Conference Details & Registration Information

Click here and Register today for the 25thAnnual Caregiver Conference to be held at the Bellwether Hotel on Friday, April 3, 2020. Your privacy is important to us and will only be used to contact you if needed, and to inform you of future conferences if you choose.

You can also stay up-to-date on conference details on our facebook page here!

Check out the brochure here! 

Speaker Information

Keynote Speaker: Lee Tomlinson

Topic: A Silver Lining for Caregivers

A stage 3+ cancer survivor, patient-centered care advocate, and customer service expert, Lee Tomlinson is a nationally known thought leader and TEDTalk Presenter on compassionate care. Combining his unique constellation of life experiences for the benefit of healthcare organizations, he is a speaker dedicated to bringing more compassionate care to the forefront of modern medicine.

A highly sought-after business consultant, frequently engaged by Fortune 1,000 companies for his powerful, practical and inspiring advice, Lee Tomlinson now travels globally spreading his message of compassionate care to help patients, healthcare organizations and the all-too-often neglected medical professionals who provide the compassion.

Lee is the author or co-author of the books, Beyond Good, Beyond Great, To “Legendary” Customer Service, co-author of WAYMISH (Why Are You Making It So Hard…for me to give you my money?), and is currently completing his third book, Small Acts, Huge Impact, a collection of inspiring, true-life compassionate acts that changed the lives of both patients and health care providers.

Watch his TedTalk here.

Afternoon Guest Speakers

Marcie Suppe, RN 

Topic: Marcie will be sharing about LGBT issues related to aging. A Caring Response for LGBT Clients is a cultural competency training developed by the VCU Department of Gerontology.  This training uses the documentary film GEN SILENT and is part of the LGBT aging project.  Many states and agencies are beginning to require cultural competency training for their direct care employees and managers.  This curriculum uses real-life examples and thought provoking exercises created by leaders in the field of LGBT cultural competency training.

Bio: Marcie Suppe is the Director of Resident Services for Highgate Senior Living.  She is involved in training development, programming, continuing education and compliance across 4 states in the western US.  Marcie has worked with children and vulnerable adults as a Registered Nurse in home care, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing including ventilator care since 1996. She is also affiliated with Teepa Snow’s Positive Approach to Care as a certified trainer.

Ira Hyman, Ph.D Cognitive & Developmental Psychology

Topic: Ira will be discuss supportive environments for individuals with dementia.

Bio: Ira Hyman is a Professor of Psychology at Western Washington University. His research is concerned with applied cognitive psychology. He has conducted research on how people create false memories, including some of the first research concerning the creation of false childhood memories. Much of his research has investigated how people how people adopt misinformation and create an agreed version of the past. He has also conducted research on autobiographical memory and Alzheimer’s Disease. With his students, he studies the impact of divided attention on navigation, awareness, and eyewitness memory. He is a regularly contributor to the Psychology Today website, writing blog posts concerning the application of basic cognitive research to everyday situations.

Chao-ying Wu, MD, Family Medicine

Topic: Dr. Wu will be answering the questions you've always wanted to ask your doctor's but have not. You'll have a chance to write your questions, which will then be collected and given to Dr. Wu to answer.

Bio: Chao-ying Wu, MD grew up in Connecticut, Japan, and Missouri and was the youngest of four children. Before becoming a physician he received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, studying social anthropology. He had no plays to go into medicine until a few years later. He did his pre-medical work at University of Washington and did his residency in family medicine. After residency, he joined the Public Health Service and worked on the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico for five wonderful years.

Dr. Wu then returned to the Pacific Northwest in 1996 when he joined North Sound Family Medicine. His approach to care is simple--he wants every part of a patient's care to be as it would for his own family.

Outside of the office, Dr. Wu serves with the Chuckanut Health Foundation and Mount Baker Ski Patrol. He has a wife and two daughters, both now out of the nest. In his free time he walks, runs, hikes, skis, paddles, climbs, bikes, fishes, reads, plays guitar, breaks things, fixes things, breaks things again, writes, does laundry, studies evolution and spends time with friends and family.

His favorite quote is, "Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in a pond." --Norton Juster (The Phantom Tollbooth)

Vendor Sponsor Information

We invite you to come join us and showcase your business as a conference sponsor. Check out the different opportunities here, deadline is Jan 15, 2020.

You can seen an example of last year's agenda below. This year's will be coming soon!