A Voice for Transforming the Health Care Experience

Charity on Stage at STIR 2016

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick
1983 – 2019

At The Experience Lab, we are fortunate to convene and partner with some of the most visionary, courageous, and inspiring people who help to imagine a new future for health care. These provocateurs come from inside and outside of the industry–big thinkers, innovators, artists, scientists, and experts of all kinds–sharing their wisdom, passion, and expertise with our collective of health care executives who are boldly leading the industry in making health care better.

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick, acclaimed soprano, author, speaker, and two-time double lung transplant recipient was part of The Experience Lab brain (and heart) trust from inception. She eagerly shared her wisdom, passion, and clarion call for a more human health care Experience with Experience Lab Partners. From the STIR stage at the Guggenheim Museum and the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center, and as guest faculty for Inside Out –the National Experience Transformation Collaborative –Charity reminded us time and again that our patients are our greatest teachers.

A uniting force for the industry, Charity had a magnetic ability to bring people together. In her most recent address to our collaborative of visionary health care executives on the theme of LOVING, Charity shared the breadth and depth of her journey and highlighted the struggles we may face as patients and caregivers. She gave voice to the need for love to inform our care and interactions and how the Experience is central to everything that happens.

“Outcomes are important, but in some ways it’s more important for patients to feel heard, seen, and valued. We can’t be everything to every patient. And if we try, we will fail. Yet we can be exactly what a patient needs in the moments we are with them,” said Charity.

On April 23, Charity passed peacefully with her family at her side and sunshine on her face. Her family announced her death on Facebook, writing, “In this moment, the world is dark. But Charity’s rays extend far beyond her tragic finale on this earth stage. Her light continues to illuminate the hearts of thousands and, in that way, Charity is with us always.”

We are better for our time in Charity’s light and will continue to amplify her beautiful voice on our never-ending quest to make the health care Experience the best it can be for everyone.

We invite you to enjoy the magic of Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick and the impromptu closing performance she orchestrated at STIR 2016: What do you get when you combine cello, percussion, soulful singer, poet, dancers, and soprano as the improvisational finale at a most remarkable gathering? Radiant Sunshine.