Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, MA, FAAN, FPCN, CHPN has been in nursing for 37 years and has focused her clinical expertise and research in pain management, quality of life, and palliative care. Dr. Ferrell is the Director of Nursing Research & Education and a Professor at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and she has over 370 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts. She is Principal Investigator of a Research Project funded by the National Cancer Institute on “Palliative Care for Patients with Solid Tumors on Phase 1 Clinical Trials” and Principal Investigator of the “End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)” project. She directs several other funded projects related to palliative care in cancer centers and QOL issues. Dr. Ferrell is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute and was Co-Chairperson of the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care.
Dr. Ferrell completed a Masters degree in Theology, Ethics and Culture from Claremont Graduate University in 2007. She has authored ten books including the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing published by Oxford University Press (4th edition published in 2015). She is co-author of the text, The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing published in 2008 by Oxford University Press and Making Health Care Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care (Templeton Press, 2010). In 2013 Dr. Ferrell was named one of the 30 Visionaries in the field by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.