The Feinglos Grief Initiative is seeking prospective advisory council members who are invested in contributing to the development of enhanced grief care within Duke and the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.
Learn more about each council and apply by Sunday October 18th, 2026!
Patient and Family Advisory Council
National Provider Advisory Council
Duke Provider Advisory Council
North Carolina Community Provider Advisory Council
Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion. - bell hooks
Learn more about each council below
The Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) convenes patients receiving care at the Brain Tumor Center (BTC), as well as families and caregivers of current or former patients. The PFAC will provide insights for how the Feinglos Grief Initiative can streamline grief care and support accessed by internal staff as well as patients and families.
PAUSE’s approach to creating the PFAC honors Duke’s longstanding investments in patient and family engagement while avoiding duplication, participant fatigue, and unnecessary administrative burden. PAUSE’s role will not be to replace or restructure existing patient and family advisory councils, but to create a focused grief-and-care engagement layer within existing spaces.
Who can participate?
Current and former patients receiving care at the Brain Tumor Center
Families and caregivers of patients receiving care at the Brain Tumor Center
Families and caregivers of patients who previously received care at the Brain Tumor Center
An honorarium will be provided for selected members.
Patient and Family Advisory Council
The National Provider Advisory Council (NPAC) invites leaders across the fields of neuro-oncology, oncology, healthcare, grief and bereavement, employee wellness, and other related focuses.
The National Provider Advisory Council will serve as a consultative and reflective body, ensuring that the Grief Initiative is informed by current research and best practices implemented nationally, as well as locally to Durham, NC. The NPAC convenes participants to share what they are seeing in their work, what is working within their own organizations, participate in PAUSE’s research and data collection, and provide feedback on the materials developed for the Grief Initiative.
Who can participate?
Physicians
Nurses
Social workers
Therapists
Chaplains
Hospice workers
Grief / bereavement counselors
Employee wellbeing professionals
Allied health professionals
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be provided for selected members.
National Provider Advisory Council
The North Carolina Community Provider Advisory Council (NCCPAC) convenes various Durham / Triangle community leaders and representatives from community-based organizations whose work intersects with end-of-life and grief experience.
Community Advisory Council members will provide insights that inform the Feinglos Grief Initiative’s understanding of how Duke and Durham’s past, present, and future impact the end-of-life and grief experience for community members.
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be provided for selected members.
Who can participate?
Anyone whose work intersects with the end-of-life and grief experience that serves the Durham / Triangle community. This can include, but is not limited to:
End-of-life doulas
Hospices
Hospice homes and lodging for patients
Cultural- or identity-based organizations
Occupational or physical therapists
Community health workers
Grief counselors and therapists
Faith and cultural leaders
Community members with lived experience supporting individuals experiencing serious illness or loss
Traditional and holistic support providers (e.g., herbalists, curanderas, root workers, ritualists)
Durham history keepers / storytellers / archivists
Estate attorneys and notaries
Funeral directors and planners
Community artists and musicians
More information about who makes up the end-of-life ecosystem can be found here.
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be provided for selected members.
North Carolina Community Provider Advisory Council
Duke Health Provider Advisory Council
The Provider Advisory Council (PAC) will be composed of Brain Tumor Center (BTC) clinicians and staff with lived experience supporting patients and families through serious illness, dying, and bereavement.
The Provider Advisory Council will serve as a consultative and reflective body, ensuring that the initiative is grounded in clinical realities, workflow feasibility, and the emotional labor already carried by providers across disciplines.
The PAC is designed to honor and leverage existing expertise within Duke ~ not to evaluate performance or introduce additional expectations. The PAC will help surface what is already working, where gaps are felt most acutely, and how grief-informed practices can be integrated in ways that support ~ not burden ~ care teams.
PAUSE will provide facilitation, coordination, and synthesis, working closely with Duke leadership to ensure the PAC’s insights meaningfully inform program design and pilot implementation. The PAC will be advisory only and will not be responsible for program management, staffing, or decision-making authority.
Who can participate?
Duke Health Physicians
Duke Health Nurses
Duke Health Social workers
Duke Health Medical family therapists
Duke Health Chaplains
Allied health professionals within Duke Health staff
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be provided for selected members.
Have questions? Get in touch with our team.
Email: Stevie Luna Ibarra, PAUSE Programs Manager
programs@timetopause.org