Todd Becker, LMSW
Becker CV
Previous Education
MSW, University of Iowa
BA Spanish and French, University of Iowa
Areas of Scholarly Interest
Death anxiety
Medical aid in dying
Wish to hasten death
Palliative sedation
Grief
Background
Prior to joining the University of Maryland School of Social Work’s PhD program, Todd worked as a clinical social worker in a large academic teaching hospital. His areas of practice included inpatient upper abdominal transplant, inpatient cardiology, and outpatient clinics. These experiences shaped an awareness of how death informs the ways in which people engage with health systems. His dissertation research continues this line of inquiry by exploring attitudes toward medical aid in dying in hospice clinicians. Todd hopes that findings from his dissertation will inform practice and policy as medical aid in dying availability expands across the U.S.
Teaching Interests
Quantitative research methods
Quantitative data analysis
Death and dying
Selected Publications
Becker, T. D., & Cagle, J. G. (2021). Bereavement support services in a national sample of
hospices: A content analysis. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying. Advance online publication.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222821997602
Becker, T. D. (2021). Health care utilization as a predictor of death anxiety in older adults.
Death Studies, 46(3), 728–737. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1774942