2010 National Lifespan Respite Conference

Keynote Speakers

Judith Fox has had two careers: one as an artist and one as an entrepreneur. After working as a photographer, writer and business executive in New York, Fox started a temporary service in Virginia that expanded in size and reputation and was eventually purchased by a New York Stock Exchange firm. After selling her company, she devoted herself full-time to photography. Fox's award-winning photographs are in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) and the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, as well as private and corporate collections throughout the United States and Europe. Her work has been in solo and group museum and gallery shows from New York to California.  The Southeast Museum of Photography will have an exhibition of Fox’s work in fall 2010, and her work is on exhibit at the Museum of Photographic Arts throughout 2010. Fox has been featured in dozens of newspaper and magazine articles and interviewed on numerous television and radio shows, including Terry Gross’ NPR show “Fresh Air.” Her book, “I Still Do: Loving and Living with Alzheimer’s” was named “one of the best books of 2009” by Photo-Eye Magazine.  She lives and works in southern California.


The Rev. Earl E. Shelp, Ph.D., President, Interfaith CarePartners, Inc.
Dr. Shelp is a scholar in the disciplines of medical ethics, theological ethics, and pastoral theology.  After being graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1976 (Doctor of Philosophy), Dr. Shelp taught medical ethics at Baylor College of Medicine and theology at the Institute of Religion in Houston, Texas. He was Visiting Professor in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College (1985 and 1989).  In 1988, he co-founded and began service as President of Interfaith CarePartners, which received, among other seven national awards for program excellence and record of service, a President’s Service Award in 1998.  The President’s Service Award, sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation, is described as “The most prestigious award ever given for volunteer community service.”  With his colleague Dr. Ron Sunderland, Dr. Shelp created the Care Team model of congregation-based volunteer caregiving in 1985.  From 1986 to June 2009, Care Team members gave 1.75 million hours of volunteer service in the program.

He is the author of seven books and editor of sixteen books on ethics, medical ethics, and pastoral theology.  He edited two book series:  Theology and Medicine (Kluwer Academic Publishers) and Pastoral Ministry Series (Pilgrim Press).  Dr. Shelp also is author of over thirty articles published in scholarly journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Archives of Internal Medicine, Journal of Family Practice, Journal of Philosophy and Medicine, Hastings Center Report, Journal of Medical Ethics, Social Science and Medicine, Journal of Pastoral Care, American Journal of Public Health, and Christian Century.

Dr. Shelp is a member of the Executive Committee of the Delegate Council Class of 2006 – 2012, National Interfaith Coalition on Aging of the National Council on the Aging, Washington, DC.  He was a member of the Governing Council Class of 2006 – 2009 of the Forum on Religion and Spirituality and the Purposeful Lives Advisory Committee of the Civic Engagement Program of the American Society on Aging. 

From 1985-1992, he concentrated on the challenges to religion, ethics, medicine, and public policy occasioned by the HIV epidemic.  In addition to writing and speaking, he served on the National Academy of Science panel on Monitoring the Impact of AIDS on American Society (1989-1991) and was a member (1987-1999) of the AIDS Vaccine Trials Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the National Institutes of Health.  Since 1992, Dr. Shelp has focused on the development of the Care Team model of caregiving.  The Care Team concept and model of ministry was first applied to people with HIV/AIDS in 1985, adapted in 1992 to meet the needs of Alzheimer's-affected families, expanded in 1994 to assist the frail elderly who live alone and have special needs that can be met by trained and supervised lay people, and revised to serve the special needs of severely impaired children and parent caregivers in 2000.  The term Care Team and the basic methodology of shared congregation-based volunteer caregiving has been replicated broadly by faith communities and organizations nationally based on publications and presentations by Dr. Shelp and Dr. Sunderland. 

Dr. Shelp is a member of the Society of Christian Ethics and was listed in Who's Who in Religion.  In 1992, he received at a Kennedy Center gala an America's Award, described as a Nobel Prize for goodness, sponsored by The Positive Thinking Foundation founded by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.  In 1999, he was a final judge of nominees for the 1999 President’s Service Awards.


Cindy R. Padilla, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary on Aging
Cindy Padilla was appointed to the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary on Aging in December 2009. Ms. Padilla most recently served as the Secretary of the New Mexico Aging & Long Term Services Department (ALTSD) under the administration of Bill Richardson.

Cindy holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and studied Public Administration at the University of New Mexico Graduate School of Public Administration. As the Secretary of the New Mexico Aging and Long Term Services Department, Ms. Padilla managed many programs that focused on Independence and Dignity for older New Mexicans and people living with disabilities. Cindy brings her State experience in elder justice – protection, intervention, and advocacy - Aging Network services, Long Term Care Ombudsman, consumer and elder rights, as well as her work with New Mexico’s Tribes, Pueblos, and the Navajo Nation to Washington, DC with a focus on people, and the importance of building relationships with the people served through the Administration on Aging.

Although her professional work in Aging is a recent career change, she has a lifetime commitment to public service. Ms. Padilla has 23 years of experience in environmental regulation and operations, community advocacy and organizing.