Administration
Faye Mitchell joined NHH as Executive Director in 2024 after serving as Community Relations Manager since 2022. Born and raised in Kohala and a graduate of Parker School, Faye managed an in-home caregiving agency for five years, led workshops on dementia, and trained as an End of Life Doula. Her relationship with North Hawaii Hospice began 15 years ago as a Patient Care Volunteer and has now come full circle.
Patient and Family Care Services
Brittney Spivak, DO, serves as our Hospice Medical Director and directs the clinical care of all of our patients in coordination with our patients’ family physicians. Dr. Brittney Spivak originally hales from the shores of sunny South Florida. In 2010, she completed her pre-med track and undergraduate degree at the University of Florida (Go Gators!). In 2015, she received her medical degree from LECOM in Bradenton, Florida. Desiring a change in lifestyle and weather, she moved to Colorado in 2015 for her residency program at the University of Colorado Health Fort Collins Family Medicine Program. There, she honed in on her passion for acute inpatient and critical care, along with hospice and palliative care medicine. Although these areas of medicine seem dichotomous, Dr. Spivak feels they are intricately intertwined and ultimately embody two sides of the same coin. In 2010, the trajectory of Dr. Spivak’s life changed forever when she visited the Big Island for the first time in her life and hiked/camped the Muliwai the Trail. She completed her residency in 2018 and immediately moved to the Big Island. Since 2018, Dr. Spivak has served in our community as a hospitalist for North Hawaii Community Hospital and Hale Ho’ola Hamakua. In April 2024, she joined the North Hawaii Hospice team as our Medical Director and feels honored to be able to provide care for our community in this capacity. When not working in the hospital or at hospice, you can find her enjoying music, reading, camping, hiking, or diving.
Patient Care Delivery Team
Kaiki Gunderson-Cook, RN, was born on Oahu and moved to Waimea when she was three. She wanted to become a veterinarian and completed her bachelor’s in animal science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She worked as a vet tech before moving to New Zealand in 2008, hoping to attend veterinary school there. She moved back to Waimea and attended Hawaii Community College nursing school. After graduating from nursing school, she worked as a home health nurse for a year before joining our team as a Clinical Operations Manager/Case Manager in 2013. Kaiki enjoys being able to give back to the community.
Nina Millar, RN, has lived on Hawaii Island for more than thirty years. She became a registered nurse in 1990 after attending the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She is also a midwife, graduating from the Midwifery Program at the Maternity Center in Texas in 1983. Armed with this unusual combination of practices, which includes several years as a home health care nurse, Nina feels lucky to be present at both the beginning and the end of lives here in North Hawaii. Nina is an After-Hours Nurse for NHH.
Monica Newcomb, RN, BS, CHPN, joined our hospice team as a Nurse Case Manager in 2017. Monica moved to Hawaii Island from Poughkeepsie, New York, where she was working for Hudson Valley Hospice. Monica began her career getting a degree in biology from Syracuse University and then attended nursing school. She has worked in several capacities at various hospices for 17 years. She and her husband live in Waikoloa and are Hawaii Preparatory Academy parents.
Christine Richardson, RN, has served our hospice for many years as an On-Call Nurse, serving patients in North Kohala. She has lived and worked as a registered nurse on Hawaii Island for more than 20 years and was one of two nurses sponsored by NHH to go to Zimbabwe to work with our “sister hospice.”
Sandy Sproat, MSW, LSW, joined our hospice team as a Medical Social Worker in 2017. Sandy received her Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from Brigham Young University in Laie, Hawaii, and her Master of Social Work at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is a long-time resident of Hawaii Island and has also worked with kidney dialysis patients at Liberty Dialysis at North Hawaii Community Hospital. Prior to her social work career, she was an educational assistant at Waimea Middle School. Sandy has also worked at Hawaii Preparatory Academy and Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center.
