Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, FACP is the Provost, Center for Palliative Studies at San Diego Hospice & Palliative Care, a teaching and research affiliate of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, University of San Diego and San Diego State University.

• an established investigator of the National Cancer Institute
• Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Palliative Medicine
• Chairman, Test Committee, Hospice & Palliative Medicine, American Board of Medical Specialties
• Director of the largest fellowship program in palliative medicine in the US
• Medical Director of the Doris A. Howell Service, a palliative care consultation service at UCSD Health Care
• An expert for the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) on developing hospital-based palliative care programs
• Immediate Past President of the American Association for Cancer Education

He has been particularly interested in the integration of hospice and palliative care into academic medicine. He has published and spoken widely on the subjects of hospice, palliative medicine, and pain and symptom control.

Dr. von Gunten received a Bachelor of Arts Degree with honors from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island in 1978. He earned a PhD in Biochemistry and an MD degree with honors from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Denver, Colorado in 1988.

He subsequently pursued residency training in Internal Medicine followed by subspecialty training in Hematology/Oncology at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University in Chicago.
He joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Medical School until 1999 where he directed programs in hospice and palliative care, education and research.

He currently holds the academic rank of Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Diego where he is a member of the NIH-designated Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center and directs the palliative medicine consultation service.