Jim Towey was a trusted advisor and personal friend of Mother Teresa of Calcutta for twelve years and did the first reading at her Mass of Canonization in Saint Peter’s Square. He has been pro bono legal counsel to the Missionaries of Charity for 39 years.

He previously headed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under George W. Bush for four years and served on his senior staff. His career spans the presidency of two Catholic colleges for thirteen years, a seven-year stint as a U.S. Senate staffer, and the leadership of Florida’s 40,000-employee health and human services agency. In 1996, with Mother Teresa’s encouragement, he founded the nonprofit advocacy organization Aging with Dignity and created the Five Wishes advance directive, which has sold over 40 million copies. He currently serves as the organization’s CEO.

Towey is the recipient of seven honorary doctorate degrees, including ones from Catholic University of America and Franciscan University. In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II awarded him a papal medal for distinguished service. He currently is a trustee of The Papal Foundation.

Towey authored, To Love and Be Loved: A Personal Portrait of Mother Teresa, published by Simon and Schuster (September 2022), which is now available in five languages. He and his wife, Mary, are donating the book’s royalties to charities affiliated with the saint’s work. Towey met his wife in Mother Teresa’s Washington, DC, AIDS home and married her in 1992. They have five children and four grandchildren and reside in Falls Church, Virginia.

Brochin is a partner of the Miami, Florida, office of Morgan Lewis.  He served as deputy general counsel to the governor of Florida and later as its inspector general.

Russell is certified in clinical pastoral care through Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Illinois, and is involved in elder care and hospice advocacy in her home state and southwest Florida.

Capretta holds the Milton Friedman Chair and is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, as well as a senior adviser to the Bipartisan Policy Center, both in Washington, D.C.

McElroy is the senior vice president of hospice services with Community Hospice & Palliative Care, Jacksonville, Florida, one of the nation’s largest non-profit hospice providers, where she has served since 2009.

Myles is the co-founder and executive director of Set Free addiction recovery services and the Set Free Indeed ministry in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Scalia serves as general counsel for Barton & Associates, Inc., a national health care staffing firm. He is based in its West Palm Beach, Florida, office.

Pamela Potter Ricco earned a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and a Master of Social Work Policy (MSW) from Florida State University in 1993.  While working for Florida’s Supreme Court Chief Justice, she met Jim Towey who had just been named Secretary of the then-Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services (HRS).  She joined Towey when he opened Aging with Dignity and became the organizations’ first staff member in 1995.  Ricco later returned to public service as Communications Director at FL Department of Health and then as Staff Director in the FL Senate.  In 2003, she joined the Florida Bankers Association where she spent 22 years as Chief Operating Officer.  In 2025, Ricco returned ‘home’ to Aging with Dignity as Chief Operating Officer.

Malley is president of Aging with Dignity and directs its day-to-day activities and oversees its education, research and training programs. He has served Aging with Dignity since 1998.

Jamie leads AWD’s advocacy efforts, to include developing strategic partnerships, leading Assisted Suicide Watch, and engaging with AWD’s community of customers, donors, and followers. He also heads up the organization’s Falls Church office. He is a former consultant at a big-four accounting firm after four-and-a-half years at the FBI. He holds an MBA from Oxford University and bachelor’s degrees in Arabic and Chinese languages from the University of Notre Dame.

Simison has served as Vice President of Operations since 2005 and manages the financial, information technology and sales order fulfillment activities.

Ed Towey is Aging with Dignity’s Vice President of Communications. Since 2008, he has been responsible for communications, media relations and website management.