Terry was promoted to Associate Professor-in-Residence effective August, 2025!

Terry Berthelot joined the HDFS Department in 2016. Her research and advocacy efforts are primarily about access to healthcare for people who are sixty-five and older and for people living with disabilities. She received her master’s degree in social work (MSW) from Syracuse University after which she worked as a community developer within Syracuse’s Economic Development Zone. She then moved to Mississippi, where she directed a Joint Commission Accredited hospice program. Finding herself fascinated by the legal and ethical questions surrounding death and dying, Terry pursued her law degree at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). While at Ole Miss, she participated in post-conviction death penalty mitigation appeals. After graduating from law school, she joined the Center for Medicare Advocacy (CMA), a national not-for-profit law firm that, through education and advocacy, works to ensure that people who are sixty-five and older and people with disabilities have access to excellent healthcare and insurance coverage for that care. Terry is currently a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys’ (NAELA) Board of Directors and is on the editorial board for NAELA News. She and her spouse have a remarkable teen-age daughter and a reasonably well behaved three-year-old dog. They spend as much time as they can cruising their sailboat, Finisterre.