THE ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL OF WINSTON-SALEM, INC.

The Winston-Salem Estate Planning Council invites you to Forsyth Country Club for dinner along with a discussion on Recognizing Diminished Decision-Making Capacity/Advanced Care Planning: Research & Practical Insights. Dr. Jeff D. Williamson and Dr. Jennifer Gabbard will be our distinguished speakers. 

Dr. Jeff D. Williamson – Recognizing Diminished Decision‑Making Capacity
Dr. Williamson will highlight practical indicators that a client may be losing the capacity to make informed financial or legal decisions, including:

• Early behavioral and communication cues
• Approaching sensitive conversations with clients/families
• When to involve clinicians or additional support

Dr. Jennifer Gabbard – Advanced Care Planning: Research & Practical Insights
Dr. Gabbard will share research on how early advanced care planning supports estate and financial planning, including:

• Benefits of early care‑planning conversations
• Helping clients align medical wishes with legal/financial plans
• Insights from her current serious‑illness and palliative care research

Please be sure to bring your name tags and business cards.

Attendance is free for EPC members.  Please note that guest fees for this event are $50/guest.

Attire - Business/Business Casual

RSVP Deadline - Friday, April 10th at 5 p.m. EST

Speaker Bios:

Jeff D. Williamson, MD, MHS, is Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of the Section on Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He also serves as Director of the Wake Forest Center for Healthcare Innovation. Dr. Williamson is a geriatrician and epidemiologist with faculty appointments in Internal Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Neurology. He is Associate Director of the Wake Forest Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) and Co-Leader of the ADRC Clinical Core.

Dr. Williamson previously served as Co-Leader of Wake Forest’s Claude Pepper Clinical Research Core and currently co-leads the Coordinating Center for the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Pepper Centers Program. He is an internationally recognized multicenter clinical trialist whose primary research focuses on the effects of chronic disease treatments—including hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia—on the maintenance of cognitive and physical function.

Dr. Williamson has served as Coordinating Center Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on several major NIH- and NIA-funded clinical trials, including SPRINT-MIND, LIFE, ACCORD, and GEM. He is also one of four Principal Investigators on PREVENTABLE (U19AG065188), a large pragmatic randomized trial examining the effects of statin therapy on physical disability, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia. In addition, Dr. Williamson served as Principal Investigator for the Wake Forest field center of the D-CARE trial and is a Multiple Principal Investigator for MindCare 365, a primary care–based model for screening and treatment of early cognitive impairment.

A dedicated mentor, Dr. Williamson has guided trainees at all levels, from students to junior faculty. Collectively, his NIH-funded research has involved more than 50,000 adults over age 65, including over 20,000 individuals age 75 and older.

Jennifer Gabbard, MD is an Associate Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine and serves as Director of the Serious Illness and Palliative Medicine Research Program. She is a board-certified internist, geriatrician, and hospice and palliative medicine physician, with specialized expertise in caring for older adults with serious illness, frailty, cognitive impairment, and advanced cancer.

Dr. Gabbard completed her training in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine at the University of Arizona, followed by a clinician-educator fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on implementing non-pharmacologic geriatric and palliative care interventions to improve quality of life, advance care planning, and decision-making, including the use of telehealth and health technology. She is funded by the NIH and the Duke Endowment and has authored numerous publications and educational resources in geriatrics and palliative care.