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AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
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Registration Required
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AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner

Chris Onderdonk, MSW, LCSW, AHPSW-C (he/him/his)

Inpatient Palliative Care Social Worker
UC San Diego Health Doris A. Howell Palliative Teams

Chris Onderdonk, MSW, LCSW, AHPSW-C has devoted over two decades to advancing compassionate, relationship-centered care across the fields of palliative care, hospice, and bereavement. A seasoned clinical social worker, he has practiced in diverse care settings and is dedicated to evolving and transforming the pallaitive care field.

As an educator and mentor, Chris trains medical students, residents, and fellows, and serves as faculty in Fordham University’s online MSW program. A graduate of the NYU Zelda Foster Studies Leadership Fellowship (2019), he now mentors post-graduate MSW fellows through the program. In 2024, he completed the UC San Diego Sanford Compassionate Communication Fellowship and was named Affiliate Faculty for the Center for Compassionate Communication.

Within the professional community, Chris is a recognized pallaitive care social work leader and has served on the Board of Directors of the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) since 2019, including as Board Chair (2024) and now as Past Chair on the Executive Committee. He also serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care.

A committed contributor to the field’s scholarship, Chris co-authored a chapter in Palliative Care: A Guide for Health Social Workers (Oxford University Press) and authored a chapter for the second edition of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work. Through his teaching, writing, clinical practice, and leadership Chris continues to champion a vision of palliative care that emodies and honors the inherent complexity and relational depth encountered in the diverse lived experiences of patients and families.

Presentation(s):

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