Mary Raymer, M.S.W., A.C.S.W. is a psychiatric social worker and marriage and family therapist who has served the terminally ill and their families for 22 years.  In her private practice she specializes in complicated grief reactions.  She has served in a variety of capacities in the hospice community including program CEO, President of the Michigan Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Board, political advocate and consultant.  For the past six years she has served as the social work chair for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.  In this capacity she facilitated the first national research project designed to investigate social work interventions and outcomes in hospice care, a competency based education monograph for social workers and is completing a social work assessment tool to create a national database for social work outcomes. Mary is one of three team leaders for the Michigan Partnership grant to improve End-of-Life Care funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is in charge of the community resource project which is responsible for identifying and improving access issues to palliative care for under-served populations.  In addition to publishing several book chapters and articles, Mary lectures extensively to a wide variety of healthcare organizations on psychosocial aspects of end-of-life care.  The Michigan Hospice and Palliative Care Organization has awarded her both the Hospice Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Hospice Leadership Award for her efforts in coalition-building, advocacy, education and promotion of hospice care statewide. On a personal note, Mary is a professional mime and clown and has studied at the Marcel Marceau World Center for Mime.