Officials at the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life say they are optimistic about the search for a new director, after a committee identified a pool of over 100 candidates from around the world.
The search comes at a time when the ICEOL has established itself as one of the premier centers for information about end-of-life care.
The Institute is considering what steps to take next in achieving its goal of improving this care through interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching and public outreach.
Its mission espouses the principle that quality end-of-life care goes beyond sophisticated medical technology and expertise and includes a strong focus on spirituality.
"This is an exciting time because, with the change in directorship, it's going to give us an opportunity to rethink the future direction of the institute," said Gwendolyn London, interim director since August 2002.
The search committee has already been in contact with over 100 candidates from the United States and around the world.
The candidates come from varied vocational backgrounds: doctors, nurses, social workers, theologians, sociologists and political advocates.
Candidates must have expertise in at least one of the ICEOL's three major foci - promotion of end-of-life issues in the medical community, public outreach in establishing the institute as the world's resource on end-of-life work and exploration of the intersection of spirituality and medicine.
"The director needs to be a visionary and a grand facilitator - someone who can build a team of scholars and others to do this work, somebody who thinks collaboratively in an intense way, somebody who is brilliant, but humble," said Willie Jennings, Divinity School senior associate dean for academic affairs and chair of the ICEOL search committee.
The committee is comprised of Dr. Harvey Cohen, director of the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at the Medical Center, Dean Mary Champagne of the School of Nursing, Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe professor of theological ethics and Karla Holloway, dean of humanities and social sciences.
"The kind of person the committee is looking for is someone who is already in high demand, a person highly involved in their own work. The future director would have to feel a calling to come and serve here," Jennings said.
The Institute, which is housed in the Divinity School, was established in March 2000 by a $13.5 million grant arranged by Hugh Westbrook, Divinity '73. It has a core faculty from various areas of the University, the Medical Center and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Over the past three years, Jennings said the ICEOL has accomplished several important goals. Since end-of-life issues encompass experts of all disciplines - everyone from physicians to public policy advocates - the first accomplishment of the institute was to establish a place where all aspects of end-of-life care can be brought together, he added.
The ICEOL has also begun a process of education that will involve the entire University.
"As the institute grows, we will be able to offer classes and programs for all students at Duke and be a resource and educational center for training in how to deal with these issues," said Jennings.
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