Christi Lero

Christi is a doctoral student in Social Work at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently an NIH T32 Predoctoral Fellow through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and a Pre-dissertation Fellow through the Association of Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW).

After graduating with a Master of Social Work from the University of Missouri in 2016, Christi worked as a Hospice & Palliative Care Social Worker where she completed clinical supervision and became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). She serves as a psychotherapist specializing in support for caregivers of those with terminal and life-limiting illness, grief, loss and traumatic bereavement.

Additionally, Christi worked as a research assistant for the University of Missouri and is published in academic and medical journals on topics of death and dying, dementia care and caregiving and ethics. Most recently, Christi co-authored the chapter on Palliative Social Work in Rural Communities in The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work, second edition.

She maintains network and academic connections and participates in guest panel lectures and individual lectures on the state of end-of-life and after death care, non-pharmaceutical comfort measures, hospice, and palliative care. She continues to serve as a presenter at state, regional and national conferences.

As a doctoral student, her research interests include neuropalliative care, hospice and end-of-life care, communication and cultural engagement with death and dying, dementia and dementia caregiving, and grief and loss.