Our Team: The Staff
Ohio End of Life Options was founded by Lisa Vigil Schattinger in 2016. Soon after, she met Molly McMahon Graziano (see their profiles below). As a result of their committed work and shared passion for this issue, many more supporters and volunteers rallied together to join them, including the Board of Directors listed below, Advisory Team Members, and the members of the Policy Advisory Group.
Our team includes many volunteers, and we are always welcoming more! If you want to help in our mission, please Contact Us.
Our Team: The Board of Directors:
- Amy Foti, JD, Board Chairperson, Community Volunteer – Read Amy’s story
- Vikki Miller, Board Secretary, Community Volunteer – Read Vikki’s story
- Kim Barton, Board Treasurer, Community Volunteer
- Tom Bretz, retired business owner, community volunteer
- Barbara Daly, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor Emerita at Case Western Reserve University, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing – Read Barb’s Dayton Daily News opinion piece
- Kathryn (Muffy) Kaesberg, retired owner of Organizing 4 U, LLC – Read about Muffy
- Ann Rowland, JD, retired Assistant U.S. Attorney – Read Ann’s story – Ann leads the Policy Advisory Group.
- Doug Schattinger, MBA, President/CEO, Pioneer Manufacturing
- Jeremy Shapiro, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and adjunct faculty member of the Psychological Sciences Department of Case Western Reserve University
- Wendy Shugarman, business owner, community volunteer
Advisory Team Members:
- Elizabeth Bennett, Retired Chief Program Officer, The Gathering Place, Community Health Worker and Certified End of Life Doula
- Kathleen Carmody, Founder of Senior Matters Home Health Care and Consulting, Certified Dementia Practitioner and End of Life Doula
- Ellen F Casper, PhD, Clinical psychologist and director of Ellen F Casper, PhD and Associates, outpatient mulidisciplinary private practice. Ellen was a caregiver for her spouse for eight years before his death from cancer.
- Michael Devereaux, MD, Retired Neurologist and Professor, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine
- Mary Jane Elam, MD, Retired Family Physician and Adjunct Clinical Faculty, Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University Schools of Medicine
- Susan Moussi, CPA, Susan was a caregiver to a terminally ill spouse who brought this option into the conversation. She’s been an advocate for legalizing a Medical Aid in Dying Law in Ohio since 2017. Watch Susan’s video on our YouTube channel.
- Maryjo Prince-Paul, PhD, MSN, RN, FPCN, A nationally recognized health care leader, nurse scientist, administrator, trainer, and speaker with expertise in oncology, health communication, and hospice and palliative care program development and policy initiatives. – Read Maryjo’s statement.
Lisa Vigil Schattinger, MSN, RN
Founder and Executive Director
Lisa founded Ohio End of Life Options in 2015. The year before, Lisa was with her stepfather, Dr. Jack Rowe, when he died after using Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. His death was peaceful and exactly as he had wished. A few months earlier, Jack had been diagnosed with cancer and told he had a few months to live. He enrolled in hospice and communicated openly and honestly with family and friends about his diagnosis. Before he died, he shared his thoughts on the Death with Dignity law in the Journal of the American Medical Association. His family was thankful to be able to surround him with love as he died at home. The experience was profound for Lisa and her family.
After returning home to Cleveland, Lisa shared her family’s experience locally and nationally. It has resonated with many. In 2016 she joined the board of Death with Dignity National Center and became its Board President in 2024.
Lisa grew up and went to college in Oregon. After graduating, she worked as a medical assistant in an internist’s office in Eugene. Her mother Jan Rowe was a nurse, and they talked about medical issues a lot. They discussed physician-assisted death before it was voted on in 1994. At the time, Lisa’s aunt was being treated for breast cancer, from which she died in 1995. Her aunt was under hospice care but was without the option of medical aid in dying.
Lisa had other experiences with death among friends and family. She found that the concept of quality of life, for those at the end of life, is intensely personal and important. She began working toward a law giving terminally ill Ohioans access to all of their end-of-life options.
Molly McMahon Graziano, MA
Director of Outreach
Molly brings over twenty-five years of nonprofit leadership and communications strategy experience to the medical aid-in-dying issue. In her personal and professional life, she has witnessed many end-of-life experiences and is dedicated to expanding options and improving care for patients.
Molly is a lateral thinker with extensive experience in program development and growth. She has presented regionally and nationally and was awarded the Health and Human Services Medal of Honor for her work with the Organ and Tissue Donation National Collaborative.
Her digital communications knowledge and skills at the state and national level make her a valuable asset in helping expand awareness and raise the voices of Ohioans in support of an assisted dying law.