Dr. Deborah Lafond is the Chief Executive Officer of PANDA Education Consultants, PLLC and was formerly the Clinical Director of the PANDA Palliative Care Team at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. She retired from her clinical practice with Children’s National in May 2020. She received her Doctorate of Nursing Practice from the University of Maryland, a Masters in Nursing from the University of Hawaii, and her Bachelor’s in Nursing from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Lafond has a background in pediatric oncology advanced practice nursing, most specifically neuro-oncology for 22 years. Dr. Lafond is a Sojourns Scholar in pediatric palliative care and presented on models of primary pediatric palliative care delivery at the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering. She is a national ELNEC trainer and a trainer for EPEC-Pediatric. Her interest of research is in primary pediatric palliative care and integrating these precepts into oncology practice.