Betsy MacGregor, M.S., M.D. was the Director of Adolescent Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC) in New York City for twenty years.  There she also founded and directed the BIMC Pediatric Pain Management and Comfort Care Program as well as the BIMC Program for Humanistic and Complementary Health Care.  She was a cofounder of The Door, a multidisciplinary center providing health and mental health care, education and social services, and creative and performing arts to marginalized, at-risk New York City youth.  She has designed and directed numerous professional training programs, workshops and retreats on the art of care-giving.  As a Soros Faculty Scholar with the Open Society Institute Project on Death in America, she conducted a three-year research project on Dying and the Inner Life, chronicling the personal experience of people with terminal illness as they consciously approached their own death. 

 

From her work as a physician, and from her own experience as a patient with cancer, Dr. MacGregor has come to view illness and death as profound teachers, offering the possibility of a deeper understanding of the human potential, and she speaks widely on this topic.  Currently she is a co-founder and Board Member of Enso House, an end-of-life residence on Whidbey Island, Washington, providing individualized, compassionate care for terminally ill patients and their caregivers.  She continues to dedicate herself to promoting the health and well-being of young people through her work with PYE Global, M-LISADA, and the Creative Facilitation Team.  In addition, she consults with foundations and philanthropists in the field of integrative medicine and provides guidance to individuals with life-threatening illness and to their caregivers.  She rounds out her life by being a wife, mother, writer, artist, story-teller, student of spiritual teachings, and animal lover.