with health outcomes and social support of caregivers and older adults. While most of her research has to do with caregivers of older adults who live independently or with family members, current work with Drs. Sheryl Zimmerman and Elizabeth Multran extends her research focus to include family caregivers providing care in assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

Dr. Williams also works with Dr. Peggye Dilworth Anderson on the Family Caregiving Project, a three-year research study that focuses on the structure and outcomes of caregiving to older African-Americans in five North Carolina counties. An overarching goal of her research is to combine her expertise in aging, minority health and families to improve health outcomes and reduce the overwhelming burden of poor health and functional ability on older adults, especially older minority adults and their families.