Ron Culberson began his career by serving people at the end of their lives as a home care social worker at Hospice of Northern Virginia (now Capital Caring). After several years, he became Manager of Counseling Services where he ultimately supervised a large department of social workers, chaplains, and bereavement counselors. Ron’s goal was to develop an excellent department of clinicians and to encourage his staff to find balance in the serious work they were doing.

Working with the National Hospice Organization, Ron led a team of social workers to develop national standards for social work in hospice care. These standards helped pave the way for high quality social work services for end of life care.

Ron eventually became the Director of Quality Service at Hospice of Northern Virginia. After being trained at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, he developed and managed the organization’s first quality improvement and customer service program. This effort was instrumental in training staff in customer service, implementing a process improvement program, and preparing the organization for accreditation.