Dying Well with Lynette Wallworth

Christopher Kerr is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer at Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Chris earned his MD as well as a PhD in Neurobiology. Outside of direct patient care, Chris’ focus is in the area of patient advocacy. His passion is palliative care and a belief that such care should be throughout the continuum of illness. Under Dr. Kerr’s medical leadership, Hospice Buffalo now serves 1,100 patients a day, half of whom receive services prior to hospice.
Dr. Kerr’s background in research has evolved from bench science towards the human experience of illness as witnessed from the bedside, specifically patient’s dreams and visions at the end of life. Although medically ignored, these near universal experiences often provide comfort and meaning, as well as insight into the life led and the death anticipated. To date, the research team at Hospice Buffalo has published multiple studies on this topic and documented over 1,500 end-of-life events, many of which are videotaped. This work was the subject of his TEDx Buffalo Talk which has been viewed over 4.5 million times. It has been the subject of reports on The BBC, in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American Mind, Huffington Post, and Psychology Today. It is also featured in a recent docu-series on Netflix called Surviving Death and a PBS World Channel Documentary called Death Is but A Dream. Dr. Kerr’s work has also been published in a book (Death Is but A Dream) by Penguin Random House which was released in 2020 in multiple languages. 
You can learn more about Dr Kerr and the work of his team at www.drchristopherkerr.com.

Justin Dwyer works as a Psychiatrist, and is Medical Director of Psychosocial Cancer Care at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. His team works creatively with families at the end-of-life to sustain meaning and connection, and are led by patient’s stories in their clinical work, research and outside collaborations.

Artist/filmmaker Lynette Wallworth’s works include the interactive video installation Evolution of Fearlessness; DOMIE Award-winning full-dome feature Coral, AACTA Award-winning documentary Tender, the Emmy® Award-winning virtual reality narrative Collisions and XR work Awavena which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, was in competition at the Venice Film Festival 2018 and in September 2020 garnered Lynette her 2nd Emmy® Award for Outstanding New Approaches in Documentary. She has been awarded a UNESCO City of Film Award, the Byron Kennedy Award for Innovation and Excellence, and in 2016 was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the year’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. She directs the New Narratives Lab for the World Economic Forum to generate opportunities for under-represented voices.  She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Virtual and Augmented Reality and she sits on the Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees.