Board of Directors

She was also employed by the Department of Homeland Security as Program Manager of Transportation Worker Identification Credential and as Assistant Federal Security Director for the Southwest Florida International Airport. Ms. Charney spent 25 years working with the Michigan legislature to pass many traffic safety laws, including major drunk driving reforms. Governors of both parties appointed her to serve on several Michigan boards and commissions. Ms. Charney was also a volunteer professor and chair of the Faculty Council at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. She served as the first woman president of the Ingham County Bar Association, vice president of the Michigan State Bar Foundation, president of Mid-Michigan Women’s Lawyers Association and chair of the Michigan Bar Association Annual Convention for years. In retirement, Ms. Charney has become a watercolor and mixed media artist. She teaches art at the local college and her work can be seen at www.elainecharney.com.

She leads efforts to grow and strengthen training programs that prepare the next generation of physicians in compassionate, patient-centered cancer care. Her academic and clinical work focuses on end-of-life care, medical aid in dying, caregiver support, grief, cultural perspectives, and symptom management in cancer & serious illness. She is the course director for City of Hope’s Interdisciplinary End of Life Symposium. Dr Banerjee is the editor for the book Understanding End of Life Practices: Perspectives on Communication, Religion & Culture. As a poet, she has published two books: Ashen Leaves and Neruda in Bed.  She is driven by a commitment to education, empathy, and meaningful connection in medicine.

She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA in organizational and counseling psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. She and her husband have been involved with Compassion & Choices for more than two decades.

She specializes in educating professionals about the importance of cultural competency, inclusion and diversity in end of life, death and grief care. Joél has worked in the death care industry since 2010 and also has over 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry. In addition to serving on the Compassion & Choices board of directors, she volunteers with the organization’s African American Leadership Council.

Dr. Rowley began her career in the creative arts world, supporting the mission of San Francisco Opera by creating immersive experiences for established donors and the culturally curious alike. She then spent nearly 20 years in the educational travel industry, where she created and managed experiential learning programs for the likes of National Geographic, Lindblad Expeditions and the Smithsonian Institution, causing Princeton University to ask her to build Princeton Journeys, which became one of the preeminent alumni travel programs in the U.S. under her tenure. Upon the creation of the University’s Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science & Public Policy, Dr. Rowley became its inaugural administrative director, linking academic insights in the behavioral sciences to real-world issues. A graduate of Dartmouth College with an AB in Economics and Geography, she holds an MBA in international business and a PhD in psychology with an emphasis on media. Her previous research has centered on the impact of narrative media on measures of adolescent self-identity, self-construal, and national identity. She is currently investigating how individuals and Western society as a whole approach the idea of endings and what behavioral insights may lend to their reimagining. To this end, she teaches an interdisciplinary seminar at Princeton entitled “Endings, Before and After” and launched an organization, Hereafter Partners, that aims to make conversations about death, dying, and aging more normalized and accessible for younger cohorts of society.

Jill currently serves on the board of We-ACTx for Hope a Kigali, Rwanda HIV/AIDS healthcare organization.

Previously, Gordon has served as a board member and Investment Committee Chair of Planned Parenthood of Illinois from 2017-2024. She formerly served on the board of Tuesday’s Child (a behavioral intervention program for at-risk, highly-stressed families from all income levels)from 1998-2018. She has been co-chair of CARE Chicago Women’s Initiative since 2005, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds, advocacy, and creating awareness for the large international, humanitarian organization CARE.

Gordon graduated with a BS in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School.

Since retiring in 2024 Jill is traveling extensively internationally, catching up on her reading list and watching very bad reality TV.

He is also an author of three books. In addition to being a respected academician, Dr. Gardere has been a contributor to the FOX Network, the Today Show, MSNBC, and CNN. Dr. Gardere was the host of VH1’s Dad Camp, has appeared on the Love and Hip Hop and Housewives reality show franchises, and was recently a contributor and substitute anchor on the nightly newscast, Chasing News, on WWOR- TV, NJ. Dr. Gardere recently starred in the documentary film, Mental Health in Color. Dr. Gardere has also co-produced the documentary films: You Are Not Alone, Black Gay Men and Depression; Erasing Family, Parental Alienation and the Effects on Children; and When Harlem Saved a King, The Assassination Attempt on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

She volunteered as an in-clinic abortion counselor for many years at Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida (PPSWCF) before joining their board, where she ultimately served as the treasurer and chair of the Finance Committee. During her tenure at PPSWCF, Ms. Greenwald also assisted with the merger of three local affiliates and was on the search committee for the organization’s new CEO. Her interest in Compassion & Choices stems from the experience of watching her mother endure an undignified death from ovarian cancer. Ms. Greenwald received a BA from Princeton and an MBA from Columbia.

He has spent more than 17 years practicing and teaching emergency medicine within the Henry Ford Health System, as part of Envision Healthcare, in the Detroit metropolitan area. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Gunaga currently serves as Vice Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine Research Director at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital as well as the Emergency Department Medical Director at Henry Ford Health Center Brownstown. His clinical, research, and advocacy work focuses on improving care for older adults in emergency medicine. He has particular expertise in expanding early access to palliative care resources in emergency department and EMS settings, strengthening elder abuse screening and intervention strategies, and improving transitions of care from the ED for persons living with dementia and their care partners. Dr. Gunaga is a leader in the development of the Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines 2.0., a master facilitator for the End-of-Life Palliative Education Curriculum (EPEC) and serves as Chair of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Palliative Medicine Interest Group. In addition, he sits on the City of Hope Interdisciplinary End of Life Symposium Steering Committee and serves as a physician ambassador within the Compassion & Choices National Emergency and Palliative Medicine Initiative, where he advances research, education, and collaboration to expand timely, patient centered access to palliative care in emergency departments nationwide.

With expertise in aging and experiences with end-of-life planning and care, Jackson-Brown provides consultative services from a holistic, client-directed approach. Her book, Eldercare as Art and Ministry (2020), embodies her thinking about caregiving and recognizes caregiving’s creative dimension that requires imagination, perseverance, and knowledge.  A life-long learner, Dr. Jackson-Brown has enhanced her professional capacity through study, learning, and training, including through the New Washington School of Psychiatry, the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis and the Georgetown University Medical Center’s Herbert B. Herscowitz Mini-Medical School Program. Her career is intentionally hybrid.  Mid-career, she was a senior consultant at NTL Institute for Applied Behavior Science and a staff officer at the national headquarters of the Episcopal Church.  Her early career was as an assistant professor at Yale and Howard University. A third-generation Washingtonian, she earned an undergraduate degree with honors from Howard University, which included a junior year exchange at the University of Rochester.  Her graduate degrees are from Smith College (MAT) and Wesleyan University (PhD).

Mr. Klaassen served as CEO from its inception in 1981 until 2008 and continued as Chairman until 2011.  Sunrise was the leading pioneer for a new model of senior living which became known as Assisted Living in the United States.  Mr. Klaassen modeled the Sunrise Assisted Living concept on the Dutch model of long term care he observed in the Netherlands.

Mr. Klaassen has also served on many public, private and not for profit boards including: the Netherlands America Foundation, the United States Chamber of Commerce, The Trinity Forum, Quality Care Properties, Meristar Hospitality Corporation.   He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the J127 Foundation, an operator of several private schools and early childhood academies in the DC area.

Mr. Klaassen provides the Compassion & Choices board of directors with over 30 years as a founder and leader in the assisted living and senior living field.

He has successfully litigated complex disputes involving trade secrets, claims of unfair competition, business and partnership disputes, antitrust, fiduciary duties, and novel issues of constitutional law. He also helps his clients reduce their litigation risk by helping them develop tailored data privacy, security, and trade secret strategies. Mr. Sands also serves as a mediator and arbitrator for complex commercial disputes throughout the West Coast.  After litigating on behalf of some of the world’s biggest companies at Gibson Dunn in California and Heller Ehrman in Seattle, Mr. Sands returned to his hometown of Portland to work at Lane Powell (now Ballard Spahr) in 2010. There, he led the firm’s litigation department as well as the class action and privacy and data security groups. He founded the firm’s electronic discovery practice group and served as the firm’s “Innovation Chair,” where he was responsible for modernizing the firm’s client services. Mr. Sands regularly serves as pro bono counsel to individuals and to organizations such as the ACLU, Basic Rights Oregon, and Compassion & Choices in emerging areas of federal and state constitutional law.  Mr. Sands is the current board chair of the Civics Learning Project and member of the ACLU of Oregon’s Lawyer’s Committee.

Originally ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1979, he joined the United Church of Christ in 1990 when he accepted the call to the Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship, UCC, in Los Angeles. Rev. Shockley was called to Pilgrim Church (as the first African American pastor of this predominantly Anglo congregation) in 2004. Beyond the pulpit, Rev. Shockley was a grassroots candidate for the Los Angeles City Council in 1999 and 2003. In 1998, he began writing commentary for the Los Angeles Times and in 2005 became a contributor to the award-winning website, Truthdig.com on a wide range of topics including religion, race, politics, reproductive choice and popular culture. A native of Los Angeles he was educated at Harvard College and the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He holds the Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and has done advanced graduate work at Claremont Graduate University in New Testament Studies.

She served six years as CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette and held leadership roles in national education-focused non-profits. Her early career included positions in pre K-12 public education as an aide, teacher, staff developer, program director, and assistant superintendent. In the 80s and 90s, Dr. Udall helped establish the first national advocacy organization for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. In addition, Dr. Udall was vice chair of the Udall Foundation, a federal agency supporting environmental conflict resolution and Native American leadership for 20 years. She holds a PhD in education from the University of Arizona.