In the Room: Children Have Spiritual Lives, Too. Exploring the Way Children Connect in Their World.

Amanda is a Staff Researcher at Transforming Chaplaincy and a Pediatric Chaplain at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN. Amanda is a Humanist board-certified chaplain with APC and PhD student in Educational Psychology at University of Memphis. A North Carolinian at heart, Amanda trained at Duke University Medical Center with the Pediatric Quality of Life team caring for pediatric palliative care patients. Amanda is committed to research within the field of pediatric chaplaincy and currently serves as Co-Convener for Transforming Chaplaincy's Pediatric Spiritual Care Research Network and as a member of AAHPM’s Spiritual, Religious, and Existential SIG while engaging in research and writing for publication. As an advocate for nurturing the spirituality of children facing life-limiting illness, Amanda is also a member of the NCHPC Pediatric Palliative Care Division. Amanda leads in the broader international pediatric chaplaincy community on the Pediatric Chaplains Network Advisory Council.

Robin is the Founder of Kanarek Family Foundation which has funded: communications training at MSK Cancer Center; palliative care training at Fairfield University’s Egan School of Nursing; an interprofessional spiritual care education curriculum (ISPEC-pediatric) in palliative care at George Washington University’s Institute for Spirituality & Health.

Jeanette is a seasoned advocate, advisor, and mother with over 24 years of lived and professional experience navigating complex, chronic, serious, and terminal illness as well as learning differences. As the proud and blessed mother of two sons, Jeanette has managed care at the most intensive level, including running an ICU in her own home. Her personal journey has fueled over two decades of advocacy in healthcare and special education, both for her family and for others. Jeanette brings a strong belief in a mother’s intuition and champions team and coordinated care models where parents are respected as lead authorities and essential members of the educational and medical team.