Carol Weisse, PhD
Director of Health Professions and Professor of Psychology, Union College
Carol Weisse, PhD, is the director of health professions and professor of psychology at Union College where she teaches interdisciplinary courses in health psychology, death and dying, behavioral neuroscience, and medical humanities. Weisse has studied best practices in end of life care around the globe, including hospices in England, Ireland, South Africa and hospitals in Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Canada. Her research has examined the benefits of in-home palliative care not only to patients receiving care, but to undergraduate students immersed in the culture of care. She received training as a hospice volunteer in 2000, and later trained as a caregiver at the Joan Nicole Prince Home, a community-run residential home in Scotia, NY, that provides care to terminally ill residents who are unable to remain at home. Inspired by these experiences, she developed a Community Action, Research, and Education (C.A.R.E) Program to educate students in end-of-life care by training them to serve as caregivers in these homes. Through the CARE program, Weisse has trained students from eight different colleges in various homes across upstate New York. Weisse was the recipient of the 2013 Stillman Prize, awarded to the teacher “who can make a classroom a place which combines excitement, joy, and challenge” and, in 2017, received the Capital Region Community Engagement Council Award for her “exemplary work, dedication and promotion of civic and community engagement in the Capital Region.”