Navigating personal and collective pain through creativity and connection.
Part conference, part retreat, co-created by Reimagine’s community of leading creatives, clinicians, grief experts, spiritual teachers, scientists, and community leaders.
What to expect
The gathering
In a time of mounting personal and collective grief, uncertainty, and global disruption, Reimagine invites you to come together and explore how we might face loss with courage and turn our pain into purpose.
This free half-day summit is co-created with our community of creatives, practitioners, and storytellers. Expect storytelling, ritual, music, guided reflection, and evidence-based tools to help you process grief of every kind and begin imagining new possibilities for healing, connection, and growth.
This gathering also marks the beta launch of Reimagine’s Growth Journey Platform, a healthier, more human digital space for healing and growth. Our goal is to bring it to communities everywhere, so fewer people navigate life’s hardest moments alone.
WatchWhat is Reimagine?
Thursday, October 15, 2026
10 AM–3 PM PT
Held online. Join from anywhere in the world.
Free to attend, donations welcome. Thousands expected to gather.
The journey begins
The day
The schedule
A half-day together, held in two tracks. Come for what calls to you; every session is recorded so nothing is lost if you need to step away. Here is how the hours unfold.
10/15/2026 10:00
We begin the Summit with a welcome from Reimagine's board chair Corey L. Kennard and co-founder and Executive Director Brad Wolfe. The opening includes candle lighting, music, the presentation of an altar, and the setting of intentions and community touchstones. Please bring candles, matches, or a lighter.
10/15/2026 11:00
Grief expert and death doula Sundari Malcolm guides us through a grounding breathwork and meditation practice that invites us to simply be with grief. Not to fix it. Not to find meaning in it. Just to acknowledge it with presence, compassion, and care. Together, we'll use the breath to settle the body, balance the nervous system, and create space for all that is present. This is an invitation to slow down, turn inward, and discover that sometimes what we need most in our loss is gently allowing ourselves to be exactly where we are.
Sundari Malcolm is a Birth, Grief & Death Doula, Spiritual Guide, author of *Grief Gems*, and the Founder of **A Healing Doula Academy**, an international educational platform training the next generation of spiritually rooted Grief & Death Doulas. With over 17 years of professional experience guiding yoga, breathwork, meditation, holistic health education, grief, and end-of-life care, Sundari's work bridges evidence-informed practice with ancient healing traditions. Her path into this work was shaped by profound personal loss, including the deaths of both of her parents to cancer after serving as a caregiver, experiences that continue to inform her compassionate, embodied approach to supporting others through grief, dying, and life's most transformative transitions.
IG: sundaribliss AND ahealingdoulaacademy
10/15/2026 11:00
What does it mean to keep loving someone after they're gone? How do we continue living when loss changes everything? Join writer and theater director Colin Campbell, award-winning author Kelly Cervantes, and Broadway actor Miguel Cervantes for an intimate conversation about grief as an enduring expression of love.
In addition, Ezekiel Goodwin – in conversation with Dara Kosberg – shares the project that resulted from his participation in Reimagine’s Growth Journey Platform.
Drawing from their own experiences of profound bereavement, they'll explore how memory, community, creativity, and ritual can help us navigate life's most difficult seasons. Although their stories emerge from the loss of a child, this conversation is for anyone carrying grief— for a loved one, a relationship, or the life they once imagined.
KELLY CERVANTES is an award-winning writer, speaker, and advocate known for her blog Inchstones, and USA Today bestselling books, Normal Broken: The Grief Companion for When It’s Time to Heal But You’re Not Sure You Want To and The Luckiest: A memoir of Loe, Loss, Motherhood, and the Pursuit of Self. She has been published in the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, and Fortune as well as featured on MSNBC, NY Times, and CNN. She sits on the boards of CURE Epilepsy and The Undiagnosed Diseases Network Foundation and hosts CURE Epilepsy’s podcast, Seizing Life. Born and raised in the Midwest, Kelly resides in Maplewood, NJ, with her family.
Facebook & Instagram @kellygc411
MIGUEL CERVANTES wrapped up his time playing Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway and Chicago productions after almost eight years and 2013 performances. Other Broadway credits include IF/THEN, AMERICAN IDIOT, and 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. TV credits include PERSON OF INTEREST, BRAINDEAD, MADAME SECRETARY, ROYAL PAINS, THE BLACKLIST, and ALL MY CHILDREN. Miguel grew up in Dallas, TX, and received a BFA in Musical Theater from Emerson College. His favorite roles have been "Daddy" to Jackson, Anessa, Adelaide, and husband to superhero wife Kelly.
Instagram: @mig.cervantes Facebook: @mig.a.cervantes
Colin Campbell teaches Theater and Filmmaking at Cal Poly Pomona University. His book, Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose was published by Penguin Random House in 2023. His solo show, Grief: A One Man ShitShow premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and ModernLoss.com. He is on the national board of directors for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Instagram @colincampbellwriter
KELLY CERVANTES is an award-winning writer, speaker, and advocate known for her blog Inchstones, and USA Today bestselling books, Normal Broken: The Grief Companion for When It’s Time to Heal But You’re Not Sure You Want To and The Luckiest: A memoir of Loe, Loss, Motherhood, and the Pursuit of Self. She has been published in the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, and Fortune as well as featured on MSNBC, NY Times, and CNN. She sits on the boards of CURE Epilepsy and The Undiagnosed Diseases Network Foundation and hosts CURE Epilepsy’s podcast, Seizing Life. Born and raised in the Midwest, Kelly resides in Maplewood, NJ, with her family.
Facebook & Instagram @kellygc411
MIGUEL CERVANTES wrapped up his time playing Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway and Chicago productions after almost eight years and 2013 performances. Other Broadway credits include IF/THEN, AMERICAN IDIOT, and 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. TV credits include PERSON OF INTEREST, BRAINDEAD, MADAME SECRETARY, ROYAL PAINS, THE BLACKLIST, and ALL MY CHILDREN. Miguel grew up in Dallas, TX, and received a BFA in Musical Theater from Emerson College. His favorite roles have been "Daddy" to Jackson, Anessa, Adelaide, and husband to superhero wife Kelly.
Instagram: @mig.cervantes Facebook: @mig.a.cervantes
Dara is Senior Director of Programming and a Founding Team Member at Reimagine. With over 20 years designing programs, including those at the intersection of grief, community, and the arts, she currently leads Reimagine’s post-traumatic growth group pathway program. She co-produced Reimagine End of Life, city-wide arts festivals exploring death and celebrating life, in San Francisco, NYC, and Los Angeles. Dara got her start as a founding team member of The Dinner Party, a nationwide community for grieving young adults where she built initiatives for supportive workplace cultures around loss. She’s also a storyteller and stand-up comedian who’s produced grief-themed comedy shows in SF and NYC. MA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education.
@darakosberg
10/15/2026 11:00
Hear Reimagine's origin story through both an experiential and clinical lens. The stories that led to Reimagine: a cultural movement to make space to talk about death, dying, and loss. How post-traumatic growth research has informed the work, and where it falls short as a theory of grief on its own. Widening the lens to the collective, to relational healing, through a new framework: Kind Grief. And the platform itself: what it is, how it helps people, and what early pilots are showing.
10/15/2026 11:00
Musician and art therapist Katie Down invites participants into an experiential workshop that uses sound, musical instruments, and – believe it or not – a rubber chicken to support nervous system regulation and emotional well-being. Through guided somatic listening, vocal toning, restorative movement, you'll explore ways of listening deeply with your whole body—cultivating awareness of yourself, others, and the natural world. Along the way, Katie will introduce simple practices for self-regulation that can help release emotion, restore a sense of calm, and foster deeper connection long after the workshop ends.
Katie Down, LCAT, MT-BC, MMT, MM, is a licensed creative arts therapist with post-graduate certifications from the Trauma Studies Program at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, EMDR with Laurel Parnell, MBSR at Shambala Meditation Center, Deep Listening® with the Deep Listening Institute at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Trauma- Informed Sandplay Therapy with Lucy Barbera and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy with Journey Clinical. She introduces somatic practices, mindfulness, and creative inquiry for self-expression and wellbeing where clients can experience true self-acceptance and unconditional positive regard, the release of emotional stressors related to trauma, a deeper connection to the self and others, and insight into personal integrity and purpose.
IG: @theheartoflistening
10/15/2026 11:00
The death of someone we love changes us. It reshapes our identity, challenges our assumptions about the world, and often leaves us carrying stories we don't know how to name. In this interactive presentation and conversation, we'll explore the stories that emerge through bereavement: the stories we inherit about grief ("be strong," "time heals all wounds," "move on"), the stories we tell ourselves after loss about guilt, identity, love, and what comes next, and the stories we choose to carry forward as we remember, honor, and continue living. Drawing from her lived experience as a bereaved sibling, her work as a speaker, writer, and award-winning podcast host, and years of facilitating conversations about loss, facilitator Nina Rodriguez holds a compassionate space for reflection, storytelling, and connection.
Nina Rodriguez is a speaker, writer, grief-informed guide, and the founder and host of the award-winning Grief and Light™ podcast, where she has facilitated more than 120 conversations exploring grief, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. Since the death of her only sibling in 2019, she has guided conversations and created spaces for thousands of people navigating grief and life-altering change. Through storytelling, community building, and grief-informed education, Nina helps people feel seen, supported, and less alone. She believes grief fluency is a life skill and that learning to grieve well expands our capacity to live well.
@griefandlight on Instagram Facebook Threads YouTube and Substack. @itsnrodriguez for my public Instagram account.
10/15/2026 11:00
Not every loss begins with a death. Friendships fade, families become estranged, partnerships end, trust is broken, and sometimes the people we love are still here but no longer accessible in the ways they once were. Join therapist and author Gina Moffa and grief educator Stephanie Sarazin for a conversation about the many forms of relationship loss that often go unnamed. Together we'll explore ambiguous grief, changing identities, and how we can honor these experiences with greater compassion, resilience, and hope. Because even when relationships change, our capacity for healing and connection remains.
Stephanie Sarazin is an award-winning author, Certified Grief Educator, and speaker whose work explores ritual, grief, resilience, and human connection. She is the author of Soulbroken: A Guidebook for Your Journey Through Ambiguous Grief and the forthcoming Little Book of Rituals series from Sourcebooks. Drawing on graduate training in public policy from the University of Chicago, more than 15 years of nonprofit leadership, and extensive research into the science and history of ritual, Stephanie helps audiences discover practical ways to navigate change, cultivate hope, and find meaning through everyday practices. She lives in North Carolina.
Instagram @Stephing_Thru LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniesarazin/
Gina Moffa, LCSW is a licensed grief and trauma therapist with over twenty-two years of experience helping people navigate loss, grief, trauma, and the complex emotional terrain of their closest relationships. In private practice in New York City, she's worked with individuals across nonprofits, hospitals, and private settings, bringing clinical expertise and compassion to some of the hardest moments of people's lives. Trained in multiple modalities, she works with the whole person ― mind and body both. Her award-winning first book, Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting Go (Hachette, 2023), established her as a trusted voice in the grief space and sparked a national and international conversation about what we are allowed to mourn. She’s been quoted in Forbes, TIME, the New
@ginamoffalcsw
10/15/2026 11:00
11:00 AM - 11:40 AM PT
Drop-in peer support, a quiet reflection space, and the altar. Facilitator TBD.
Kristabeth Atwood believes that some of life's most meaningful moments cannot be fixed, only companioned. A spiritual director, certified grief and bereavement specialist, celebrant, and former pastor, she creates welcoming spaces where people can explore grief, transition, and life's big questions with curiosity, compassion, and authenticity. Through her Vermont practice, Rites of Passage, she offers spiritual companionship, workshops, and ceremonies for people of all beliefs and backgrounds. Her work invites people to reconnect with themselves, one another, and the sacred through presence, reflection, and genuine conversation.
10/15/2026 11:40
Featuring “Hamilton” actor and epilepsy research advocate Miguel Cervantes
MIGUEL CERVANTES wrapped up his time playing Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway and Chicago productions after almost eight years and 2013 performances. Other Broadway credits include IF/THEN, AMERICAN IDIOT, and 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. TV credits include PERSON OF INTEREST, BRAINDEAD, MADAME SECRETARY, ROYAL PAINS, THE BLACKLIST, and ALL MY CHILDREN. Miguel grew up in Dallas, TX, and received a BFA in Musical Theater from Emerson College. His favorite roles have been "Daddy" to Jackson, Anessa, Adelaide, and husband to superhero wife Kelly.
Instagram: @mig.cervantes Facebook: @mig.a.cervantes
10/15/2026 11:50
Our bodies carry our stories—and when illness, disability, or unexpected health changes alter the course of our lives, they can also transform how we understand ourselves. This conversation explores the many ways health challenges reshape identity, relationships, purpose, and the experience of grief, whether we are living with illness ourselves or caring for someone we love.
Moderated by breast cancer survivor and grief educator Lisa Keefauver, this session brings together television host, producer, and podcaster Keltie Knight and author Marisa Renee Lee for an honest conversation about the losses that often go unnamed. Keltie reflects on the profound grief that emerged after an unexpected hysterectomy in her forties—a loss that challenged her sense of self even though she had long known she did not want children. Marisa draws from her new book Waiting for Dawn to share her experience navigating Long COVID and the uncertainty, identity shifts, and resilience that accompany chronic illness.
In addition, Laureen Wysocki – in conversation with Dara Kosberg – shares the project that resulted from her participation in Reimagine’s Growth Journey Platform.
Together, these stories invite us to consider how illness can change not only our bodies, but also our understanding of who we are—and how creativity, connection, and community can help us navigate the path forward.
Laureen spent a decade caring for her husband who was diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia at the age of 52. Facing extended ambiguous loss, then life without him have been the biggest challenges of her life. Her aim is to obtain meaning and purpose by being witness to and accompanying others as they go through their own experiences with grief and loss. On the first anniversary of her husband‘s death, she and her family visited their birth homes, church (where they met), her husband‘s dental office, the bar where they reacquainted in adulthood, their favorite pizza place and the cemetery. They culminated the weekend with a Chicago White Sox versus Chicago Cubs game.
https://www.facebook.com/laureen74
10/15/2026 11:50
Learn about ways to get involved as a Reimagine Collaborator or partner with us to develop a pathway on our online growth platform. Reimagine Collaborators produce and host their own events and experiences, contribute to our blog, and share their resources.
More information at www.letsreimagine.org/collaborate
Deb Gardner, MEd, is Head of Partnerships and Growth at Reimagine, leading strategy across partnerships, business development, and platform innovation. A long time educator of 20 years, Deb has developed internationally renowned embodied trauma-informed learning experiences for medical and mental health professionals. She led education at Beckley Academy, building a certification in psychedelic-assisted therapy and publishing a national competency framework presented at the APA. She spent a decade as Director of Education at Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, training 10,000 clinicians in 14 countries. A former classroom teacher of neurodiverse students, she is passionate about accessible education. She runs Learning Matters, an instructional design consultancy.
Andy leads the production of online events and experiences at Reimagine and supports the organization’s network of Collaborators. He has been working in arts, culture, and community engagement for over twenty years as a curator, scholar, writer, performer, and producer. With a background in theater and museum studies, Andy has organized exhibitions and public programs for Reimagine, The Brooklyn Museum, University Art Museum (Albany), The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and other cultural institutions. His project Warlé manifests the lives of his gay ancestors in order to encourage others to explore their queer ancestry and to generate conversations about how we care for LGBTQ+ elders and refugees today. www.warleinc.com
https://www.facebook.com/zydek IG @warleinc
10/15/2026 11:50
Larissa Velez-Jackson – choreographer, cancer survivor, yoga and fitness instructor, and occasional DJ – fuses user-friendly dance and touch-based exercises, breath, and expression in motion with uplifting music from all different decades and corners of the globe. She has woven together free dance, movement meditations and creative play to broaden the sense of oneself physically and emotionally, while fostering a sense of community connection and belonging. The class is structured to gently accommodate all ages and levels of ability including those identifying with disability or illness.
Larissa Velez-Jackson is a NY-based choreographer, multidisciplinary artist and movement educator of Boriqua-Italian descent who developed an improvisation performance practice called the Star Pû Method. Called “an adroit physical comedian” who “seems to be questioning entrenched conventions of contemporary performance” in The New York Times, LVJ’s work involves movement, sound, storytelling and intergenerational community practice. In 2016, LVJ was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and was a Caroline Hearst Choreographic Fellow at Princeton University from ’20-’21. As an ongoing blood cancer survivor since 2019, LVJ is an advocate of the healing potential of art and body/mind practice.
Instagram: @lareesa_lvj
10/15/2026 11:50
LaUra Schmidt, founding director of Good Grief Network & author of How to Live in a Chaotic Climate, leads a workshop that uses somatics and journaling to metabolize collective grief, eco-distress, and other heavy emotions that arise in response to daunting planetary crises.
LaUra Schmidt is the founding director of Good Grief Network. She is a truth seeker, community builder, program designer, grief explorer, and facilitator. She is a lifelong student, curator, and practitioner of personal and collective resilience strategies. She is the lead author in How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet and graduated with a BS in Environmental Studies, Biology, and Religious Studies with a focus in Buddhism. Her MS is in Environmental Humanities. LaUra earned certificates in “Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy” and “Climate Psychology.”
IG: @HowtoLiveinaChaoticClimate @GoodGriefNetwork FB: @GoodGriefNetwork
10/15/2026 11:50
In times of significant political upheaval, we often find ourselves carrying emotions that need witnessing and care. Led by death doula Katie Cooper, this conversation offers a sanctuary for processing the feelings that arise when living through challenging times—whether that's grief, anxiety, overwhelm, or the deep tiredness that comes from witnessing threats to our shared values. This is a space to be together and to regenerate together. This is not a space for political strategy, debate, or analysis. Instead, we gather to honor our emotional responses to the world around us, to create community where isolation once existed, and to find renewal through authentic connection.
Katie Louise Cooper is a death doula and mortality wellness and grief practitioner, and the founder of BrightMortal. She holds an MA in East-West Psychology and a Certificate in Spiritual Counseling from CIIS, and a Death Doula Certification from DDLA. Before this work, Katie spent over a decade in contemporary art, serving as Co-Director of Pioneer Works and Director of The Laundry. She brings that same devotion to presence and meaning-making into her work with the dying and grieving, offering one-on-one coaching, death doula care, and group programs including Circle of Presence, a political grief support group, and Mere Mortals: Touching the Tenderness. Katie believes that facing mortality is not a privilege reserved for a few, but a birthright for all.
Insta: @katie_louise_cooper_
10/15/2026 11:50
As artificial intelligence reshapes our work, relationships, creativity, and sense of self, many of us are grappling with a new kind of grief—one rooted in uncertainty about what it means to be human. Writer Meghan O'Gieblyn joins Jonathan Lipps for a thought-provoking conversation about technology, spirituality, and the existential questions at the heart of the AI revolution. Drawing on her acclaimed book God, Human, Animal, Machine and her new work, Will and Attention, they'll explore how AI is changing not only the world around us, but our understanding of consciousness, purpose,, and what we stand to lose—or discover.
Jonathan Lipps is an American-Canadian technologist and musician, hailing from Vancouver, BC. After spending most of his career developing software and leading teams for tech startups, he currently works as a Principal Software Engineer for Sony's PlayStation console team. Jonathan also has an academic background in philosophy (MA Stanford), linguistics (MPhil Oxford), and theology (ThM Regent College). In addition he writes and performs for various indie music projects (Splendour Hyaline, Gol Olímpico, Anachronists). Always trying to explore the intersection of these pursuits, Jonathan enjoys thinking about the arts, philosophy, theology, and technology.
@jlipps.com (bluesky)
@jonathanlipps.music (instagram)
10/15/2026 11:50
11:50 AM - 12:20 PM PT
Drop-in peer support, a quiet reflection space, and the altar. Facilitator TBD.
Since 1987, I have walked alongside thousands of people navigating the tender journeys of end-of-life planning and grief. My work as a hospice volunteer, chaplain, and grief educator has taught me that while loss is a universal experience, no one should have to carry it alone. My later wife, Kinsloe, and I created www.KitchenTableConversations.org to provide a safe, supportive space where we can explore these difficult topics together with compassion and clarity.
http://KitchenTableConversations.org
10/15/2026 12:30
In this lightning round of 2-minute talks, Reimagine's community of Collaborators share how imagination and art help them regulate emotions, foster connection, and support meaning-making after loss. Whether it's through visual art, storytelling, comedy, music, movement, food or horticulture, everyone has the potential to be “creative altruists”: individuals who use imagination and artistry to hold space for others, reduce suffering, strengthen social cohesion, and inspire positive change.
Sherry Richert Belul is the founder of Simply Celebrate and author The Love List of a Lifetime and Say It Now. She helps people discover creative, heartfelt ways to celebrate life, deepen connection, and express love—while also guiding people to plan for end-of-life in ways that bring meaning, ease, and even moments of joy. Whether she’s leading a workshop, hosting a kindness mission, or speaking at events, Sherry’s message is simple: love out loud, celebrate often, and make moments that matter.
https://linktr.ee/simply.celebrate
Instagram - Facbook - LinkedIn - TikTok
https://www.facebook.com/simplycelebrate
https://www.youtube.com/@simplycelebrate
Rev. Rabbi Henry-Cameron Allen, OCP, ICGC, known as "The Virtual Hermit", is a director, artist, educator, author, and Internationally Certified Grief Practitioner with over 30 years of creative and humanitarian work. An MFA graduate of the National Theatre Conservatory, he founded The Brain Candy Project, The Lost Travelers Club, and The New Folklore Theatre Company following the crossing of his young son to brain cancer. He is the award-winning author of The Lost Traveler's Field Guide, and recipient of the 2025 International Impact Book Award. Through grief counseling, mentoring, and audio theatre, he champions Creative Life Skills Education, Men's Grief, philanthropy, and freedom of expression. He lives in Extremadura, Spain, with his service dog, Ánimo.
@TheVirtualHermit (all)
Sheila K. Collins, Ph.D., an author, grief advocate, international speaker, coach, and former social work professor whose work explores how creativity transforms loss. After losing her son to AIDS and her daughter to breast cancer, she chronicled her journey in her award-winning memoir Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss and the Rituals that Heal. Her recent book, The Art of Grieving: How Art and Art-making Help Us Grieve and Live Our Best Lives, examines how storytelling, movement, music, and visual art support healing and meaning-making. A former professional dancer, Sheila has spent more than 40 years guiding thousands through grief and life transitions. She co-authored Stillpoint with Christine Gautreaux and directs the Wing & A Prayer Pittsburgh Players.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-k-collins-phd-6387764/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sheila.K.Collins.DancingWithEverything Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheilakcollins Website: https://www.sheilakcollins.com
Day Schildkret is an award-winning queer author, artist, ritualist, teacher and is internationally known for Morning Altars, a practice in nature, art and ritual. More about Day at morningaltars.com and dayschildkret.com and @morningaltars on Instagram / Facebook.
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningaltars/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morningaltars
10/15/2026 12:30
Reimagine participants share what brought them to Reimagine's Turning Pain and Grief into Growth program, and what shifted along the way. Reflecting back on their projects, they share what surprised them, the risks they took, and what they'd tell someone still in the thick of it.
10/15/2026 12:30
On February 11, 2014, artist Peter Bruun's daughter Elisif died of an overdose. In the years since, Bruun has processed that loss through his art, creating a body of work from 2019 to 2024 that traces his grief path — and the growth, healing, and meaning found along the way. That private studio practice has grown into something public: exhibitions, events, and workshops that create space for others to make art in their own grief process.
His most recent project, You Once Had an Aunt, poses the questions at the heart of this workshop: How do we remember those we love who have died? How do we keep them present for those who never knew them? In this workshop, Bruun shares his own work and journey before inviting participants to reflect on their own loss and remembrances. No art experience is necessary — just a willingness to think about memory, and how to honor it in image and word for those who might never have known your loved one.
Peter Bruun is an artist and community activist whose work fuses creative expression with grief and healing. Born in Copenhagen, he holds an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. Based in Baltimore from 1987–2019, he founded Art on Purpose in 2005. Following the 2014 loss of his daughter Elisif to heroin addiction, Bruun launched the New Day Campaign, using exhibitions and public programs to challenge stigma around mental illness and substance use. As USM's 2026 Artist-in-Residence, Bruun presents Even As We Grieve (Crewe Center for the Arts), exploring how connection helps us endure loss, and You Once Had An Aunt (Gorham Art Gallery), inspired by his grandson's birth and the aunt he'll never know.
@bruunstudios
10/15/2026 12:30
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM PT
Speakers: Brenda Salgado
10/15/2026 12:30
Through a series of prompts, death doula and writer Darnell Lamont Walker invites you to reflect on eight facets of living and dying with fewer regrets: getting honest with yourself, embracing your mortality, finding your truth, telling your story, letting go of perfection, connecting with others, defining your own success, and living with intention.
Darnell Lamont Walker is a Death Doula and Emmy-Nominated Writer whose work lives at the intersection of creativity, care, and transition. Sometimes that looks like helping families hold love and memory at the end of life. Sometimes it means creating stories for kids, writing for shows like Karma’s World, Work It Out Wombats!, and Blue’s Clues & You, and helping young people make sense of big feelings in gentle, joyful ways. Sometimes it looks like gathering strangers into rooms where grief, joy, art, and conversation can coexist. Always, it’s about making room for people to feel seen and supported. He is the author of Never Can Say Goodbye (HarperOne), always asking: What would it look lie to tend to one another well?
hello.darnell
10/15/2026 12:30
Family caregiving can transform every part of life—our work, relationships, finances, identity, and sense of self. In this conversation, caregiving advocate Jessica C. Guthrie explores the often unseen emotional labor of caring for someone we love while trying to sustain a career and personal life. Together, we'll examine the grief, resilience, and difficult choices that accompany caregiving, while offering practical wisdom for setting boundaries, asking for support, and redefining what balance can look like when life doesn't go according to plan.
Jessica C. Guthrie, M.Ed is a caregiving strategist, speaker, and founder of Jessica C. Guthrie Caregiving Consultancy, where she helps organizations move family caregivers from invisible to integral. Drawing on 11 years as a primary caregiver and a decade of executive leadership experience, she created When Career and Caregiving Collide® — a signature program designed to equip employers with the tools to meaningfully support employees who are also family caregivers. Her advocacy has been featured by PBS, ABC News, and the United Nations, and she has built a community of 60,000+ caregivers nationwide.
@Jessica_C_Guthrie (Instagram)
10/15/2026 13:10
How do we stay open-hearted in a world marked by war, climate disruption, injustice, authoritarianism, and uncertainty? How do we carry the weight of collective grief without becoming overwhelmed or disconnected?
Join author, healer, and spiritual teacher Michelle Cassandra Johnson, climate justice activist and writer Tori Tsui, and singer-songwriter and communal grief tender alexandra “ahlay” blakely for a timely conversation about living with an awareness of the world's suffering while cultivating the resilience to remain present, compassionate, and engaged. Together, they will explore the emotional, spiritual, and embodied dimensions of collective grief, examining how practices of community care, mindfulness, and rest can help us move beyond burnout and isolation toward deeper connection and purposeful action.
The conversation concludes with a restorative mindfulness practice from Michelle and song leading from ahlay to remind ourselves that we cannot carry this all alone.
ahlay (alexandra blakely) is a Seattle-based singer-songwriter, communal grief tender, and ancestral reckoning artist whose work remembers that no separation ever existed between human and more-than-human worlds. Descended from Scandinavian and Ashkenazi lineages, she moves through song, ritual, and gathering as a practitioner of ecological devotion. Her album WAILS: Songs for Grief, recorded with a 200-voice choir, draws from the wisdom of Whale and the grief held in the body of the Earth. Anthems for an Apocalypse was conjured through the intelligence of Octopus: softness, adaptability, unveiling, fierce devotion, and abolitionist love. She is currently creating a multidisciplinary concept album exploring animacy, grief, trance, ecological belonging, and the untapped.
@alexandra_blakely
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. She approaches her life and work from a place of knowing we are, can, and must heal individually and collectively. Michelle facilitates workshops and immersions, leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide, and offers an array of healing services for individuals and groups. Michelle is a six-time published author, her latest book, You Are Protected, published by St. Martin's Essentials, came out in September 2026. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees.
@skillinaction
Tori Tsui is a climate justice campaigner and author. She is a Senior Advisor for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and Climate Justice Lead for Brian Eno’s Earth Percent. Her debut book ‘It’s Not Just You’ was shortlisted for the Wainwright prize.
IG - @toritsui_
10/15/2026 13:10
We all carry something hard— a loss, a challenge, a transition. This session gives you a taste of the work we do in Reimagine Group Pathways: reflecting on your story, tapping into what your hardship has pointed you toward, and moving in small sweet steps toward something meaningful. We'll lead you through some reflection and grounding exercises we use in our ten-week groups and share in small groups. Our Group Pathways program supports people to channel their pain into acts of love and meaningful intentions. Explore how you can transform personal or collective grief into an intention or tangible project, and leave with a felt sense of what this work is like, not just a lecture about it. Led by Reimagine facilitators who've spent years holding space for grief and losses of all types.
Mangda Sengvanhpheng is an artist, death doula, and the founder of BACII - a platform that focuses on loss and grief while providing services and offerings for individuals, communities, and organizations that renew our engagement to life. Her life and death work is guided by her Lao last name, which means “the light of the full moon.” Mangda was an awarded recipient of Reclamation Ventures grant for under-represented leaders making pathways to addressing grief and loss and her work has been featured in VICE, Vogue, Architectural Digest, NY Mag’s Curbed, and more.
Instagram: @_bacii
10/15/2026 13:10
How does a raven tilt his head just before flight? How does a deer pause, listening with her whole body? What does a quail have to teach us? Which animals speak to you and capture your imagination or heal your aching heart? In this workshop you’ll discover the three wild animals that can serve as a guide in your writing practice. These animals will show you what you didn’t know about rhythm, about yourself and about language. These animal guides will enter your consciousness and animate your poems. We will explore how animals grieve—and how poems help us heal. We will explore how metaphor excites our senses and arises from the soft animal body, bringing comfort and release.
Wendy Videlock lives on the edge of a mesa in Western Colorado. She is the winner of the Keats Soul Making Prize, the PBTS Sonnet Prize, the Cantor Prize and the Fischer Poetry Prize. Her award winning books appear through Able Muse Press. Her works appea in Best American Poetry, the New York Times, Hudson Review, Rattle, Hopkins Review, Poetry Magazine and O Magazine. Her newest book, Desert Kin: Speaking Animal in the American Southwest will appear in Sept of 2026. Her syndicated newspaper column, Word from the West, appears across the Four Corner states. Wendy advocates for the arts in public spaces and believes that language is the invisible influence informing our decisions, opinions, and relationships. For more visit: https://wendy-videlock.constantc
https://www.facebook.com/wendy.videlock
10/15/2026 13:10
We are encouraged to “be in our bodies” as a way to cultivate presence, self connection and integration. But what if our bodies are the source of pain, fear, stress? Meeting these challenging experiences with empathy and movement can bring relief and a sense of reprieve in the midst of it all. Empathy allows for the heart softening that comes from being understood; movement that is fully self-determined (or imaginal) can bring meaningful expression to long held grief and fear. Led by Sasha Soreff, this is a space to nourish body, mind, and spirit in a community that gets it. All movement invitations are optional, meditation/stillness is welcome. No movement experience necessary. Come as you are.
10/15/2026 13:10
Kelly Dearman—Executive Director of San Francisco's Department of Disability and Aging Services and Reimagine Board Member—invites us to imagine a different vision of aging: one rooted in dignity, purpose, connection, and belonging. Together we'll explore how communities can support people as they age, what it means to remain engaged and independent, how caregiving shapes us all, and why challenging ageism benefits every generation. Whether you're caring for a loved one, planning for your own future, or simply curious about what it means to live well across the lifespan, this conversation offers an opportunity to rethink aging as a shared human journey.
10/15/2026 13:10
Bereavement doesn't end when the funeral is over—it becomes part of the fabric of our lives. Dionne C. Monsanto and Myra Sack bring their lived experiences of losing their daughters—Siwe to suicide and Havi to Tay-Sachs disease—to a conversation about surviving the unimaginable. Together, they'll reflect on enduring love, the evolving nature of grief, and the practices that sustain us as we navigate life after loss.
Myra Sack is the author of award-winning memoir, "Fifty-Seven Fridays: Losing Our Daughter Finding Our Way," and founder of E-Motion, Inc. a nonprofit organization created to support community, movement and ritual to enhance coping and resilience. Myra's life changed when her older daughter, Havi, died in January 2021. Blending Myra's lived experience and knowledge as a certified Compassionate Bereavement Care provider with her lifelong identity as an athlete and career in social impact, E-Motion evolved out of a new way of living with the most difficult reality. Myra holds an MBA in Social Impact from Boston University, and graduated with a B.A. cum laude from Dartmouth College. Myra serves on the Board of the Courageous Parents Network.
@weare_emotion @myrasack linkedin: myra-sack
Dionne C Monsanto is a suicide loss survivor, Grief Transformation Coach, author, and founder of Joyous Ocean LLC. After losing her 15yo daughter to suicide in 2011, she left financial services and created a mission‑driven business rooted in movement, mindfulness, and evidence‑informed self‑care. She blends yoga, breathwork, storytelling, and practical tools to help individuals and communities transform emotional pain into resilience and renewed joy. As the author of 101 Ways to Live Life INjoy, and her story has been featured on CBS, PBS, Essence, and Time Magazine. She has advanced suicide‑prevention and consistently supports individuals, groups, and organizations navigating grief, trauma, and healing. She is also the cohost of Two Mothers, One Aché: A Grief Dialogue.
10/15/2026 13:10
1:10 PM - 1:50 PM PT
Drop-in peer support, a quiet reflection space, and the altar. Facilitator TBD.
Tony Pham (Butterfly) is a heritage Buddhist, facilitator and healer that occupies the intersection of queer & BIPOC identities. Tony is certified in Compassion Cultivation Training © (co-created by Thupten Jinpa at Stanford), teaching compassion and meditation at Tibet House US. He is a 2nd generation Vietnamese American whose parents arrived in the United States as refugees from war. Tony goes by Butterfly in spiritual spaces where they steward practices rooted in compassion, indigeneity, and sacred lineages. He is an advanced student of Lama Rod Owens (Vajrayana/Tibetan Buddhism). They are also an alumnus of the East Bay Meditation Center’s trauma informed mindfulness program & INELDA's death doula training.
IG: @butterflytruth
10/15/2026 13:50
From the Latin word for “patchwork,” the cento is a poetic form stitched together with verses by other writers. For the Reimagine Summit, we have invited Collaborators, past event speakers, and other stakeholders to contribute verses. Each contributor will read a selection of their verses in a live recitation of the Reimagine Summit Cento. A digital booklet will feature complete poems by all contributors.
Stefanie Elkins is the founder of Be Present Care, where she guides caregiving and end-of-life conversations through education, planning, and compassionate support. She is also the creator of Death over Drafts, a unique gathering held in breweries that inspires meaningful conversations about death and reimagines where and how we discuss end-of-life issues. Stefanie previously worked with Compassion & Choices, helping educate communities about the California End of Life Option Act. Through her work with Jewish synagogues and organizations, she has developed and led programs that support Jewish older adults, caregivers, and families. She is an active member of the Aging Life Care Association® and Community Chevra Kadisha Los Angeles.
instagram: deathoverdrafts; facebook: bepresentcare
Blair Kaplan is a Canadian-based grief and resilience expert, coach, author, and motivational speaker, and Founder of The Global Resilience Project. Her expertise has been featured in Psychology Today, Forbes, TEDx, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global. IAOTP named her Top Grief and Resilience Expert of the Year 2024, and USA Today listed her among the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch. Her life story is showcased in 'MyStory,' a TV show on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Google Play. She hosts the Radical Resilience podcast, helps high performers strengthen their resilience using scientifically proven methods, and guides the grieving with her Navigating Grief Framework. Her RESILIENT A.F. books are award-winning, international bestsellers.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairdkaplan https://www.facebook.com/blair.kaplan https://www.instagram.com/globalresiliencecommunity https://www.instagram.com/blairfromblairland/ https://www.facebook.com/globalresiliencecommunity https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-global-resilience-project https://howwenavigategrief.substack.com/
Nicholle Tan leads operations at Let's Reimagine, supporting the people, systems, and programs that make meaningful conversations around grief, caregiving, and the human experience possible. Based in Tenerife, Spain, she is passionate about helping build a compassionate community where people feel seen, supported, and less alone in life's most challenging moments. She believes grief is not something to overcome, but something that can deepen our capacity for compassion, resilience, and love.
@nicholle.tan
10/15/2026 14:50
We close the Summit with the Honor Ceremony, an opportunity for participants to share names of people, communities, and things in the chat that they are grieving. The ceremony includes music and an invitation to extinguish our candles. Reimagine's board chair Corey L. Kennard and co-founder and Executive Director Brad Wolfe offer closing remarks.
Voices
The people holding space with us, in music, story, practice, and reflection.
Mangda Sengvanhpheng is an artist, death doula, and the founder of BACII - a platform that focuses on loss and grief while providing services and offerings for individuals, communities, and organizations that renew our engagement to life. Her life and death work is guided by her Lao last name, which means “the light of the full moon.” Mangda was an awarded recipient of Reclamation Ventures grant for under-represented leaders making pathways to addressing grief and loss and her work has been featured in VICE, Vogue, Architectural Digest, NY Mag’s Curbed, and more.
Instagram: @_bacii
Larissa Velez-Jackson is a NY-based choreographer, multidisciplinary artist and movement educator of Boriqua-Italian descent who developed an improvisation performance practice called the Star Pû Method. Called “an adroit physical comedian” who “seems to be questioning entrenched conventions of contemporary performance” in The New York Times, LVJ’s work involves movement, sound, storytelling and intergenerational community practice. In 2016, LVJ was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and was a Caroline Hearst Choreographic Fellow at Princeton University from ’20-’21. As an ongoing blood cancer survivor since 2019, LVJ is an advocate of the healing potential of art and body/mind practice.
Instagram: @lareesa_lvj
Poet, Speaker, Workshop Leader, Artist, Art Advocate, Poet Laureate of Western Colorado
Wendy Videlock lives on the edge of a mesa in Western Colorado. She is the winner of the Keats Soul Making Prize, the PBTS Sonnet Prize, the Cantor Prize and the Fischer Poetry Prize. Her award winning books appear through Able Muse Press. Her works appea in Best American Poetry, the New York Times, Hudson Review, Rattle, Hopkins Review, Poetry Magazine and O Magazine. Her newest book, Desert Kin: Speaking Animal in the American Southwest will appear in Sept of 2026. Her syndicated newspaper column, Word from the West, appears across the Four Corner states. Wendy advocates for the arts in public spaces and believes that language is the invisible influence informing our decisions, opinions, and relationships. For more visit: https://wendy-videlock.constantc
https://www.facebook.com/wendy.videlock
Birth, Grief & Death Doula, Spiritual Guide, Author, Founder of A Healing Doula Academy
Sundari Malcolm is a Birth, Grief & Death Doula, Spiritual Guide, author of *Grief Gems*, and the Founder of **A Healing Doula Academy**, an international educational platform training the next generation of spiritually rooted Grief & Death Doulas. With over 17 years of professional experience guiding yoga, breathwork, meditation, holistic health education, grief, and end-of-life care, Sundari's work bridges evidence-informed practice with ancient healing traditions. Her path into this work was shaped by profound personal loss, including the deaths of both of her parents to cancer after serving as a caregiver, experiences that continue to inform her compassionate, embodied approach to supporting others through grief, dying, and life's most transformative transitions.
IG: sundaribliss AND ahealingdoulaacademy
Nina Rodriguez is a speaker, writer, grief-informed guide, and the founder and host of the award-winning Grief and Light™ podcast, where she has facilitated more than 120 conversations exploring grief, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. Since the death of her only sibling in 2019, she has guided conversations and created spaces for thousands of people navigating grief and life-altering change. Through storytelling, community building, and grief-informed education, Nina helps people feel seen, supported, and less alone. She believes grief fluency is a life skill and that learning to grieve well expands our capacity to live well.
@griefandlight on Instagram Facebook Threads YouTube and Substack. @itsnrodriguez for my public Instagram account.
Darnell Lamont Walker is a Death Doula and Emmy-Nominated Writer whose work lives at the intersection of creativity, care, and transition. Sometimes that looks like helping families hold love and memory at the end of life. Sometimes it means creating stories for kids, writing for shows like Karma’s World, Work It Out Wombats!, and Blue’s Clues & You, and helping young people make sense of big feelings in gentle, joyful ways. Sometimes it looks like gathering strangers into rooms where grief, joy, art, and conversation can coexist. Always, it’s about making room for people to feel seen and supported. He is the author of Never Can Say Goodbye (HarperOne), always asking: What would it look lie to tend to one another well?
hello.darnell
Stephanie Sarazin is an award-winning author, Certified Grief Educator, and speaker whose work explores ritual, grief, resilience, and human connection. She is the author of Soulbroken: A Guidebook for Your Journey Through Ambiguous Grief and the forthcoming Little Book of Rituals series from Sourcebooks. Drawing on graduate training in public policy from the University of Chicago, more than 15 years of nonprofit leadership, and extensive research into the science and history of ritual, Stephanie helps audiences discover practical ways to navigate change, cultivate hope, and find meaning through everyday practices. She lives in North Carolina.
Instagram @Stephing_Thru LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniesarazin/
Jessica C. Guthrie, M.Ed is a caregiving strategist, speaker, and founder of Jessica C. Guthrie Caregiving Consultancy, where she helps organizations move family caregivers from invisible to integral. Drawing on 11 years as a primary caregiver and a decade of executive leadership experience, she created When Career and Caregiving Collide® — a signature program designed to equip employers with the tools to meaningfully support employees who are also family caregivers. Her advocacy has been featured by PBS, ABC News, and the United Nations, and she has built a community of 60,000+ caregivers nationwide.
@Jessica_C_Guthrie (Instagram)
Myra Sack is the author of award-winning memoir, "Fifty-Seven Fridays: Losing Our Daughter Finding Our Way," and founder of E-Motion, Inc. a nonprofit organization created to support community, movement and ritual to enhance coping and resilience. Myra's life changed when her older daughter, Havi, died in January 2021. Blending Myra's lived experience and knowledge as a certified Compassionate Bereavement Care provider with her lifelong identity as an athlete and career in social impact, E-Motion evolved out of a new way of living with the most difficult reality. Myra holds an MBA in Social Impact from Boston University, and graduated with a B.A. cum laude from Dartmouth College. Myra serves on the Board of the Courageous Parents Network.
@weare_emotion @myrasack linkedin: myra-sack
Dionne C Monsanto is a suicide loss survivor, Grief Transformation Coach, author, and founder of Joyous Ocean LLC. After losing her 15yo daughter to suicide in 2011, she left financial services and created a mission‑driven business rooted in movement, mindfulness, and evidence‑informed self‑care. She blends yoga, breathwork, storytelling, and practical tools to help individuals and communities transform emotional pain into resilience and renewed joy. As the author of 101 Ways to Live Life INjoy, and her story has been featured on CBS, PBS, Essence, and Time Magazine. She has advanced suicide‑prevention and consistently supports individuals, groups, and organizations navigating grief, trauma, and healing. She is also the cohost of Two Mothers, One Aché: A Grief Dialogue.
ahlay (alexandra blakely) is a Seattle-based singer-songwriter, communal grief tender, and ancestral reckoning artist whose work remembers that no separation ever existed between human and more-than-human worlds. Descended from Scandinavian and Ashkenazi lineages, she moves through song, ritual, and gathering as a practitioner of ecological devotion. Her album WAILS: Songs for Grief, recorded with a 200-voice choir, draws from the wisdom of Whale and the grief held in the body of the Earth. Anthems for an Apocalypse was conjured through the intelligence of Octopus: softness, adaptability, unveiling, fierce devotion, and abolitionist love. She is currently creating a multidisciplinary concept album exploring animacy, grief, trance, ecological belonging, and the untapped.
@alexandra_blakely
Kristabeth Atwood believes that some of life's most meaningful moments cannot be fixed, only companioned. A spiritual director, certified grief and bereavement specialist, celebrant, and former pastor, she creates welcoming spaces where people can explore grief, transition, and life's big questions with curiosity, compassion, and authenticity. Through her Vermont practice, Rites of Passage, she offers spiritual companionship, workshops, and ceremonies for people of all beliefs and backgrounds. Her work invites people to reconnect with themselves, one another, and the sacred through presence, reflection, and genuine conversation.
Peter Bruun is an artist and community activist whose work fuses creative expression with grief and healing. Born in Copenhagen, he holds an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. Based in Baltimore from 1987–2019, he founded Art on Purpose in 2005. Following the 2014 loss of his daughter Elisif to heroin addiction, Bruun launched the New Day Campaign, using exhibitions and public programs to challenge stigma around mental illness and substance use. As USM's 2026 Artist-in-Residence, Bruun presents Even As We Grieve (Crewe Center for the Arts), exploring how connection helps us endure loss, and You Once Had An Aunt (Gorham Art Gallery), inspired by his grandson's birth and the aunt he'll never know.
@bruunstudios
Tony Pham (Butterfly) is a heritage Buddhist, facilitator and healer that occupies the intersection of queer & BIPOC identities. Tony is certified in Compassion Cultivation Training © (co-created by Thupten Jinpa at Stanford), teaching compassion and meditation at Tibet House US. He is a 2nd generation Vietnamese American whose parents arrived in the United States as refugees from war. Tony goes by Butterfly in spiritual spaces where they steward practices rooted in compassion, indigeneity, and sacred lineages. He is an advanced student of Lama Rod Owens (Vajrayana/Tibetan Buddhism). They are also an alumnus of the East Bay Meditation Center’s trauma informed mindfulness program & INELDA's death doula training.
IG: @butterflytruth
Colin Campbell teaches Theater and Filmmaking at Cal Poly Pomona University. His book, Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose was published by Penguin Random House in 2023. His solo show, Grief: A One Man ShitShow premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and ModernLoss.com. He is on the national board of directors for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Instagram @colincampbellwriter
KELLY CERVANTES is an award-winning writer, speaker, and advocate known for her blog Inchstones, and USA Today bestselling books, Normal Broken: The Grief Companion for When It’s Time to Heal But You’re Not Sure You Want To and The Luckiest: A memoir of Loe, Loss, Motherhood, and the Pursuit of Self. She has been published in the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, and Fortune as well as featured on MSNBC, NY Times, and CNN. She sits on the boards of CURE Epilepsy and The Undiagnosed Diseases Network Foundation and hosts CURE Epilepsy’s podcast, Seizing Life. Born and raised in the Midwest, Kelly resides in Maplewood, NJ, with her family.
Facebook & Instagram @kellygc411
MIGUEL CERVANTES wrapped up his time playing Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway and Chicago productions after almost eight years and 2013 performances. Other Broadway credits include IF/THEN, AMERICAN IDIOT, and 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. TV credits include PERSON OF INTEREST, BRAINDEAD, MADAME SECRETARY, ROYAL PAINS, THE BLACKLIST, and ALL MY CHILDREN. Miguel grew up in Dallas, TX, and received a BFA in Musical Theater from Emerson College. His favorite roles have been "Daddy" to Jackson, Anessa, Adelaide, and husband to superhero wife Kelly.
Instagram: @mig.cervantes Facebook: @mig.a.cervantes
Since 1987, I have walked alongside thousands of people navigating the tender journeys of end-of-life planning and grief. My work as a hospice volunteer, chaplain, and grief educator has taught me that while loss is a universal experience, no one should have to carry it alone. My later wife, Kinsloe, and I created www.KitchenTableConversations.org to provide a safe, supportive space where we can explore these difficult topics together with compassion and clarity.
http://KitchenTableConversations.org
Katie Louise Cooper is a death doula and mortality wellness and grief practitioner, and the founder of BrightMortal. She holds an MA in East-West Psychology and a Certificate in Spiritual Counseling from CIIS, and a Death Doula Certification from DDLA. Before this work, Katie spent over a decade in contemporary art, serving as Co-Director of Pioneer Works and Director of The Laundry. She brings that same devotion to presence and meaning-making into her work with the dying and grieving, offering one-on-one coaching, death doula care, and group programs including Circle of Presence, a political grief support group, and Mere Mortals: Touching the Tenderness. Katie believes that facing mortality is not a privilege reserved for a few, but a birthright for all.
Insta: @katie_louise_cooper_
Katie Down, LCAT, MT-BC, MMT, MM, is a licensed creative arts therapist with post-graduate certifications from the Trauma Studies Program at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, EMDR with Laurel Parnell, MBSR at Shambala Meditation Center, Deep Listening® with the Deep Listening Institute at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Trauma- Informed Sandplay Therapy with Lucy Barbera and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy with Journey Clinical. She introduces somatic practices, mindfulness, and creative inquiry for self-expression and wellbeing where clients can experience true self-acceptance and unconditional positive regard, the release of emotional stressors related to trauma, a deeper connection to the self and others, and insight into personal integrity and purpose.
IG: @theheartoflistening
Deb Gardner, MEd, is Head of Partnerships and Growth at Reimagine, leading strategy across partnerships, business development, and platform innovation. A long time educator of 20 years, Deb has developed internationally renowned embodied trauma-informed learning experiences for medical and mental health professionals. She led education at Beckley Academy, building a certification in psychedelic-assisted therapy and publishing a national competency framework presented at the APA. She spent a decade as Director of Education at Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, training 10,000 clinicians in 14 countries. A former classroom teacher of neurodiverse students, she is passionate about accessible education. She runs Learning Matters, an instructional design consultancy.
Andy leads the production of online events and experiences at Reimagine and supports the organization’s network of Collaborators. He has been working in arts, culture, and community engagement for over twenty years as a curator, scholar, writer, performer, and producer. With a background in theater and museum studies, Andy has organized exhibitions and public programs for Reimagine, The Brooklyn Museum, University Art Museum (Albany), The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and other cultural institutions. His project Warlé manifests the lives of his gay ancestors in order to encourage others to explore their queer ancestry and to generate conversations about how we care for LGBTQ+ elders and refugees today. www.warleinc.com
https://www.facebook.com/zydek IG @warleinc
Author, Alchemist, Activist, Spiritual Director and Companion, Ritualist, and Beekeeper
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. She approaches her life and work from a place of knowing we are, can, and must heal individually and collectively. Michelle facilitates workshops and immersions, leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide, and offers an array of healing services for individuals and groups. Michelle is a six-time published author, her latest book, You Are Protected, published by St. Martin's Essentials, came out in September 2026. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees.
@skillinaction
Dara is Senior Director of Programming and a Founding Team Member at Reimagine. With over 20 years designing programs, including those at the intersection of grief, community, and the arts, she currently leads Reimagine’s post-traumatic growth group pathway program. She co-produced Reimagine End of Life, city-wide arts festivals exploring death and celebrating life, in San Francisco, NYC, and Los Angeles. Dara got her start as a founding team member of The Dinner Party, a nationwide community for grieving young adults where she built initiatives for supportive workplace cultures around loss. She’s also a storyteller and stand-up comedian who’s produced grief-themed comedy shows in SF and NYC. MA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education.
@darakosberg
Gina Moffa, LCSW is a licensed grief and trauma therapist with over twenty-two years of experience helping people navigate loss, grief, trauma, and the complex emotional terrain of their closest relationships. In private practice in New York City, she's worked with individuals across nonprofits, hospitals, and private settings, bringing clinical expertise and compassion to some of the hardest moments of people's lives. Trained in multiple modalities, she works with the whole person ― mind and body both. Her award-winning first book, Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting Go (Hachette, 2023), established her as a trusted voice in the grief space and sparked a national and international conversation about what we are allowed to mourn. She’s been quoted in Forbes, TIME, the New
@ginamoffalcsw
LaUra Schmidt is the founding director of Good Grief Network. She is a truth seeker, community builder, program designer, grief explorer, and facilitator. She is a lifelong student, curator, and practitioner of personal and collective resilience strategies. She is the lead author in How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet and graduated with a BS in Environmental Studies, Biology, and Religious Studies with a focus in Buddhism. Her MS is in Environmental Humanities. LaUra earned certificates in “Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy” and “Climate Psychology.”
IG: @HowtoLiveinaChaoticClimate @GoodGriefNetwork FB: @GoodGriefNetwork
Tori Tsui is a climate justice campaigner and author. She is a Senior Advisor for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and Climate Justice Lead for Brian Eno’s Earth Percent. Her debut book ‘It’s Not Just You’ was shortlisted for the Wainwright prize.
IG - @toritsui_
Sherry Richert Belul is the founder of Simply Celebrate and author The Love List of a Lifetime and Say It Now. She helps people discover creative, heartfelt ways to celebrate life, deepen connection, and express love—while also guiding people to plan for end-of-life in ways that bring meaning, ease, and even moments of joy. Whether she’s leading a workshop, hosting a kindness mission, or speaking at events, Sherry’s message is simple: love out loud, celebrate often, and make moments that matter.
https://linktr.ee/simply.celebrate
Instagram - Facbook - LinkedIn - TikTok
https://www.facebook.com/simplycelebrate
https://www.youtube.com/@simplycelebrate
International Grief Practitioner, Interfaith Leader, Award-winning Author
Rev. Rabbi Henry-Cameron Allen, OCP, ICGC, known as "The Virtual Hermit", is a director, artist, educator, author, and Internationally Certified Grief Practitioner with over 30 years of creative and humanitarian work. An MFA graduate of the National Theatre Conservatory, he founded The Brain Candy Project, The Lost Travelers Club, and The New Folklore Theatre Company following the crossing of his young son to brain cancer. He is the award-winning author of The Lost Traveler's Field Guide, and recipient of the 2025 International Impact Book Award. Through grief counseling, mentoring, and audio theatre, he champions Creative Life Skills Education, Men's Grief, philanthropy, and freedom of expression. He lives in Extremadura, Spain, with his service dog, Ánimo.
@TheVirtualHermit (all)
Sheila K. Collins, Ph.D., an author, grief advocate, international speaker, coach, and former social work professor whose work explores how creativity transforms loss. After losing her son to AIDS and her daughter to breast cancer, she chronicled her journey in her award-winning memoir Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss and the Rituals that Heal. Her recent book, The Art of Grieving: How Art and Art-making Help Us Grieve and Live Our Best Lives, examines how storytelling, movement, music, and visual art support healing and meaning-making. A former professional dancer, Sheila has spent more than 40 years guiding thousands through grief and life transitions. She co-authored Stillpoint with Christine Gautreaux and directs the Wing & A Prayer Pittsburgh Players.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-k-collins-phd-6387764/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sheila.K.Collins.DancingWithEverything Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheilakcollins Website: https://www.sheilakcollins.com
Stefanie Elkins is the founder of Be Present Care, where she guides caregiving and end-of-life conversations through education, planning, and compassionate support. She is also the creator of Death over Drafts, a unique gathering held in breweries that inspires meaningful conversations about death and reimagines where and how we discuss end-of-life issues. Stefanie previously worked with Compassion & Choices, helping educate communities about the California End of Life Option Act. Through her work with Jewish synagogues and organizations, she has developed and led programs that support Jewish older adults, caregivers, and families. She is an active member of the Aging Life Care Association® and Community Chevra Kadisha Los Angeles.
instagram: deathoverdrafts; facebook: bepresentcare
Blair Kaplan is a Canadian-based grief and resilience expert, coach, author, and motivational speaker, and Founder of The Global Resilience Project. Her expertise has been featured in Psychology Today, Forbes, TEDx, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global. IAOTP named her Top Grief and Resilience Expert of the Year 2024, and USA Today listed her among the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch. Her life story is showcased in 'MyStory,' a TV show on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Google Play. She hosts the Radical Resilience podcast, helps high performers strengthen their resilience using scientifically proven methods, and guides the grieving with her Navigating Grief Framework. Her RESILIENT A.F. books are award-winning, international bestsellers.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairdkaplan https://www.facebook.com/blair.kaplan https://www.instagram.com/globalresiliencecommunity https://www.instagram.com/blairfromblairland/ https://www.facebook.com/globalresiliencecommunity https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-global-resilience-project https://howwenavigategrief.substack.com/
Jonathan Lipps is an American-Canadian technologist and musician, hailing from Vancouver, BC. After spending most of his career developing software and leading teams for tech startups, he currently works as a Principal Software Engineer for Sony's PlayStation console team. Jonathan also has an academic background in philosophy (MA Stanford), linguistics (MPhil Oxford), and theology (ThM Regent College). In addition he writes and performs for various indie music projects (Splendour Hyaline, Gol Olímpico, Anachronists). Always trying to explore the intersection of these pursuits, Jonathan enjoys thinking about the arts, philosophy, theology, and technology.
@jlipps.com (bluesky)
@jonathanlipps.music (instagram)
Day Schildkret is an award-winning queer author, artist, ritualist, teacher and is internationally known for Morning Altars, a practice in nature, art and ritual. More about Day at morningaltars.com and dayschildkret.com and @morningaltars on Instagram / Facebook.
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningaltars/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morningaltars
Nicholle Tan leads operations at Let's Reimagine, supporting the people, systems, and programs that make meaningful conversations around grief, caregiving, and the human experience possible. Based in Tenerife, Spain, she is passionate about helping build a compassionate community where people feel seen, supported, and less alone in life's most challenging moments. She believes grief is not something to overcome, but something that can deepen our capacity for compassion, resilience, and love.
@nicholle.tan
Laureen spent a decade caring for her husband who was diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia at the age of 52. Facing extended ambiguous loss, then life without him have been the biggest challenges of her life. Her aim is to obtain meaning and purpose by being witness to and accompanying others as they go through their own experiences with grief and loss. On the first anniversary of her husband‘s death, she and her family visited their birth homes, church (where they met), her husband‘s dental office, the bar where they reacquainted in adulthood, their favorite pizza place and the cemetery. They culminated the weekend with a Chicago White Sox versus Chicago Cubs game.
https://www.facebook.com/laureen74
Who we are
Reimagine is a creativity-driven nonprofit that unites people of diverse backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (including no faith) to support one another in facing loss, adversity, and mortality. At their own pace, participants take small, sweet steps to channel life’s individual and collective challenges into meaningful action and growth.
In a world filled with grief, Reimagine has led 4,000 inspiring virtual programs, providing crucial dialogue and support for more than 250,000 people in pain. We’ve also hosted citywide in-person festivals that bring entire communities together to reimagine end-of-life. These efforts earned recognition as a World-Changing Idea by Fast Company Magazine and led the mayor of San Francisco to proclaim an official “Reimagine Week.”
Building on this, we are developing a broadly accessible platform, translating the emerging research of post-traumatic growth into practice. This social platform empowers compassionate leaders to support their communities in transforming painful life experiences into creativity and impact.
At Reimagine, we transform grief into growth, turning life’s hardest moments into opportunities for creativity, connection, and community flourishing.
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