Matthew G. Kestenbaum, MD
Community Hospices Medical Director

Dr. Matthew G. Kestenbaum is Community Hospices' Medical Director.   Dr. Kestenbaum received his doctor of medicine from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and completed his post-graduate training at McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.   He has board certifications in internal medicine and hospice and palliative medicine.  

Dr. Kestenbaum has been the hospice medical director for The Hospice of Washington since October 1997.   In December 2001, Dr. Kestenbaum's role expanded to include all of Community Hospices: Maryland Community Hospice, Virginia Community Hospice and Hospice of Washington.

Dr. Kestenbaum is a member in good standing of several national and local professional organizations, including the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the National Council of Hospice Professionals and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.   He is a clinical assistant professor at Georgetown University Medical Center.   He is chairperson for the D.C. Partnership to Improve End-of-Life Care's public policy task force and a member of their steering committee.   Dr. Kestenbaum is a well-known speaker on hospice, end-of-life and ethical issues in numerous venues, including television and radio talk shows and news spots, professional programs and hospital grand rounds.  
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Pat Engleman, RN
Director, Community Hospice of Maryland

Pat Engleman has more than 25 years of hospital staff nursing experience, including 10 years in progressive management in home health and hospice.   She began her career as a labor and delivery nurse, later working in critical care and post anesthesia.   Ms. Engelman has been in hospice for 10 years. She is a certified hospice nurse and has received her hospice administrators' certification from NHPCO. Ms. Engleman received her nursing diploma from St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Dr. Sydney Dy. MD, MSc

Sydney Dy, MD, MSc received her medical degree and a Masters in Health Services Research from the Stanford School of Medicine. Board-certified in both specialties, she trained in internal medicine and hospice and palliative medicine.   She completed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Dy helped create, and is the primary attending and fellowship director for, the interdisciplinary Palliative Care Consultation Service at the Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine.  

She attends on the cancer pain consultation service at Johns Hopkins' Department of Oncology and at the Washington Home inpatient hospice unit. She is the Medical Director for the Omega Life Program, an outpatient palliative care case management service of Johns Hopkins Healthcare.  

Dr. Dy is an Assistant Professor at the Health Services Research Center, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and at the Departments of Medicine and Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.   She was the Medical Director for Johns Hopkins Hospice before joining Maryland Community Hospice as Associate Medical Director.   Johns Hopkins affiliated with Community Hospices in 2002.  

Dr. Dy teaches on end-of-life, hospice, and palliative care issues through Johns Hopkins Hospital and Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and co-teaches a course on Quality of Health Care.   Her research interests include improving quality, use of technology, and access to care for patients facing serious and terminal illnesses; quality of health care; and inner-city health care.
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Karlene Conrad
Director, Community Hospice of Virginia

Karlene Conrad has more than 26 years of healthcare management experience with nine years in mult-jurisdictional hospice programs. She received her nursing degree from Gloucester County College before attending the BSN Program at Widener University in Chester, PA.   She is a registered nurse in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.   Ms. Conrad has been specially trained in infusion therapy, oncology, coronary care, palliative care and pain management.

As Director of New Program Development, Ms. Conrad has served as contract liaison for clinical operations and Director of Hospice and Home Health of The Hospices of the National Capital Region, a local three-jurisdiction hospice serving a census of more than 625.   She also served as Director of Performance Improvement and Compliance.   She taught contract skills for marketing personnel as a member of the national sales training team.   She received the first Presidential Circle award on customer service and traveled to Japan to help her counterparts in that country begin services.

Ms. Conrad has participated and presented at the National Association of Homecare Annual Conference, the Annual Delaware Home Health Agency Conference and has been published in the CARING homecare magazine.
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