Jennifer Ballentine knows the end-of-life world from a number of perspectives: as advocate, educator, and ethicist, and also as a hospice volunteer, hospice family member, hospice professional, and cancer survivor. 

She earned a Masters degree in End-of-Life Studies from Regis University with graduate honors and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College. She has published in the Senior Law Handbook of Colorado and the American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care. 

An expert on the end of life in Colorado, she has presented hundreds of programs to the public and professionals locally and at national conferences on advance care planning, advance directives, caregiving, hospice and palliative care, healthcare public policy, palliative sedation, multicultural and multispiritual issues at the end of life, and other topics. She has provided training in healthcare ethics committee formation and consultation for organizations across the state including hospitals, nursing facilities and rehab centers, hospices, and emergency medical services.

Past Director of Programs for the Colorado Center for Hospice and Palliative Care and Research Program Strategist for The Denver Hospice, she currently serves as Executive Director of Life Quality Institute, a statewide organization providing top-quality education in palliative care for healthcare students, professionals, and the community. In her previous life, she was cofounder and vice president of editorial services for Professional Book Center, over twenty years producing 600+ scientific and healthcare books in partnership with major publishers.

She is co-chair of the Colorado Advance Directives Consortium and, in that role, has had a major role in reshaping the Colorado Living Will, launching the Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment program, and revising the Colorado CPR Directive in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. She is a member of the Denver Community Bioethics Committee and the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization's Professional Education Committee, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Healthcare Ethics Forum.

Working with the media, Jennifer was the commentator on voluntary cessation of eating and drinking for Karen van Vuuren's feature film Dying Wish, host of Dennis Streetar's video Advance Directives and End-of-Life Decisionmaking, a panelist on the Hospice Foundation of America's national telecast "Living with Grief: Ethical Issues at the End of Life," on-air participant in the And Thou Shalt Honor townhall on caregiving, and the Denver organizer of community forums for the landmark PBS series On Our Own Terms: Bill Moyers on Dying.