Grief in Our Time

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.

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Meggan Roxanne is a bestselling author, speaker, and founder of The Good Quote, a platform reaching millions worldwide around wellness, healing, and self-development. Her books, including You Deserve to Live Again and How to Stop Breaking Your Own Heart, draw on her own experience of profound loss to help readers rebuild their sense of self.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Visionary behind the movement for reimagining grief. Lisa Keefauver is an in-demand speaker, internationally acclaimed author, and renowned podcast host of Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, bringing warmth, wisdom, and wit to help grieving people and purpose-driven companies re-author the stories around loss and transition that keep them stuck. For more than 20 years, starting as a social worker and narrative therapist, Lisa Keefauver has helped more than half a million people reshape limiting personal narratives—transforming their relationship with grief and moving them from numbness to aliveness in a world full of loss. Lisa's insights on grief are also informed by her personal losses, including the death of her husband Eric in 2011 & surviving breast cancer.

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.

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Christine (she/her) is dedicated to the pursuit of play, joy, art & social justice. Christine’s superpowers include connecting people, helping folks manifest their dreams, standing up against injustice and using art to make a difference in the world. Christine Gautreaux (pronounced gō trō), MSW holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Social Work and is a professional speaker, coach, author, and entrepreneur. Christine is the co-author of Stillpoint: A Caregivers Playbook to find ease and to take a deep breath and reclaim joy and Women Connected in Wisdom stories and resources rooted in the 8 dimensions of wellness Volumes I & II. She believes in the power of body wisdom and somatic play to help heal trauma and live our best lives.

Cynthia Phelps, PhD is a Stanford Ambassador of Compassion and the Founder of InnerAlly, a trauma informed company that builds evidence-based services and products to improve resilience and wellbeing by helping people create a kind and compassionate inner voice. She creates custom coaching, courses, and mobile apps to improve mental wellness based on the science of self-compassion. Dr. Phelps has extensive experience in learning and behavior change and has been developing mental health tools since 2009.

Dr. Qwynn Galloway-Salazar is an Army Veteran, Death Doula Educator, storyteller, and nationally recognized leader advancing compassionate care for military-connected communities. She is the Founder and CEO of In Their Honor. Named a 2024 USA TODAY Woman of the Year, Dr. Galloway-Salazar is known for pioneering innovative approaches at the intersection of storytelling, applied theatre and the arts, caregiving, grief, and end-of-life care. Through her work, she inspires audiences to build compassionate communities that honor service, strengthen human connection, and transform how we care for one another.

Kelli Dunham is a nurse, comedian, ex-nun and cohost of the award-winning podcast Cared For.

I dream of a world where everyone is invited to share their stories. Where perfection & performance is not expected or admired. Where the written word isn't elevated & the 'best' story doesn't have all the 'right' elements. Where no contests, clap-o-meters or judges determine our stories worth. I wish to return to the bonfires, front porches & kitchen tables, where every Thing has a story & everyone is welcome. I attempt to create this world at my story-sharing gatherings called Show & Tales. For over a decade I have hosted these gatherings to process grief, loss & adversity while building deeper connections, community & legacy.

Ian McCartor, RN, GC-C, is the Founder and Executive Director of The Ash Rose Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming grief through creativity, storytelling, and community. A lifelong artist who studied under master painters for many years, Ian discovered his true calling while serving as a hospice nurse, accompanying patients and families through the final chapter of life. Those experiences inspired The Ash Rose Project, an innovative grief support program that incorporates cremation ashes into personalized works of art while guiding participants through remembrance and healing. Today, Ian speaks internationally on creative grief care, helping reimagine how we honor loss, preserve legacy, and cultivate hope after death.

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.

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

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 

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 

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) 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrycameronallen/

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.

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.

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.

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 @warleinc

Barri Leiner Grant is a highly respected grief specialist, author and founder of The Memory Circle, a creative and healing space for remembrance and ritual. Barri brings a distinct aesthetic sensibility to the field of grief work—bridging beauty and healing in ways that feel modern, personal, and deeply human. She is the creator of Permission Granted, a widely read Substack newsletter that invites readers to navigate loss with honesty, tenderness, and earned wisdom. Barri is recognized for her unique approach to grief support, which combines storytelling, symbolism, and community to help people mark loss with intention and carry memories forward with care.

Christine (she/her) is dedicated to the pursuit of play, joy, art & social justice. Christine’s superpowers include connecting people, helping folks manifest their dreams, standing up against injustice and using art to make a difference in the world. Christine Gautreaux (pronounced gō trō), MSW holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Social Work and is a professional speaker, coach, author, and entrepreneur. Christine is the co-author of Stillpoint: A Caregivers Playbook to find ease and to take a deep breath and reclaim joy and Women Connected in Wisdom stories and resources rooted in the 8 dimensions of wellness Volumes I & II. She believes in the power of body wisdom and somatic play to help heal trauma and live our best lives.

Ian McCartor, RN, GC-C, is the Founder and Executive Director of The Ash Rose Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming grief through creativity, storytelling, and community. A lifelong artist who studied under master painters for many years, Ian discovered his true calling while serving as a hospice nurse, accompanying patients and families through the final chapter of life. Those experiences inspired The Ash Rose Project, an innovative grief support program that incorporates cremation ashes into personalized works of art while guiding participants through remembrance and healing. Today, Ian speaks internationally on creative grief care, helping reimagine how we honor loss, preserve legacy, and cultivate hope after death.

J.J. Duncan is an award-winning television producer and show-runner. After losing her eleven-year-old son to leukemia, J.J. used her platform to open up discussions of grief, mental health, and end-of-life care, and became a sought-after speaker. J.J. and her wife Stacey founded the nonprofit, Not Today Cancer, which raises money for childhood cancer research. J.J. is a powerful advocate for healthcare laws, often traveling to D.C. to urge research initiatives for improved pediatric cancer treatments, as well as for inclusive laws that would help ensure all children with life-threatening diseases receive greater access to care, regardless of income or regional limitations. J.J. lives in California with her wife and daughter.

Rebecca Missel is an exuberant and purposeful community builder with more than 17 years of experience leading nonprofits. Currently, Rebecca serves as a consultant at Shomer Collective, spearheading a new project to empower people to observe shiva. Rebecca has previously worked as the inaugural Director of Partnerships and Content for Recustom (formerly Haggadot.com) and as a Program Manager with SYNERGY at UJA-Federation of NY. She holds masters’ degrees from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Baltimore Hebrew University. She lives in Jersey City with her community.

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.

Tony Pham (Butterfly) (he/they) 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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/ 

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

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 @warleinc

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.

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.

Katie is a devoted mother of two, a seasoned project management pro, and a self-proclaimed 'death conversationalist.' Her curiosity about death started as a teenager, after losing five family members in five years, including her beloved mother. This interest led her to work in preplanning, time with a cremains startup, death doula proficiency, pediatric death doula coursework - anything to be more informed and prepared to talk about death and dying. Along the way, 'death-curious' stopped being a phase and became who Katie is - death-positive, always ready for a hard conversation. Most recently, Katie took part in a post-traumatic growth workshop with Reimagine. It reshaped how she sees grief - not something to move past, but something to grow from.

I like to call myself a soul seeker rather than define myself by my job as a helping professional or by the tangible things that I do such as writing. As I move forward step by step through each loss of my life from family, to friends, to health, to career, to dreams, and to a beloved pet earlier this year, I continue to realize the latter things are only parts of the whole. Important as they are, I have easily lost myself within their confines, cut off from the deeper undercurrents within me. That was where I was when I decided to join the Turning Pain & Grief into Growth group because I was struggling to be wholly myself in alignment with all parts of me including my grief. I will always be grateful for that experience and the community.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Meghan O'Gieblyn is the author of Will and Attention (2026); as well as the books God Human Animal Machine (2021), which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology; and the essay collection Interior States (2018), which won the Believer Book Award for Nonfiction. Her essays and criticism have appeared in Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, n+1, The Point, Wired, The New York Review of Books, and other publications. She is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes and the 2023 Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her essays have appeared in The Best American Essays and The Contemporary American Essay anthologies.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tony Pham (Butterfly) (he/they) 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.

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Meggan Roxanne is a bestselling author, speaker, and founder of The Good Quote, a platform reaching millions worldwide around wellness, healing, and self-development. Her books, including You Deserve to Live Again and How to Stop Breaking Your Own Heart, draw on her own experience of profound loss to help readers rebuild their sense of self.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Meghan O'Gieblyn is the author of Will and Attention (2026); as well as the books God Human Animal Machine (2021), which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology; and the essay collection Interior States (2018), which won the Believer Book Award for Nonfiction. Her essays and criticism have appeared in Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, n+1, The Point, Wired, The New York Review of Books, and other publications. She is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes and the 2023 Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her essays have appeared in The Best American Essays and The Contemporary American Essay anthologies.

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.

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.

Visionary behind the movement for reimagining grief. Lisa Keefauver is an in-demand speaker, internationally acclaimed author, and renowned podcast host of Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, bringing warmth, wisdom, and wit to help grieving people and purpose-driven companies re-author the stories around loss and transition that keep them stuck. For more than 20 years, starting as a social worker and narrative therapist, Lisa Keefauver has helped more than half a million people reshape limiting personal narratives—transforming their relationship with grief and moving them from numbness to aliveness in a world full of loss. Lisa's insights on grief are also informed by her personal losses, including the death of her husband Eric in 2011 & surviving breast cancer.

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.

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.

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 @warleinc

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.

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.

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Christine (she/her) is dedicated to the pursuit of play, joy, art & social justice. Christine’s superpowers include connecting people, helping folks manifest their dreams, standing up against injustice and using art to make a difference in the world. Christine Gautreaux (pronounced gō trō), MSW holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Social Work and is a professional speaker, coach, author, and entrepreneur. Christine is the co-author of Stillpoint: A Caregivers Playbook to find ease and to take a deep breath and reclaim joy and Women Connected in Wisdom stories and resources rooted in the 8 dimensions of wellness Volumes I & II. She believes in the power of body wisdom and somatic play to help heal trauma and live our best lives.

Cynthia Phelps, PhD is a Stanford Ambassador of Compassion and the Founder of InnerAlly, a trauma informed company that builds evidence-based services and products to improve resilience and wellbeing by helping people create a kind and compassionate inner voice. She creates custom coaching, courses, and mobile apps to improve mental wellness based on the science of self-compassion. Dr. Phelps has extensive experience in learning and behavior change and has been developing mental health tools since 2009.

Dr. Qwynn Galloway-Salazar is an Army Veteran, Death Doula Educator, storyteller, and nationally recognized leader advancing compassionate care for military-connected communities. She is the Founder and CEO of In Their Honor. Named a 2024 USA TODAY Woman of the Year, Dr. Galloway-Salazar is known for pioneering innovative approaches at the intersection of storytelling, applied theatre and the arts, caregiving, grief, and end-of-life care. Through her work, she inspires audiences to build compassionate communities that honor service, strengthen human connection, and transform how we care for one another.

Kelli Dunham is a nurse, comedian, ex-nun and cohost of the award-winning podcast Cared For.

I dream of a world where everyone is invited to share their stories. Where perfection & performance is not expected or admired. Where the written word isn't elevated & the 'best' story doesn't have all the 'right' elements. Where no contests, clap-o-meters or judges determine our stories worth. I wish to return to the bonfires, front porches & kitchen tables, where every Thing has a story & everyone is welcome. I attempt to create this world at my story-sharing gatherings called Show & Tales. For over a decade I have hosted these gatherings to process grief, loss & adversity while building deeper connections, community & legacy.

Ian McCartor, RN, GC-C, is the Founder and Executive Director of The Ash Rose Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming grief through creativity, storytelling, and community. A lifelong artist who studied under master painters for many years, Ian discovered his true calling while serving as a hospice nurse, accompanying patients and families through the final chapter of life. Those experiences inspired The Ash Rose Project, an innovative grief support program that incorporates cremation ashes into personalized works of art while guiding participants through remembrance and healing. Today, Ian speaks internationally on creative grief care, helping reimagine how we honor loss, preserve legacy, and cultivate hope after death.

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.

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

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 

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 

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) 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrycameronallen/

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.

Katie is a devoted mother of two, a seasoned project management pro, and a self-proclaimed 'death conversationalist.' Her curiosity about death started as a teenager, after losing five family members in five years, including her beloved mother. This interest led her to work in preplanning, time with a cremains startup, death doula proficiency, pediatric death doula coursework - anything to be more informed and prepared to talk about death and dying. Along the way, 'death-curious' stopped being a phase and became who Katie is - death-positive, always ready for a hard conversation. Most recently, Katie took part in a post-traumatic growth workshop with Reimagine. It reshaped how she sees grief - not something to move past, but something to grow from.

I like to call myself a soul seeker rather than define myself by my job as a helping professional or by the tangible things that I do such as writing. As I move forward step by step through each loss of my life from family, to friends, to health, to career, to dreams, and to a beloved pet earlier this year, I continue to realize the latter things are only parts of the whole. Important as they are, I have easily lost myself within their confines, cut off from the deeper undercurrents within me. That was where I was when I decided to join the Turning Pain & Grief into Growth group because I was struggling to be wholly myself in alignment with all parts of me including my grief. I will always be grateful for that experience and the community.

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tony Pham (Butterfly) (he/they) 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.

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 @warleinc

Barri Leiner Grant is a highly respected grief specialist, author and founder of The Memory Circle, a creative and healing space for remembrance and ritual. Barri brings a distinct aesthetic sensibility to the field of grief work—bridging beauty and healing in ways that feel modern, personal, and deeply human. She is the creator of Permission Granted, a widely read Substack newsletter that invites readers to navigate loss with honesty, tenderness, and earned wisdom. Barri is recognized for her unique approach to grief support, which combines storytelling, symbolism, and community to help people mark loss with intention and carry memories forward with care.

Christine (she/her) is dedicated to the pursuit of play, joy, art & social justice. Christine’s superpowers include connecting people, helping folks manifest their dreams, standing up against injustice and using art to make a difference in the world. Christine Gautreaux (pronounced gō trō), MSW holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Social Work and is a professional speaker, coach, author, and entrepreneur. Christine is the co-author of Stillpoint: A Caregivers Playbook to find ease and to take a deep breath and reclaim joy and Women Connected in Wisdom stories and resources rooted in the 8 dimensions of wellness Volumes I & II. She believes in the power of body wisdom and somatic play to help heal trauma and live our best lives.

Ian McCartor, RN, GC-C, is the Founder and Executive Director of The Ash Rose Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming grief through creativity, storytelling, and community. A lifelong artist who studied under master painters for many years, Ian discovered his true calling while serving as a hospice nurse, accompanying patients and families through the final chapter of life. Those experiences inspired The Ash Rose Project, an innovative grief support program that incorporates cremation ashes into personalized works of art while guiding participants through remembrance and healing. Today, Ian speaks internationally on creative grief care, helping reimagine how we honor loss, preserve legacy, and cultivate hope after death.

J.J. Duncan is an award-winning television producer and show-runner. After losing her eleven-year-old son to leukemia, J.J. used her platform to open up discussions of grief, mental health, and end-of-life care, and became a sought-after speaker. J.J. and her wife Stacey founded the nonprofit, Not Today Cancer, which raises money for childhood cancer research. J.J. is a powerful advocate for healthcare laws, often traveling to D.C. to urge research initiatives for improved pediatric cancer treatments, as well as for inclusive laws that would help ensure all children with life-threatening diseases receive greater access to care, regardless of income or regional limitations. J.J. lives in California with her wife and daughter.

Rebecca Missel is an exuberant and purposeful community builder with more than 17 years of experience leading nonprofits. Currently, Rebecca serves as a consultant at Shomer Collective, spearheading a new project to empower people to observe shiva. Rebecca has previously worked as the inaugural Director of Partnerships and Content for Recustom (formerly Haggadot.com) and as a Program Manager with SYNERGY at UJA-Federation of NY. She holds masters’ degrees from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Baltimore Hebrew University. She lives in Jersey City with her community.

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.

Tony Pham (Butterfly) (he/they) 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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/ 

Brad Wolfe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Reimagine, which he created in 2017 through a project he led at IDEO exploring end of life, meaning, and art. His path began with his grandparents who survived Auschwitz, and his childhood friend Sara, for whom he performed bedside concerts throughout her cancer journey until her death at 21. Sara inspired Brad to help people find their own "music" through life's hardest moments and to found the Sunbeam Foundation for pediatric cancer research. A singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary creator, his band Brad Wolfe & the Moon releases The Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes in 2026. He has presented at the American Psychological Association and World Congress of Palliative Medicine and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.