About the Authors

Martha Henderson, nurse, educator and activist, was a pioneer in end-of-life care.  She attended Duke University where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1968 and her Masters of Science in Nursing in 1978.  She later attended Yale University where she earned a Master of Divinity and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, gaining her Doctor of Ministry. She also earned Family Nurse Practitioner and Geriatric Nurse Practitioner degrees from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, becoming the first geriatric nurse practitioner in North Carolina.

Martha's nursing career started at San Francisco General Hospital. In the early 70s she went to Vietnam as a volunteer with the United Methodist Committee on Overseas Relief, where she spent two years teaching nursing in Nha Trang. She went on to work at the VA Hospital in Durham, NC, at Carol Woods Retirement Community as the first director of in-patient nursing, and on the faculty of the UNC School of Medicine, Program on Aging, School of Nursing, and UNC Hospitals Ethics Committee. Martha’s passion as an ‘end-of-life facilitator’ was helping patients have a good death. She was a faculty scholar with the Soros Foundation’s Project on Death in America, sharing her expertise in advanced care planning.  As a tireless advocate for the elderly, she conducted workshops, trainings, and wrote scholarly articles, educating other care providers about end of life and palliative care.  Martha co-authored the book Improving Nursing Home Care of the Dying: A Training Manual for Nursing Home Staff.   

Martha was a committed member of Binkley Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, NC, where she was a deacon and choir member. With other church members, she helped re-locate a Vietnamese family to the Chapel Hill area.   Her nursing career took her across the globe as she created avenues to put her faith and skills into action. She taught nursing as a missionary to Loma Linda, Columbia, and also taught at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, where she provided medical care in the townships. Martha died in 2018 at the age of 73.