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.

Jana Powell, BS is the PREPARE Program manager. Jana has over 5 years of experience coordinating PREPARE development efforts, coordinating with research collaborators and consultants, liaising with foundations and other funders, 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 research and development 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 25 years, including as PI on multiple NIH-funded research grants.

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.

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

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.