President of Compassion & Choices, Barbara Coombs Lee, was a graduate of the Cornell University School of Nursing’s Class of 1970. After graduating from Cornell, Coombs Lee was a practicing ER and ICU nurse and physician assistant for 25 years, after which she began a career in law and health policy. In 1996 Coombs Lee became President of Compassion & Choices, a role she stills holds today. The non-profit organization is devoted to expanding and protecting health care options for terminally ill patients.
Coombs Lee’s professional life was dedicated to individual empowerment and choice in health care. Her stint in law and health policy was as a private attorney, counsel to the Oregon State Senate, managed care executive, and coauthor of the 1994 Oregon Death with Dignity Act. The Act was the nation’s first law authorizing qualified mentally capable, terminally ill adults to make the decision to take prescription medication to die peacefully in their sleep if their suffering reaches an unbearable point.
Passing of the Death with Dignity Act in Oregon led to more open conversation and evaluation of end-of-life options nationwide. Physicians have been given training in more appropriate palliative care and made efforts to reduce barriers to access to hospice care. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act became a model for similar laws in California, Washington, and Vermont, and legislation in Washington DC, New York, and 25 other states.
Cornell’s Distinguished Alumni Award criteria include a record of achievement in nursing practice, service, education, research, and teaching; and significant professional contributions in publishing, lecturing, and program participation beyond job requirements, original research, and clinical studies that have led to improved patient care.
Coombs Lee is grateful to Cornell for receiving the award and joining the ranks of many distinguished recipients. She credits Cornell as the place where she became a nurse in head and heart, shaping her nursing career in its entirety, far past her education at Cornell. Before nursing school, Coombs Lee had experienced little to no serious illness or death, which came to be the focus of her professional life, opening up the conversation about end-of-life options and appropriate care for terminal patients nationwide.
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