Department of Sociology : University of Vermont

Department of Sociology

Faculty - D. Brookes Cowan

D. Brookes Cowan, Senior Lecturer

Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1976
Curriculum Vitae

Area of expertise

family, sex roles, death and dying, mental health

Contact Information

Email: D.Cowan@uvm.edu
Phone: (802) 656-2181

Office Hours: by appointment

I am a medical sociologist and gerontologist, and am a Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department at the University of Vermont, where I have taught since 1983. I specialize in end-of-life care issues and gerontology. Throughout my career I have been an advocate for quality end-of-life care and a volunteer for local and statewide hospice care.

I am the Founding Chair of the Madison-Dean Initiative, a non-profit organization created to educate the general public and the medical profession about care at the end of life. I have served from the group's founding in 1998 until 2005. As Chair, I was instrumental in the making of the critically acclaimed documentary, Pioneers of Hospice: Changing the Face of Dying, which earned the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's 2004 award for best documentary for professional audiences.

A grief therapist and hospice volunteer since 1978, I have had the privilege of being called to Arizona to coordinate the care of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross during the last week of her life in August 2004.