Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship

John Liantonio MD, MBA, HMDC, FAAHPM, FAAFP
Division Director 

Dr. Liantonio has been a part of Jefferson’s palliative care team since 2013. He graduated medical school from Ross University, completed his Family Medicine Residency at Hahnemnn/Drexel, Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at Jefferson and Hospice and Palliative Care Fellowship at Mount Sinai/Beth Israel. He completed his MBA at Temple University and BS at St. John’s University. 

Dr. Liantonio was the founding HPM Fellowship Director in 2018 and currently serves as Division Director for Palliative Care and the Jefferson Enterprise Lead for Palliative Care.

Clinical Interest: Dr. Liantonio is interested in caring for patients with serious illness across the continuum of care including hospital and ambulatory/home-based palliative care and hospice care. He has worked across multiple health systems affording him an understanding of what makes palliative care teams function. He is passionate about UME and GME programming to help bring primary palliative care to large numbers of people. Lastly, Dr. Liantonio has an interest in care in serious illness for the LGBTQIA+ community and has worked on multiple local, regional and national groups in advancing this work.

Personal Interests: Dr. Liantonio lives in Center City Philadelphia with his husband Nick and their terrier Max. They split their time between the city and the Jersey Shore where they enjoy the beaches of Asbury Park. Also, everything Philadelphia Eagles.

Gillian Love, MD
Program Director

Bio: Gillian attended Penn State University then came to Philadelphia to attend medical school at Jefferson and has stayed ever since.  At Jefferson she completed family medicine residency followed by fellowships in geriatric medicine then hospice and palliative medicine.

Clinical Interest:  Gillian is passionate about providing care for older adults and loves that palliative medicine often includes working with older adults.  She finds fulfillment in the critical role of palliative care to assist patients and families through complex situations.  Gillian attends on both the palliative care and geriatric medicine inpatient consult services and is working to expand outpatient palliative care at Jefferson.  She is also the Assistant Director for the Physician Shortage Area Program at Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

Personal Interest:  Outside of the hospital Gillian loves spending time with family and friends, traveling, and playing tennis.  Although she has lived in Philadelphia for a number of years, she is always excited to explore new restaurants and areas of the city.  

Zachary Klock, MD
Associate Program Director

Bio:  Dr. Klock grew up in Bucks County, PA.  He completed his medical training including medical school, Family Medicine residency where he served as Chief Resident, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship here at Jefferson.  He spent time working in both hospice and palliative medicine in New Jersey for several years before joining the faculty at Jefferson in 2025.

Clinical Interests: His clinical interests include caring for and supporting patients with serious illness and their families throughout the illness spectrum as an inpatient consult service attending.  His academic interests include medical education and teaching serious illness communication skills, humanism in medicine.

Personal Interests: He lives in South Philly and enjoys being a part of the Passyunk neighborhood - exploring restaurants with friends and family and tending to his plot in the community garden.  An avid runner and biker, he can often be found on the Schuylkill River Trail.

Kathleen "Katie" Mechler, MD

Bio: Dr. Mechler joined the Jefferson Palliative Medicine team in October 2016. She grew up in Phoenix, AZ but moved East for medical school at Georgetown and just keeps moving up and down the NE corridor despite saying she hates the cold/snow so much. DC was followed by NYC where she lived and worked in Queens at Jamaica Hospital for her Family Medicine and Hospice & Palliative Medicine training, and she stayed to work a few years as faculty in their fellowship program as well as overseeing population health & super-utilizer projects for their managed care population. Her husband’s job moved to Philly and she landed at Jefferson where she’s thrilled to work with such a talented and dedicated interprofessional team.

Clinical Interest:  Her clinical interests include underserved populations, patient education, communication, humanities and compassion in medicine, and medical education. She enjoys working with all Jefferson learners interested in serious illness care and communication.  

Personal Interest:  She enjoys doing home DIY projects to 90% completion, healthy cooking, gardening, and showing off pictures of her two kids. 

Margaret "Maggie" Kreher, MD

Bio: Dr. Kreher grew up in a small town in New York and attended SUNY Upstate in Syracuse for her medical degree.  She completed her internal medicine residency and chief residency at George Washington University in Washington, DC.  After her chief resident year Dr. Kreher went to Penn State Hershey Medical Center where she was an internist working in clinical and medical education and practicing in both the hospital and outpatient areas.  Through her work she developed an interest in improving the care of patients with serious complex illnesses.  She received further training through the Palliative Care Education and Practice program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA.  She became the medical director of the Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s Palliative Medicine program and oversaw its development from a small 2 physician team to a fully staffed interprofessional team, inclusive of a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine.  She transitioned to Jefferson to be part of a growing team and is happy to be a part of the team’s growth in outpatient care. 

Clinical/Academic Interests:   Dr. Kreher enjoys providing medical education for all levels of learners and particularly enjoys bedside teaching.  She is interested in improving the processes involved in complex medical decision making that seriously ill patients and families navigate. 

Personal Interests: Dr. Kreher enjoys evenings out with her family at the local BYOB restaurant especially when the weather is good for outdoor dining.  She is an avid paddleboarder and takes every opportunity to do so in season.    

Megan Pogue, MD

Bio: Megan attended the University of Notre Dame where she majored in Biological Sciences. Her medical training started at Georgetown University School of Medicine and was followed by residency in Internal Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she stayed to complete her Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship.

Clinical Interest:  Megan is the medical director of the non-oncology ambulatory palliative practice and provides care in multiple settings including clinic-based, home-based, and telemedicine. Her research interests are focused on providing palliative medicine for patients with non-cancer diagnoses, particularly surrounding models of care. 

Personal Interest:  Megan enjoys reading and is a member of multiple book clubs. She also enjoys trying new restaurants in Philadelphia as well as working on her own cooking skills at home. 

Dan Boron Brenner, DO

Dan attended medical school at ATSU - Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, MO before moving to Philadelphia to complete a residency in emergency medicine at Albert Einstein Medical Center in north Philly. He then completed a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and then stayed on as faculty in both the department of emergency medicine and the division of palliative care. He splits his time between downstairs (the ED) and upstairs (palliative care consults).

Clinical Interests - Dan is interested in interpretation of advance directives, acute pain and symptom management and the educational needs of trainees who are learning to care for patients with significant illness.

Personal Interests - Holding his children and learning how to do everything one-handed, exploring the Philadelphia food scene with his wife and dreaming of new countries to explore.