Bio:

Dr. Christ was formerly the director of social work at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City (MSKCC); a founding and past president of the Association of Oncology Social Workers, and co-founder of the newly formed Social Work Hospice/Palliative Care Network. This national organization emerged from the Social Work Leadership Development Awards Program of the Soros Foundations' Project on Death in America. Directed by Professor Christ the leadership program provided 42 practice and research awards to advance social work leadership in the field of palliative care. At MSKCC she developed the first research program within a department of social work.

Prior to her work in health care she participated in mental health research with children and families at Cornell Medical Center and with Dr. Margaret Mahler's study of autistic children in NYC. She is currently the Director of the FDNY-CSU/Columbia University Family Program for families of firefighters who died in the WTC disaster.

Research Interests:

• Social Work practice and research in health and mental health
• Oncology and chronic illness
• Palliative and end-of-life care
• Disaster preparedness and response
• Normal, complicated and traumatic grief

Current Projects:

• Developing a more comprehensive model of mourning and reconstitution that integrates the nature of the event and factors that affect normal and symptomatic outcomes over the long term in high risk populations, including children and adults.
• Developing evidence based social work intervention models in oncology and in adult and pediatric palliative care

Awards:

• "Book for the New Millennium" Award, International Palliative Care Organization, Montreal, Canada. (2004)
• National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Research Award, Orlando, FL. (2001)
• Distinguished Service Award for Research and Scholarly Achievement, National American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA. (1994)

Select Publications:

Books and Chapters
Green, P., Kane, D., Christ, G., Lynch, S., & Corrigan, M. (2006). FDNY crisis counseling: Innovative responses to 9/11 firefighters, families, and communities. New York: Wiley Publishing Co.

Christ, G. (2006). Providing a home-based therapeutic program for widows and children. In P. Green, D. Kane, G. Christ, S. Lynch, & M. Corrigan (Eds.), FDNY crisis counseling: Innovative responses to 9/11 firefighters, families, and communities (pp. 180-211). New York: Wiley Publishing.

Christ, G., Sormanti, M. & Oppenheim, S. (2001). Brief treatment of clients with chronic medical conditions. In B. Dane (Ed.), Doing more with less: Using long-term skills in short-term treatment (pp. 307-343). New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc.

Christ, G., Sormanti, M., & Francoeur, R. (2001). Chronic illness and disability. In A. Gitterman (Ed.), Handbook of social work practice with vulnerable and resilient populations (pp. 124-162). New York: Columbia University Press.

Journal Articles
Christ, G. & Christ, A. (July/August 2006). Children's grief: Current approaches to helping children cope with a parent's terminal illness. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 56, 197-212.

Troug, R., Christ, G.. H., Browning, D., & Meyer, E. (2006). Sudden traumatic death in children: "We did everything, but your child didn't survive." Journal of the American Medical Association, 295, 2646-2654.

Christ, G., Siegel, K., Karus, D., & Christ, A. (2005). Evaluation of a bereavement intervention. Social Work in End-of-life and Palliative Care, 1(3), 57-81.

Kramer, B., Christ, G. H., Bern-Krug, M., & Francoeur, R. (2005). A national agenda for social work research in palliative and end-of-life care. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 8(2), 418-431.

Christ, G., Siegel, K., & Christ, A. (2002). Adolescent grief: "It never really hit me... until it actually happened." Journal of the American Medical Association, 288, 1269-1279.

Last updated July 01, 2009.