Is a Professor of Gerontology at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle and Senior Consultant to the Hospice Foundation of America. A prolific author, Dr. Doka’s books include Grieving beyond Gender: Understanding the Ways Men and Woman Mourn; Counseling Individuals with Life-Threatening Illness; Cancer and End-of-Life Care; Diversity and End-of-Life Care; Living with Grief: Children and Adolescents, Living with Grief: Before and After Death, Death, Dying and Bereavement: Major Themes in Health and Social Welfare (a 4 Volume edited work), Pain Management at the End-of-Life: Bridging the Gap between Knowledge and Practice, Living with Grief: Ethical Dilemmas at the End of Life, Living with Grief: Alzheimer’s Disease, Living with Grief: Coping with Public Tragedy; Men Don’t Cry, Women Do: Transcending Gender Stereotypes of Grief; Living with Grief: Loss in Later Life, Disenfranchised Grief: Recognizing Hidden Sorrow: Living with Life Threatening Illness; Children Mourning, Mourning Children; Death and Spirituality; Living with Grief: After Sudden Loss; Living with Grief: When Illness is Prolonged; Living with Grief: Who We Are, How We Grieve; Living with Grief: At Work, School and Worship; Living with Grief: Children, Adolescents and Loss; Caregiving and Loss: Family Needs, Professional Responses; AIDS, Fear and Society; Aging and Developmental Disabilities; and Disenfranchised Grief: New Directions, Challenges, and Strategies for Practice. In addition to these books, he has published over 100 articles and book chapters. Dr. Doka is editor of both Omega: The Journal of Death and Dying and Journeys: A Newsletter to Help in Bereavement.

Dr. Doka was elected President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling in 1993. In 1995, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Work Group on Dying, Death and Bereavement and served as chair from 1997-1999. The Association for Death Education and Counseling presented him with an Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Death Education in 1998. In 2000 Scott and White presented him an award for Outstanding Contributions to Thanatology and Hospice. His Alma Mater Concordia College presented him with their first Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2006, Dr. Doka was grandfathered in as a Mental Health Counselor under NY State’s first licensure of counselors.

Dr. Doka has keynoted conferences throughout North America as well as Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He participates in the annual Hospice Foundation of America Teleconference and has appeared on CNN and Nightline. In addition he has served as a consultant to medical, nursing, funeral service and hospice organizations as well as businesses and educational and social service agencies. Dr. Doka is an ordained Lutheran minister.

BA in Sociology (1981) San Diego State University, minor in Health Education, MA in Community Counseling (1991) from The George Washington University, and an Ed.S in Counseling from The George Washington University (2008). Tschudi has over twenty five years of experience working with people living with life-challenging illness, grief, loss and life transition. He has maintained a private counseling practice for over 15 years. From 1993 until 1997, he served as Executive Director of the St. Francis Center for Loss and Healing (The Wendt Center),. His interest in end-of-life issues was born out of the experience of serving as a medic in Vietnam 1969-70. Currently, he is an assistant professor with duel appointments at The George Washington University’s (GWU) School of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as The Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Tschudi began teaching courses on grief, loss and life transition in 1994 when he developed the first counseling course at GWU that focused on grief and loss. The success of this course then lead to the development of multiple courses in these areas in both graduate and undergraduate programs including an on-line Masters Degree in End-of-Life Care and an on campus Graduate Certificate in Grief, Loss and Life Transitions. All of the courses focus on a multi-disciplinary, holistic approach to loss which addresses the spiritual, emotional, physical and social impact of loss and the normal, necessary process of grief. Tschudi is also a faculty advisor for both the Grief and Loss Educational Consortium team as part of ISCOPES – a student service learning organization and the Student Veterans Association. He conducts workshops, retreats and classes for colleges, non-profit organizations, conferences and companies addressing issues of loss, grief, bereavement, spiritual and self-care. He has traveled extensively throughout South and SE Asia, Europe, Central America, the U.S. and worked for a year in Saudi Arabia developing orientation, cultural awareness and counseling programs for ex-patriot employees within a multi-national hospital corporation

Is an ordained United Methodist Pastor and has been serving in the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church for the past twenty four years. She is a graduate of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Drema has worked as a Social Worker, Pastor, Chapel Elder, Chaplain and Hospice Chaplain with Community Hospices of Washington. She received certification in thanatology in 2006 with an interest in being a death educator, end of life counselor, and spiritual midwife during the dying process. Presently, she serves as Minister of Congregational Care at Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church in Washington DC and teaches a graduate course on Spirituality and Loss at The George Washington University in the Grief, Loss and Life Transitions graduate certificate program.

Duane is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Educator, and a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist in private practice. He is the author of Guiding Your Family Through Loss and Grief, and A Child is Missing: Providing Support for Families of Missing Children, and also hosted the live, call-in internet radio show LET’S TALK IT THROUGH.. Duane’s specialty is working with survivors of traumatic death and suicide, which includes assisting families who must identify loved ones at the DC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, through the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing. He also provides support to families of abducted, missing, exploited and murdered children through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In addition, Duane serves as a training consultant to NCMEC, and is deployed by them to provide crisis intervention at Amber Alert sites with Team Adam. He also serves as a consultant and trainer for Team HOPE, a telephone support line for parents of missing children, and has provided services to AMECO (Association of Missing and Exploited Children Organizations). was the Senior Director of Emergency and International Services for the National Capital Chapter of the American Red Cross. Duane spent three months during the summer of 1999 in Macedonia/ Kosovo/Albania supervising a family reunification program in camps with war refugees. In September 2001 Duane responded to the Pentagon immediately following the terrorist attack on September 11th, providing support to rescue and recovery workers. In April 2010 he served as the mental health team leader at the University of Miami field hospital following the earthquake in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Has a private practice specializing in helping individuals and families cope with illness, life transitions and grief and loss issues. Prior to opening her practice, she worked for Capital Hospice in Washington, DC as Bereavement Care Coordinator and Community Outreach and Palliative Care Counselor. Brigid has 20 years experience with hospice in DC and Vermont as both a volunteer and a clinician. While working for hospice, she provided support to family and friends of hospice patients and members of the community after the death of a loved one and spoke on end-of-life issues to various groups. Brigid has facilitated support groups in DC Public schools both for students coping with chronic issues of grief and loss and students and school personnel dealing with acute traumatic events. Brigid has also given workshops on coping with chronic medical conditions to various groups including the Angioma Alliance, the Chordoma Foundation, the Genetic Alliance, Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Foundation International, the National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases Association and PXE International.

She has also held an adjunct faculty position at The George Washington University.

Is a writer, producer, product developer and teacher. She is also trained as a non-denominational hospital chaplain. Marsha co-created Transitional Keys, a program that teaches how to uses elements of ritual at times of change and transition for creative expression, personal development and integration. Transitional Keys has recently produced Seasons of Care, a wellness “kit” for caregivers with tools that enliven inner resilience to ameliorate the burnout and stress that often occurs when caregiving. www.TransitionalKeys.org mweiner@TransitionalKeys.org

Kathy graduated from the University of Maryland in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. She entered the U.S. Army and served in the Army Nurse Corps at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and DeWitt Army Community Hospital in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. During her nine years on active duty, Kathy received extensive nursing experience working in orthopedic surgery, intensive care, head and neck oncology, surgical oncology, and coronary care, serving as staff nurse, head nurse, and Assistant Chief, Department of Nursing. Upon her return to the Washington metropolitan area, Kathy’s work in the community included case management and infusion therapy in a busy oncology practice, clinical direction for a home health care agency, and advanced illness/home hospice services supported through a university grant funded program. She worked at The Washington Hospital Center in multiple oncology settings, most extensively as a case manager in the Melanoma Center at the Washington Cancer Institute. Kathy has traversed several venues of end of life care, receiving certified training in Pastoral Care, Spiritual Counseling, Palliative Care, End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC), Education in Palliative and End of Life Care (EPEC), Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) Leadership Training, and Basic Clinical Ethics as well as being trained as a Reiki practitioner. Kathy recently completed her Master of Science in End of Life Nursing at The George Washington University, and currently serves as a Palliative Care Nurse Educator at the Washington DC VA Medical Center.

Dr. Kopac received a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1985 with a focus on Life Span Human Development with an emphasis on geriatrics. From 2000–2002 she completed a Primary Care Research Fellowship in Bioethics at Georgetown University where she completed a study on the ethical issues in gynecological care for women with developmental disabilities. In 2006 Dr. Kopac completed a Doctorate in Ministry at Wisdom University in San Francisco, Calif., where her dissertation focused on the use of narrative to study transformation in the lives of professional nurses.

Dr. Kopac is an associate professor in the School of Nursing at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her first love is geriatrics and she has focused on the care of older adults throughout her career. She joined the faculty at The George Washington University in 2007. Dr. Kopac has maintained a clinical practice as a nurse practitioner, ethicist consultant in Adult Protective Services in Fairfax County, Virginia, for the past nine years. She provides in-home assessment and capacity evaluations of frail elders and assists a team of social workers with institutional investigations when allegations of abuse, neglect or exploitation have been made.

Kit Turen is a Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant who creates and facilitates personalized ceremonies and rituals to mark the passages and events in the lives of individuals, families, groups and organizations. She is a graduate of the Celebrant Foundation and Institute and a member of the Celebrant Association International. Turen believes that ceremonies, rituals and rights-of-passage serve an important role in helping us navigate life, from birth to death. She creates and facilitates rituals and ceremonies across the spectrum of life’s journey. In addition to creating rituals and ceremonies, Turen has designed and facilitated numerous workshops such as “Transforming Everyday Actions and Places into Sacred Acts and Spaces.”

Turen has served on the staff of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Development, an organization dedicated to the support of contemplative living and leadership. She is a graduate of Shalem’s Personal Spiritual Deepening Program and has been published in the “Shalem News.”

Drawn to the power of story since she was a child, Turen often weaves personal and/or organizational stories into each ceremony. She has 20 years of experience as a writer/producer in radio and television production, during which time her work has earned an Emmy Award and a Cable Ace Award. She also writes and performs original stories and has performed at D.C. Arts Center, Washington Storytellers Theater, Speakeasy DC, the Mid-Atlantic Storytellers’ Conference, the Writer’s Center and Brooklyn's Blah Blah Lounge.

Mary is a licensed professional counselor, certified poetry therapist and mental health educator with particular expertise in the fields of grief, traumatic loss and suicide prevention. Formerly the Director of Community Education & Crisis Response at CrisisLink, she is now in practice with Granato Counseling Services of Vienna, VA, and provides reintegration trainings for returning combat soldiers and their families through DOD’s nationwide Yellow Ribbon Program.

Mary works with teens and adults to help them deal more effectively and creatively with the challenges of everyday living as well as particular crisis situations. She provides the empathic support and guidance that can help people struggling with various personal and professional issues to gain self-awareness and perspective, to achieve their individual goals, and to grow in the direction of greater life satisfaction.

Mary is skilled in a range of psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, mind-body and creative- expressive counseling strategies. Because there’s no “one size fits all” in the fabric of human experience, she tailors her therapeutic approach to meet the needs of every individual client.

Drafted after Peace Corps service, Shaw served in Vietnam with a recon unit that suffered 40% casualties. Back home, he avoided grieving for 10 painful years before finding a peer group of combat veterans. He believes strongly in the model of the “wounded healer.”

For the past three and one-half years, he has led a weekly class in Alcohol Education at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He also worked there with the Brain Injury Program. Shaw helped establish a comprehensive, residential program for homeless veterans in Baltimore.

He lives with his life partner, Ann Taylor, in a co-housing community in Silver Spring.

A Registered Nurse, Licensed Professional Counselor, Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor and grandmother of seven, has been working with and for children since 1962 when she started in pediatric nursing.

After raising a family and graduating from New York University, she focused her counseling practice primarily on children and families dealing with loss and trauma while working in Hospice and private counseling settings. In 1991, she joined the staff at the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing (formerly The St. Francis Center) where she served for several years as the Director of the Children’s Program. She has published articles and chapters on these topics. Dottie now maintains a private education/consultation practice and serves as an Asst. Adjunct Professor teaching Advanced Play Therapy courses in the School of Social-Work at Temple University in Harrisburg, PA

She believes all children are sacred and when treated with gentleness, respect and joy can heal and grow through whatever life throws at them.