Dr. Bordere is Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science and State Extension Specialist in Youth Development at the University of Missouri-Columbia where she teaches Childhood Death and Bereavement, Black Families, Adolescence and Young Adulthood, and Lifespan Development. She is past editor of The Fourm (Association for Death Education Counseling), past board member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, and past Chair of the People of Color/Multicultural Committee. Dr. Bordere has conducted numerous workshops, consultations, trainings and published works relating to diversity and resilience through loss, including her recent co-edited and co-written book (with Darcy Harris), Handbook of Social Justice in Loss and Grief. Dr. Bordere was featured on NPR, "Teens and Grief," and in Hospice Foundation of America's "Living with Grief: Helping Adolescents Cope with Loss." Her research focuses on adolescent adjustment to death and loss, with emphasis on assaultive violence, homicidal death, coping and grief among African American youth. She also studies New Orleans death rituals. Dr. Bordere developed SHED Grief Tools to educate and equip teachers with tools to support youth coping with death and non-death loss in the context of school settings. [Back to top]
Dr. Boss is Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and a former president of the National Council on Family Relations. She practiced family therapy for over 40 years. With her groundbreaking work in research and practice, Dr. Boss coined the term ambiguous loss in the 1970s and since then, developed and tested the theory of ambiguous loss, a guide for working with families of the missing, physically or psychologically. She summarized this research and clinical work in her widely acclaimed book Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief (Harvard University Press, 2000). In addition to over 100 peer reviewed academic articles and chapters, her other books include Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss (W. W. Norton, 2006) and Loving Someone Who Has Dementia: How to Find Hope While Coping with Stress and Grief (Jossey-Bass, 2011). Her most recent book is The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change (W. W. Norton, 2022). Her work is known around the world wherever ambiguous losses occur, and thus her books are now available in 18 different languages. For more information about Dr. Boss, her writings, and the ambiguous loss online training program, see www.ambiguousloss.com. [Back to top]
Dr. Crunk-Sikhuashvili is a mental health counselor and an Assistant Professor of Counseling at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She provides psychotherapy to individuals and couples who are coping with a range of concerns, including grief and loss, depression and other mood disorders, anxiety, relationship concerns, breakup recovery, self-esteem, family estrangement, family of origin concerns, chronic illness, and stress. In particular, she specializes in treating diverse issues in grief and bereavement, including complicated grief, anticipatory grief, non-death loss, and life transitions. Dr. Crunk’s specialized training and nine years of research experience in grief and loss equips her to help individuals navigate these challenging experiences.
Dr. Curtis completed medical school at Johns Hopkins University then an internal medicine residency and pulmonary and critical care physicain and palliative medicine residency and pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the University of Washington. He is a pulmonary and critical care physician and palliative medicine physician at Harborview Medical Center at the University of Washington. He also holds the A. Bruce Montgomery- American Lung Association Endowed Chair in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and he is the founding Director of the Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence at the University of Washington. He has an active research program with over 25 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health and has also received funding from a number of foundations including the Cambia Health Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Greenwall Foundation. His Research focuses on improving palliative care for patients with serious illness as well as for patients' families. He has authored mor than 300 peer-reviewed research articles and more than 150 editorials and chapters. He is also committed to mentoring in palliative care research and is th director of two T32 awards and a K12 award from the National Institutes of Health to train palliative care researchers of the future. Dr. Curtis has been the recipient of several awards for his research and teaching in palliative care and in 2017 he was named one of the 30 visionaries in Hospice and Palliative Medicine by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
President of Coping After Suicide, LLC, is an international authority on suicide bereavement and postvention response. She is Certified in Thanatology (death, dying, and bereavement) and has over 20 years’ experience addressing the questions, emotions, and complexities that arise in the aftermath of suicide. Joanne’s full-service practice includes; working directly with grieving individuals, couples, and families, facilitating national and international suicide bereavement support groups, advising educational institutions, workplaces, and faith communities, training mental health clinicians, health care professionals, clergy, funeral directors, first responders, and educators, and frequent appearances as an invited presenter and media guest. Her work has been recognized with the two most prestigious awards available in the field: the American Association of Suicidology’s Survivor of the Year Award and the International Association for Suicide Prevention’s Farberow Award. Joanne has spoken on suicide bereavement and aftercare at the United Nations, on Capitol Hill, and for the American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Northern Ireland National Health Service, Hospice Foundation of America, and New York State School Boards and Funeral Directors Associations. She's trained the chaplains of the U.S. Army and Veterans Administration; the Psychologists affiliated with the South Korea National Police Agency; the crisis response team of a large public university; and the psychiatry, pediatrics, nursing, and social work departments of major medical centers. Over two decades she’s collaborated with hundreds of organizations, including the NIMH, WHO, Columbia University Schools of Social Work and Journalism, the University of Melbourne, HBO, and Sesame Street.
Andy is the Senior Advisor of Youth Programs for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). Andy is an author and trainer on topics related to grief, bereavement, and end-of-life. He has been an advocate for healthy children, teenagers, and families throughout his career. He is a co-founder and an executive partner with The Satori Group, a national education, management, and consulting company focused in the area of grief and loss. He is the former CEO of The National Alliance for Children’s Grief, Executive Director of The Amelia Center at Children’s of Alabama, and Director of Counseling Services for Hospice of Martin and St. Lucie (now Treasure Health) in South Florida. He is a trainer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He is the co-author of Understanding and Supporting Bereaved Children: A Practical Guide for Professionals. [Back to top]
Rev. Cynthia Carter Perrilliat is Executive Director and Co-Creator of the Alameda County Care Alliance Collaborative (ACCAC), a faith-based program in partnership with local clinical, academic, and community organizations engaging 25 faith-based organizations and their pastors in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties of Northern California. The ACCA Advanced Illness Care Program™ assists persons needing advanced illness care and their families/caregivers to manage physical, psychological, spiritual, and advanced care planning needs. Rev. Perrilliat has over 25 years of experience as a change agent in healthcare, marketing and communications, biotechnologies and community organizations. Over the last 15 years, she has focused on end of life care program development and educational training iin the African American, Latinx and Asian communities. As part of VITAS Healthcare, Rev. Cynthia established a targeted compassionate care approach to communities of color, which was adopted and replicated across the 17-state footprint of VITAS. She also served as faculty member of the Duke University APPEAL program, a Palliative Care Educational Curricu.um for African Americans at the end of life.
Dr. Schut is the coordinator of the international Master Clinical Psychology (CP) of the Department Clinical Psychology. He is coordinator of the master's course Loss & Psychotrauma and he coordinates the master's thesis in the Master CP. At postgraduate level Henk provides education in the field of research ethics, bereavement and coping. Within the postgraduate curriculum in Clinical Psychologist (Central RINO Groep Utrecht ) he serves as professor of Scientific Research and Innovation. Henk was involved as co-promoter with various PhD projects in the field of bereavement (Dr. I. Dijkstra , Dr. T. van Vliet , Dr. Wijngaards-De Meij, Dr. M. Eisma and Drs. C. Newsom ) and eating disorders (Dr. B. Boon and Dr. W. Mensink ). With Margaret Stroebe he developed the Dual process model of coping with bereavement. The books he has edited include: Handbook of Bereavement Research, Consequences, Coping and Care (2001); Handbook of Bereavement Research and Care; Advances in Theory and Intervention (2008); and Complicated Grief: Scientific Foundations for Healthcare Professionals (2013).
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Dr. Wallace is currently the associate professor of Congregational and Community Care at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Dr. Wallace has authored several articles and book chapters including Narratives of Grieving African Americans About Racism in the Lives of Deceased Family Members; A Womanist Legacy of Trauma, Grief, and Loss: Reframing the Notion of the Strong Black Woman Icon; Hush No More: Constructing an African American Lutheran Womanist Ethic; and is the co-author (with Paul Rosenblatt) of African American Grief. Her current research agenda includes understanding community trauma and end-of-life decisions among older African Americans. She is also in the process in writing her second book, African American Grief – Revisited.
Dr. Washington is an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri in the Department of Family and Community Medicine where she researches behavioral interventions to support patients and families receiving hospice and palliative care. Dr. Washington has served as the Principal Investigator of research projects supported by entities including the National Cancer Institute and the John A. Hartford Foundation in addition to working as a Co-Investigator on studies funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the National Institute on Aging. Her research has been published in numerous palliative care journals including Journal of Pain & Symptom Management, Journal of Palliative Medicine, and Psycho-Oncology. She is a founding member of the Hospice Caregiving Research Network.