VJ Periyakoil, MD, Professor of Medicine; Associate Dean of Research (Geriatrics and Palliative Care), Founding Director, the Stanford Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program and Founding Director, the Stanford Palliative Care Education & Training Program. Dr. Periyakoil served two terms as a standing member of the study section for the National Institute of Aging, National Institutes of Health. She has chaired study section meetings for NIH/NIA and NIH/CSR. She continues to serve as an adhoc member of the NIA and NIMHD study sections. Dr. Periyakoil is the Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Palliative Medicine, Associate Editor, of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and Associate Director of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. She is the Chair emerita of the Ethnogeriatrics Committee of the American Geriatrics Society, and was the founding Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Hospice & Palliative Medicine SEP Committee. She served as a Board member of the Council of Faculty and Societies, and founded and served as chair the Diversity Committee of the American Association of Medical Colleges. Her work is funded by grants from NIH, HRSA, foundations as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs. A nationally recognized leader in geriatrics and palliative care, Periyakoil founded and directs Stanford Aging, Geriatrics and Ethnogeriatrics Transdisciplinary Collaborative Research Center (SAGE Center) and mentors numerous junior faculty members. She founded and directs the Ethno-geriatrics & the Successful Aging Project (http://geriatrics.stanford.edu), the Palliative Care portal (http://palliative.stanford.edu), and the Letter Project (http://med.stanford.edu/letter.html).