Julie Childers graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2005 and completed internal medicine residency at the University of Rochester. She returned to Pittsburgh for fellowship training in palliative care in 2009 and obtained a master’s degree in medical education in 2010. She began treating opioid use disorder in 2010, and in 2018 became board certified in Addiction Medicine. She is currently Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She attends on both the Palliative Care Consult Service and the Addiction Medicine Consult Service at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. Her outpatient practice is focused on substance use disorders, including a special program for individuals with palliative care needs. In 2020 she developed a new ACGME-accredited addiction medicine fellowship within the Division of General Internal Medicine, and currently serves as the fellowship director. She has written and taught nationally in the areas of teaching communication, motivational interviewing, medical ethics, and managing addiction in patients with serious illness. In 2020, she won the Hastings-Cunniff Dixon Award for mid-career physicians for her clinical, research, teaching and advocacy for individuals who suffer from both serious illness and substance use disorders.