Elizabeth Ford Pitorak MSN, CNS, FPCN

Director, The Hospice Institute

Ms. Pitorak, an advanced practice nurse, is the Director of the Hospice Institute, Hospice of the Western Reserve. In her present position, she is responsible for planning and participating in external education and research regarding end-of-life care issues for the professional community, as well as overseeing all internal education for staff. For more than 30 years, she has worked in the field of hospice and pain management, lectured to multidisciplinary groups, and published papers and chapters on end-of-life nursing. Nationally, she is completing six years on the Board of Directors of the Hospice & Palliative Nurses Association and was a past President. Presently, she is the President of the Board of Directors of the Hospice & Palliative Nurses Foundation Board. For the past seven years, she has served on the education committee of the Midwest Center for Home, Hospice & Palliative Care Education, formerly the Ohio Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Internationally, she has traveled to Korea and Slovakia to consult and teach hospice and palliative care philosophy.

Ms. Pitorak received her bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and her master’s degree in nursing with a teaching major from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. She received both the Award for Excellence from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing Alumni Association and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Ohio State University College of Nursing Alumni Society. In 2007, she received the Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Hospice & Palliative Nurses Association.

Ms. Pitorak was the project director for Project Safe Conduct funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care grant. In 2002, the project was awarded the Circle of Life Award for its innovative model of palliative care, as well as the 2002 Award of Excellence in Education from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.