Mary V. Callaway, MME

Mary Callaway worked as the Associate Director for the Project on Death in America at the Open Society Foundation (OSF) in New York from 1994 to 2003, and as Director of the International Palliative Care Initiative from 1998 to 2014, when she retired. Before joining OSF, Ms. Callaway was Administrator for the Pain and Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for 16 years, and served as Executive Director for the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Cancer Pain Research and Education. 

Ms. Callaway is currently an international palliative care consultant. She has extensive international palliative care experience and expertise in the areas of health policy, education and training, drug policy, advocacy, organizational development and program evaluation. She has worked nationally, regionally, and internationally with on-the-ground experience in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Southeast Asia, South Africa, Southern Africa, and East Africa. She has developed educational programs for health care professionals and has taught around the world at national and regional conferences. 

In 2015, Ms. Callaway’s international contribution to palliative care development was recognized with a Presidential Citation by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She was a founding member of the United States Cancer Pain Relief Committee, a nongovernmental organization supporting access to pain medications issues. She also served on the Advisory Board of the European Palliative Care Academy, which is supported by the Bosch Foundation in Germany. As a former member of the African Palliative Care Association’s pain management working group, she was involved in planning and implementing three regional drug advocacy workshops to increase opioid availability; she was also a member of its board from 2016 to 2022. Ms. Callaway served for six years on the grants committee of the Virginia Gildersleeve Foundation that is dedicated to the advancement of women and girls, and is a member of the small grants review committee for Women Graduates, an organization based in the United States. 

Ms. Callaway joined the IAHPC Board in 2015, and is a member of its Fundraising Committee and Institutional Recognition Awards Program Review Committee.

Away from palliative care, Ms. Callaway enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing golf, gardening, reading, listening to music, training her two small dogs, and volunteering with the Heartland Therapeutic Riding Program, providing assisted services to children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities.

@mcallaway_mary