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System Director, Palliative Care Child Life Administration
Baylor Scott & White Health
Dallas, Texas, United States
Following a hand injury, Cinda left her career as a registered dental hygienist, continued her education, and became a CCLS. After leaving her child life position at Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, Cinda utilized her skills as both a dental hygienist and a CCLS, serving as a co-investigator for two Texas A&M College of Dentistry research studies, examining best practices for supporting fearful pediatric dental patients. She also served as an adjunct assistant professor at the dental college, helping educate graduate dental and dental hygiene students in their quest to work in pediatric dentistry.
Cinda then ventured into another non-traditional area of child life, as the first CCLS for one of the largest Texas hospice organizations. She developed child life programming in pediatric and adult hospice, and during that time gained her skillset and passion for working with well-children of terminally ill adult patients. She collaborated with the Supportive Palliative Care medical director at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and began the unique adult hospital-based, palliative care child life program for Baylor Scott & White Health. The program provides psychosocial support exclusively for children loved by seriously and terminally ill or injured adult patients. Since the program's inception in 2011, their team of 10 CCLSs working on campuses across North and Central Texas, has supported more than 22,000 children. She was an advisory board member for Stephen F. Austin University’s Human Sciences Department where she was also a frequent guest lecturer. Cinda volunteered with 2 ACLP committees and has contributed to numerous publications including the book Child Life Beyond the Hospital. Cinda recently served on the Texas Health and Human Services Pediatric Palliative Care Subcommittee and was grateful for the opportunity to provide education regarding the value and benefits of child life services, to the Texas Palliative Care Interdisciplinary Advisory Council. She is also a medical staff volunteer with the Kidd Kraddick Foundation, accompanying children and families experiencing life-limiting medical conditions to Disney World.
In addition to advocating for her team members and the children and families they serve, Cinda enjoys helping child life specialists throughout the United States and Canada, advocate for and develop their programming for children of adult patients. In her free time, Cinda enjoys time with her husband Steve, their furry children, baking, true crime stories, and ghost hunting.
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Thursday, June 15, 2023
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM CST
