Research Areas

Crawley's current research interests include: identifying unique spiritual care needs across the various trajectories of functional decline that precede death; and the phenomenology of spirituality among patients suffering from dementia.

In the field of medicine and ethics, LaVera is internationally known for her work on health disparities for palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care. She served as an expert on racial, ethnic, and cultural issues for the 2004 NIH State-of-the-Science of EOL Care Consensus Conference; was commissioned by the California Healthcare Foundation to conduct an in-depth summary of EOL health care delivery for California’s multi-ethnic, multicultural, and racially diverse population; and served a 3-year appointment as an ethics advisor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was honored with the Soros Faculty Scholars Award for the Open Society Institute's Project on Death in America in 1999-2001, The Howard Temin Award from the National Cancer Institute in 2003-2008, and the Stanford University Faculty Fellows Award in 2007.

After a 16+ year career at Stanford as an empirical bioethicist, LaVera Crawley embarked on a new career in the art of spiritual companionship, bringing together her work in medicine, ethics, social justice, teaching, research, and public health with her longstanding interest in spirituality. After completing her clinical pastoral education (CPE) in chaplaincy, she began serving in her current role as a Palliative Care Chaplain at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. She is also in training to become an Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) Certified Supervisor.

Inspired by the Schwartz Center’s Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Program for Healthcare Providers, LaVera’s goal as a Chaplain Supervisor is to create and implement a CPE Fellows Program for physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and other healthcare professionals to enhance provider skills and competencies in addressing the spiritual, existential, and religious needs of patients and families facing life-threatening illnesses.

Her current research interests include: identifying unique spiritual care needs across the various trajectories of functional decline that precede death; and the phenomenology of spirituality among patients suffering from dementia.