Billy Rosa, PhD, MBE, APRN, FAANP, FAAN
Dr. Rosa is an Assistant Attending Behavioral Scientist, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, USA and a palliative care nurse practitioner by background. He received his PhD and Master of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania, completed MSK’s Hospice & Palliative Medicine Interdisciplinary Clinical Fellowship, and served as Chief Fellow of MSK’s NIH/NCI T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Psychosocial, Palliative, and Community Research in Cancer. As a Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar and Robert Wood Johnson Harold Amos Scholar, Dr. Rosa leads and collaborates on multiple streams of research related to palliative care access disparities, cancer pain, serious illness communication, and palliative care intervention development. He is the editor of five books and has contributed more than 300 academic publications in journals and texts. He is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Psycho-Oncology and Associate Editor for Nursing for the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
Dr. Rosa has contributed to several national and international palliative care research, policy, and translational initiatives. He has served on expert panels for the 2024 ASCO palliative care guideline update, 2024 World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) and World Health Organization (WHO) report, Palliative care: How can we respond to 10 years of limited progress?, and was a contributing author to the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief empirical update. He was a writing committee member for the Lancet Breast Cancer Commission report, a Commissioner on the Lancet Oncology Commission on the Human Crisis in Cancer, a collaborator on the Lancet Commission on Cancer and Health Systems, and is Co-Chair of the Lancet Respiratory Medicine Commission on Palliative Care Integration in Serous Respiratory Illness. Dr. Rosa is currently on the expert panel for the ASCO resource-stratified guideline update and the 5th edition of the National Consensus Project Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care.
He has received dozens of local, national, and global distinctions, including the 2022 IAHPC Individual Recognition Award (high-income country category) and the 2025 Kim Mo-Im Policy Innovation and Impact Award from the International Council of Nurses. In 2024, he was recognized as a Visionary in Hospice & Palliative Care by the American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine and in 2026 will receive the Oncology Nursing Society Distinguished Award for Consistent Contribution to Nursing Literature. Dr. Rosa is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Hospice & Palliative Nursing Association, and New York Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Rosa joined IAHPC in 2020 and is a lifetime member. He briefly served as the IAHPC Advocacy Focal Point for the USA (2020-2021) and was a part of the virtual 2021 delegation to the WHO Executive Board 148th Session.
Dr. Rosa enjoys walking his black labrador, Ellis, exercising, and travel with friends and loved ones.
More information, bibliography, CV, social media profiles, or connect.