Advisors

Bradley is a physician in the Section of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth Health in Lebanon, where he works in the outpatient clinic and directs New Hampshire’s only hospital inpatient palliative care unit, The Jack Byrne Center for Palliative and Hospice Care.  He is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He completed his fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Before that, he trained in Family Medicine in Ohio. He also holds a graduate degree in health policy from The George Washington University in Washington, DC and continues to be engaged with both state and federal policy initiatives, including serving on the Public Policy Committee for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and several legislative committees throughout New Hampshire. He is board-certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Family Medicine, and is a Certified Hospice Medical Director.

Brad is passionate about ensuring access to high-quality hospice and palliative care throughout Northern New England. His support for access to medical aid in dying comes from countless conversations with New Hampshire patients and family members interested in this option when suffering from a terminal illness. He has witnessed too many of his New Hampshire patients having to leave their homes and communities to travel to Vermont to obtain this compassionate and fundamental option. He believes that patients should have the freedom and autonomy to make the most important decisions about their health.

Dr. Sobelson has been a family physician in Concord since 1984 and remains in active clinical practice. He has served in leadership positions as president of the New Hampshire Academy of Family Physicians and New Hampshire Medical Society, where he continues to advocate for medical justice and health care reform. He has served on other non-profit boards, including ACLU-NH, Havenwood-Heritage Heights CCRC, and Temple Beth Jacob, and has served on several NH Legislative Commissions. He was honored as the 2023 New Hampshire Family Physician of the Year.

As a seasoned clinician, his professional opportunities have greatly broadened his life experiences ranging from grandson to grandfather, from spouse to friend, and inform his strong support for efforts to allow Medical Aid in Dying to find legal footing in New Hampshire.

Marianne Jackson, M.D., served New Hampshire’s North Country as an Ob-Gyn for 25 years before leaving to complete a master’s degree in public health at the University of North Carolina. There she worked in patient safety and quality improvement until returning to the Mount Washington Valley in 2015. She was the Executive director of the Gibson Center for Senior Services for 3 years and has now retired to Durham, North Carolina.

Marianne continues to be active in New Hampshire. She is dedicated to making conversations about end-of-life decision making a natural and comfortable topic for families. She has presented “The Natural Causes of Death,” promoting informed-decision making in end-of-life choices.  She serves on the state’s Health Care Decisions Coalition which is part of the Foundation for Healthy Communities. She is also an Advisor to the Endowment for Health.

She is pleased to be an advisor to NH Options with other very talented and experienced advocates.

Newly relocated to the Upper Valley in NH, Linda has enjoyed a rich and varied career with work experience in Finance, clinical and corporate Medicine, and Operations for her family’s entrepreneurial food venture. Retired now, Linda has volunteered with homeless women at Mary’s Place in Seattle teaching group programs to support their health, education and personal safety; served as Treasurer and Board Member of Friends of the Library in Bainbridge Island, Washington; taught English as a second language (ESL) to immigrants in DC with the Washington English Center; and served with the DC Medical Reserve Corps during COVID.

She believes deeply in the power and importance of life’s biggest transitions and hopes to empower people by bringing end of life planning conversations to the mainstream. She has earned a certificate in Care Management from the University of WA, earned an End of Life Doula certificate from the University of VT and certified as a program facilitator with Before I Go Solutions. Having most recently lived in states/districts where MAiD is a legal option for eligible citizens, Linda is excited to join this talented and dedicated group of advocates to help bring MAiD legislation to NH and expand the end of life options available to the strong and independent citizens of NH.

While end of life planning and education is her work interest, Linda enjoys most things physical activity (but especially running), doing just about anything with George (her husband of 38 years), her 3 “kids” (now very adult and living in NY) and her 3 favorite “grandcats”,

As a young nurse in New York City in the 1980s, Ed saw many friends and many more patients die from AIDS. It shaped his commitment to improving quality at end of life.

Ed and his husband left their city careers and moved to New Hampshire in 1993 to run the Notchland Inn, a beloved White Mountains inn and restaurant. You can find Ed there, sometimes in the kitchen and often in the office. Despite the demands of a year-round hospitality business, Ed served six terms as a NH State Representative, where he chaired the Commerce Committee for three terms.

ED received a Bachelor’s in Nursing from Boston University, a Master’s in Nursing Administration from New York University, and a state license as a Nursing Home Administrator.

End of life issues have always been of interest to Ed, and reinforced by his nursing career. Ed was named the 2021 Legislator of the Year by the NH Disability Rights Council.

Val is the founder and executive director of Maine Death with Dignity, a 501(c)(3) non-profit established in 2014.

The overall mission of Maine Death with Dignity is providing services, education, and end-of-life advocacy to people who wish to actively explore the meaning of life through embracing the certainty of death.

From 2013 through 2019, Val organized and led Maine’s grassroots effort to pass a medical-aid-in-dying law. The Maine Death with Dignity Act went into effect on September 19, 2019. Val mentors and collaborates with grassroots leaders in other states still trying to pass this legislation.

Among other end-of-life topics, Val educates on the history of medical assistance in dying in the U.S., how the laws work, and the eligibility requirements for receiving life-ending medication a terminally ill patient may take on their own to end their life peacefully and humanely at a time of their own choosing.

She is the mother of three adult children and an accomplished artist. When she isn’t “doing death stuff” (her son’s description), she spends her time enjoying two amazing grandsons and working on a variety of creative projects.

Val is a retired Navy veteran of 20 years. She holds a Master of Science degree in human relations from Husson University in Bangor, Maine, and a B.S. in industrial technology from the University of Southern Maine.

Val received ordination in June, 2022 from the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine.

Betsy McConnell is a retired psychotherapist who has recently taken up full time residence in Sugar Hill.

Betsy worked as an intern in a hospital setting, and she has had private practices in New York City, Boston, Seattle, and Pittsburgh. She has deep regard for the stories that animate people’s lives and especially how they confront illness, death, and loss. They’ve motivated her to try to help reduce the trauma that can be accompany these challenges, and help people find meaning in the midst of loss that makes life worth living.

Betsy has been an active participant in the Episcopal Church. Betsy and her husband, Dorsey, have helped support Pilgrim Africa by teaching and offering trauma training in Uganda since 2007.

Betsy has enjoyed camping and sea kayaking in British Columbia, and loves hiking and cross-country skiing in the White Mountains. She has a reverence for this region and the people who live here.

After raising her family in Portsmouth, Martha returned to her native North Country home in Franconia so her elderly mother could remain in her own home. Her experience caring for her mother, and witnessing her mother’s decision to stop eating and drinking, motivated Martha to help create the Alliance.

Martha is the community engagement coordinator for the NH Alliance for Healthy Aging (AHA) where she engages, trains, and mobilizes older adults in advocacy efforts to improve healthy aging in New Hampshire. She is also consultant to nonprofits, providing technical assistance in the areas of collaborative planning, project management, resource development, and grant writing and review.

Martha has a 30-year career in community and public health, including as the executive director of a rural health network, and as a nutrition consultant in the state’s Division of Public Health Services. Martha served as a state representative for two terms. She has served on numerous boards of community organizations.

Robb has spent the past 20+ years as an activist for better end-of-life care and expanded choice, including medical aid in dying.

With advanced degrees in applied science and kinesiology, and American College of Sports Medicine certification, he started his career working as an athletic director and kinesiologist.

After witnessing his father and his own long-time partner experience bad deaths in the mid 1990s, Robb embarked on a new career in end-of-life advocacy. He became executive director of the organization now known as End of Life Washington (EOLWA), which he led from 2000 – 2015. Robb was a leader and spokesperson for the initiative to pass the Washington Death with Dignity Act, which received nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2009.

Robb is the author of several groundbreaking advance planning documents, including EOLWA’s Hospital Visitation Authorization for LGBTQ people, a comprehensive Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare that set a new standard for advance planning documents in Washington, and two first-of-their kind advance planning tools for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia: the “Living With Dementia Mental Health Directive” and “My Instructions for Oral Feeding and Drinking.”

Currently, Robb is executive director emeritus of EOLWA and serves on its public policy and legal committee. He is a member of the National Voluntary Stopping Eating Drinking Advance Directive Committee. In addition to working with NH Options, he is an advisor to Arizona End of Life Options, End of Life Choices California, and the New Zealand Ministry of Health.