Suzanne Hilton Smith - Biography

Suzanne Hilton Smith has been Chaplain at Martha Jefferson Hospital since 1993. Her primary role is as Chaplain for the Cancer Center, where she provides counseling services and spiritual support for patients and families and conducts numerous support groups.  Additionally, she provides spiritual care throughout the hospital, serves on the Biomedical Ethics Committee, and is an educator in ethics and advance care planning.  She speaks frequently in the areas of adjustment to illness; listening and communication skills; religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity in health care; biomedical ethics, ethical decision making and advance care planning; and palliative and end-of-life care.

Her professional associations include being a Clinical Member of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, a fellow of the Center for Biomedical Ethics, and chair of the Central Virginia Palliative Care Initiative.  With Mary Alice Gunter, she is co-author of What Can I Say? What Can I Do? Suggestions for Helping Friends and Loved Ones Facing Serious Illness.

Suzanne holds degrees from Towson State University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  She trained in Chaplaincy/Clinical Pastoral Education at the University of Virginia and is certified as both facilitator and instructor in the Respecting Choices Advance Care Planning program of Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center.  She is an ordained Baptist minister.