Hospice & Palliative Medicine Faculty

All Hospice & Palliative Medicine faculty are board-certified and come from diverse backgrounds, including internal medicine, family medicine and geriatrics, and bring experiences from multiple health systems across the country. We look forward to working with you!

I am Casey Eckley, and I am an Inpatient Palliative Medicine clinician and the program director of the Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship here at Gundersen. I fell in love with Palliative Medicine after my geriatric’s rotation during my internal medicine residency. I have a passion for informed decision making and want to ensure that our patients understand the decisions they are making in their healthcare journey.

I was born and raised in the Midwest and my parents retired to Sparta, Wisconsin, so La Crosse feels like home to me. My family and I love the outdoors, and La Crosse has so much to offer including water activities on the Mississippi River, Bald Eagle watching and hiking the bluffs.

I choose to work at Gundersen as I feel that everyone on the interdisciplinary team works together to provide excellent patient care. Gundersen Health System is an organization where everyone matters, and everyone’s voice is heard. Gundersen is a learning institution with multiple learners including medical students, residents, fellows, pharmacy students and residents, a chaplain residency program and nursing students.

I am Larry Skendzel and I work as Gundersen Hospice Medical Director. I have been in La Crosse at Gundersen for 6 years now. My passions in hospice care include going out into the community most afternoons to be at the bedside for home visits, upgrading the hospice experience with options for massage therapy and therapeutic music, and educating volunteers, medical students and residents. I am board certified in hospice medical directing, as well as in hospice and palliative care and family medicine. We have a great team of RNs, social workers and chaplains as well as a caring and supportive intake staff to help us impact the community in an integrated and compassionate way. I took training at Harvard through Dr. Susan Block and Dr. Andy Billings as well as time learning from the Metta Institute on the West coast run by Frank Ostaseski, so I feel I have lots to give to motivated learners.

I love to cook and go to live music events and hike the amazing, mystical bluffs of this region. I am passionate about bringing the highest quality hospice experience possible to our whole community and to find ways to include people who are unsure about the services we provide. Gundersen Health System is committed to these same ideals and has been a great partner in furthering my experience and education over these years.  I am so thankful to be here! 

Palliative Medicine and Hospice drew me in early on. At first it was the sense of wonder and awe that permeates the experience of large transitions, like birth and death. To have found a field where my curiosity is never sated, where I can wallow in the deep muddy waters of existential questioning, where I can walk into a room where everyone else has said, “there’s nothing more I can do for you,” and say, “how can I help?” leads me to believe that I have made some very good choices in life, or have incredible luck, or both.   

Growing up in California and Massachusetts, I never thought much about Wisconsin, but now that I’m here, there is nowhere else I’d rather be. The Mississippi River, the bluffs on her banks, the ridges and coulees, the vibrant live music scene, the abundance of organic farms, the diverse welcoming communities sprinkled among little towns - I can’t decide what I like best about the La Crosse area!  

When I first heard about Gundersen, what stood out was the designation as the first energy independent hospital in the US. As I learned more, I was struck by the positivity and longevity of the staff here; people work here for their entire careers! As a clinician-led organization, we have leaders at every level who understand what it is like to care for patients at the bedside, who are receptive to ideas proposed by staff at every level. I am continually grateful to be surrounded by smart, dedicated colleagues who care as much about the work as I do.   

My background in integrative medicine, and my training as an osteopathic physician inform my perspective and practice in the hospital. Teaching is also one of my great passions, along with music, nature, silly action movies, parenting two fabulous young adults (yeah, it never ends), audiobooks and long chats with good friends, to name a few. One of the best things about my job is that I get to be myself, connect with other humans in very real ways and be of service to them every day.