Appointment by NYS Health Commissioner Recognizes Significance of Stein's Contributions to the Field Dr. Gary Stein, professor at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work, has been appointed to the New York State Palliative Care Education and Training Council by New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker.

Dr. Gary Stein

“This appointment is significant in several ways,” said Dr. Stein. “First, having this council is a statement of state policy that palliative care education and training needs to be expanded and meet the needs of older New Yorkers and those facing serious illness. Appointing myself, as a leader in palliative social work, evidences the desire to expand from addressing medical education, the initial work of the council, to also addressing the very important psychosocial needs patients and families deal with when facing serious illness. Palliative care education should be expanded in graduate social work programs, and opportunities for innovation and excellence need to be fostered.” “Dr. Stein’s work is impressive not only because he is a trail blazer for geriatric and palliative care education in social work, which is essential for today’s practitioners, but because he is so creative and innovative in the programs he develops and the opportunities for learning he provides students. He creates a very high bar for social work education. We could not be more pleased that he shares his talents with Wurzweiler students, but that he is a national leader in this field,” said Dr. Danielle Wozniak, the Dorothy and David Schachne Dean of Wurzweiler. Dr. Stein is a renowned contributor to the field of palliative social work. In addition to his appointment to the NYS Palliative Care Education and Training Council, this past March he assisted in leading the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network’s Sixth Annual Assembly, a three-day conference that brought more than 350 palliative social workers to Boston, Massachusetts, to hear innovations in psychosocial practice, education, research and policy. Dr. Stein offered two presentations on his work and convened and moderated a plenary panel on pain care policy. He was also an invited participant to a Roundtable of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging to make recommendations to improve how physicians and attorneys can collaborate to improve advance care planning, adding the essential social work component to the planning process.