Peggy Determeyer, PhD
Director of C.A.R.E.S.
McGee Fellow in Bioethics and Aging
A retired board-certified chaplain, Dr. Peggy Determeyer received her PhD in the Medical Humanities with a concentration in Health Care Ethics and Policy from the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch – Galveston. Her dissertation examined ways that Community Bioethics Dialogues can be used to promote individualized personal decisions and advance care planning. Peggy believes that all of us are or will be users of health care, and need opportunities to talk about our issues and experiences. In the Dialogues, community members engage in discussions about a variety of health care topics, including treatment outcomes, mental illness and aging, and end-of-life decision making in facilitated groups using readings, guest speakers, and participant stories.
As the McGee Fellow in Bioethics and Aging, Peggy develops and offers programs and training for health care professionals, pastors, and others to provide humane, compassionate care for those who are ill and/or aging as well as offer support for family members. She hosts a monthly information session, Café CHANGE (Conversations on Health and Navigating Good Elderhood), and leads a bi-monthly Grief Support Group (second and fourth Tuesdays of the month). As the director of HHCI’s Community Bioethics and Aging Center, Peggy is also developing an ethics consultation service for community members facing health care planning issues. Peggy and her husband have two grown children and three spoiled cats. Together, they enjoy kayaking, sailing, and traveling, while downtime will find Peggy with a book, sometimes with one of the aforementioned cats in her lap!
