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About PREPARE
The PREPARE programs were developed by Dr. Rebecca Sudore, MD out of a deep passion to help empower people and their family, friends, and caregivers to obtain and understand medical information and to make informed medical decisions.
The PREPARE programs are housed within the University of California, San Francisco, and are based on decades of research.
PREPARE for YOUR Care was launched in 2013 and PREPARE for THEIR Care was launched in 2023. These programs are free to the public and are sustained through thoughtful donations and philanthropy; NIH, foundation support, and other grants; and through licensing through the UC Regents of our PREPARE materials to health systems and other third parties and for research and quality improvement.
About the PREPARE Team
Dr. Rebecca Sudore, MD is a geriatrician, palliative medicine physician, clinical research scientist at UCSF, and founder and director of the PREPARE programs. She has dedicated her career to empowering people with information to make informed medical decisions. Starting with her medical training at UCSF, she has partnered with patients, caregivers, and the community to co-develop the easy-to-use PREPARE programs. She sees patients at the San Francisco VA hospital and has a research program funded by the NIH, PCORI, foundations, and philanthropy to develop and test the PREPARE programs. She is grateful for her team; her research collaborators; her funders; and the patients, caregivers, and content experts who continue to help design and refine the PREPARE programs.
Ellen Ingebritsen, BA, is the PREPARE Operations Manager. She brings nearly a decade of experience in academia, philanthropy, and consulting to the role and uses her program management and research skills to support the sustainability and dissemination of PREPARE.
Clarissa Ferguson, MPH is the PREPARE Content Manager. Clarissa has over 5 years of experience coordinating PREPARE development efforts, coordinating projects related to the PREPARE website that have led to the newest versions of the PREPARE program, including analyzing user feedback, communicating with health liaisons, coordinating website narration, organizing files/content, and working with stakeholders on website enhancements/revisions. She also leads the PREPARE videos and easy-to-read advance directives legal projects for all 50 states in 10 different languages. Clarissa has previously coordinating projects with research collaborators and consultants, and working with researchers, health systems, community-based organizations, and health plans to license the PREPARE content.
David Farrell, MPH is founder and president of People Designs, a health communications firm located in Durham, North Carolina. He has content and methodological expertise in health communications, technical expertise in software design and development, and experience commercializing and disseminating health interventions. He has served as an investigator and consultant to a variety of technology-based public health interventions and research projects over the past 30 years.
Sarah Hooper, JD is the Executive Director of the UCSF/UC Law SF Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy and Lecturer in Law at UC Law SF. She also serves as Co-Director of the Master of Science in Health Policy & Law Degree (HPL) and the Policy Director of the Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors clinic. She is an expert in legal issues in aging and dementia and has a special interest in addressing barriers to health for marginalized populations. Professor Hooper and her team of law students and fellows have provided expertise and consultation on advance directive law to the PREPARE team for over a decade. They have helped develop language on the PREPARE website and advance directive forms for all fifty states as well as partnered on research projects. Professor Hooper is also the creator of Clarity, an online program designed to help prepare individuals and families for financial and legal aspects of care planning.
The PREPARE Team
It takes a village and the PREPARE programs continue to be supported by a myriad of amazing interdisciplinary research staff, PREPARE development staff, research collaborators, consultants, students and trainees, patients, caregivers, community advisors, and volunteers.
Brookelle Li, BA has been an integral part of The PREPARE Program since 2014, working alongside Dr. Sudore on a diverse range of research studies designed to enhance the impact of PREPARE's website and materials.
Angelica Martinez, BA, is a project coordinator for the PREPARE team, responsible for scheduling, marketing, and research.
UCSF Offices Supporting PREPARE
UCSF Office of Technology Management
Paul Rafael is the Assistant Director of Development for the Division of Geriatrics. Paul works with our friends, funders, and supporters in navigating and securing philanthropic support for our program. Please contact Paul at (415) 680-0258 or paul.rafael@ucsf.edu.
Past and Current Funders
National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
The Veterans Administration
Foundations:
American Cancer Society
California Healthcare Foundation
Donaghue Foundation
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Greenwall Foundation
Ho Chiang Foundation
John and Wauna Harman Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
Stupski Foundation
Advisory Board
Since 2013, we continue to have input from leaders in the advance care planning, palliative care, geriatrics, health communication, medical decision making, behavior change, and health literacy fields and from patients, caregivers, and providers.
Current Advisory Board Members:
Heather A. Harris, MD, Associate Medical Director, Supportive and Palliative Care Service, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San Francisco
Anne Kinderman, MD, Director, Supportive & Palliative Care Service, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San Francisco
Patricia Levenberg, PhD, University of California, San Francisco Health Center Patient Advisor
Judith Long, BCC, Out-patient Palliative Care Chaplain, UCSF Division of Palliative Medicine
Esme Seto, University of California, San Francisco Health Center Patient Advisor
Alex K. Smith, MD, MS, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine/Division of Geriatrics, University of California, San Francisco
Alexia M. Torke, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Division Chief of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine
**Special thanks to the National Patient Advocate Foundation for their ongoing help and partnership.