Cathy Berkman

BS, University of Vermont
MSW, Boston University
PhD, Yale University

Palliative and end-of-life care
Physical and mental health of older adults
Cross-cultural research

Cathy Berkman is a Professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, Director of the Palliative Care Fellowship, and Director of Continuing Education. She received a BS fromUniversity of Vermont (social welfare, sociology and anthropology), an MSW from Boston University (community organization and research) and a PhD from Yale University, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (psychosocial epidemiology, chronic disease epidemiology, and aging). She was an NIMH Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Columbia University School of Public Health, Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program and Research Associate at the Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology. Her research focuses on palliative and end-of-life care, including: cross-cultural issues in preferences for treatment, communication with health care providers and family, and knowledge and attitudes about advance care planning; and discriminatory palliative and end-of-life care received by LGBTQ+ patients.

Cathy Berkman CV

Courses Currently Taught:

Applied Social Work Research and Evaluation (MSW Program)
Statistics I (PhD Program)
Integrative Quantitative Research (PhD Program)

MSW Courses Developed:

Palliative Social Work
Social Work Practice in Health Care
Grief, Loss and Bereavement

Berkman, C., Christ, G., Shukraft, A. (2022). Leadership in palliative social work. In Altilio, T., S. Otis-Green, & J. Cagle (Eds.), Oxford textbook of palliative social work, 2nd Ed.. Oxford.

Berkman, C., Genereux, C., Front, A. (2022). Supervision and mentoring. In Altilio, T., S. Otis-Green, & J. Cagle (Eds.), Oxford textbook of palliative social work, 2nd Ed. Oxford.

Pardasani, M., & Berkman, C. (2020). New York City senior centers: Who participates and why? Journal of Applied Gerontology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464820917304

Marmo, S., & Berkman, C. (2020). Hospice social workers’ perception of being valued by the interdisciplinary team and the association with job satisfaction. Social Work in Health Care, 1-17. doi:10.1080/00981389.2020.1737306

Stein, G. L., Berkman, C., O'Mahony, S., Godfrey, D., Javier, N. M., & Maingi, S. (2020). Experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender patients and families in hospice and palliative care: Perspectives of the palliative care team. Journal of Palliative Medicine. doi:10.1089/jpm.2019.0542

Berkman, C., Ahronheim, J. C., & Vitale, C. A. (2019). Speech-language pathologists’ views about aspiration risk and comfort feeding in advanced dementia. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 36(11), 993-998. doi:10.1177/1049909119849003

Stein, G. L., Berkman, C., & *Pollak, B. (2019). What are social work students being taught about palliative care? Palliative and Supportive Care. Epub ahead of print 2-4-19, doi: 10.1017/S1478951518001049

Glajchen, M., Berkman, C., Otis-Green, S., Stein, G. L., Sedgwick, T., Bern-Klug, M., . . . Portenoy, R. K. (2018). Defining core competencies for generalist-level palliative social work. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 56(6), 886-892. doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2018.09.002

Berkman, C., Stein, G. L., & Glajchen, M. (2017). Palliative and end-of-life care. In J. C. Heyman & E. Congress (Eds.), Health care and social work:  Practice, policy and research: Springer.

BOARD MEMBER, Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, National Consensus Project to Establish Core Competencies and an Educational Curriculum for Generalist-Level Palliative Social Work

EDITORIAL BOARD, Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care

Fellow, Gerontological Society of America (GSA)
Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine
Fellow, Brookdale Center on Aging
NIMH Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Yale University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
NIMH Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Columbia University, School of Public Health, Psychiatric Epidemiology Program