Death By Design

Mike Ferris is a nationally recognized expert in home care and hospice sales, marketing, and customer service. He has consulted with many of the most successful home care and hospice organizations in the country. Mike and his team deliver consulting and training programs based on their combined experience and expertise. Their services focus on referral management to maximize admissions a...

A practicing physician for over 30 years, Dr. Martha Calihan blends her knowledge of Functional and Integrative medicine with the mystical and spiritual, creating the space to help people heal on all levels. She practices and teaches Mindfulness, offers workshops in the US and in Ireland, and has done extensive work in death and dying. She lives and practices in Leesburg, Virginia.

In this memoir, A Death Lived, Dr Martha Caliha...

The Macy Catheter was invented by Brad Macy, a veteran hospice nurse and recipient of 2013’s National Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse of the Year Award. The inspiration for its invention came directly from a memorable patient interaction.

Over the years, Brad has seen thousands of difficult symptom management cases while assisting patients and their families in the middle of the night. The most challenging cases were when the ...

Hospice physician. End-of-life researcher. Acclaimed author of Death Is But a Dream. Death Is But a Dream, based on Dr. Kerr’s extensive research with hospice patients and their families in Buffalo, NY, highlights and validates the powerful dreams and visions often experienced at end of life that bring comfort and meaning to the dying process.

Dr. Kerr is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer of Hospice &am...

​Just Call Bill specializes in providing technology services to senior adults and their families. We are the company that loves working with seniors! Our team of technology professionals has the experience to take care of your phone, tablet, laptop and computer and more. This is an ideal service for you, your mom, dad, aunt, uncle and grandparents who don’t live close by family members and need assistance with their technology...

In 2014, Margo Fowke’s 21-year-old son, Jimmy, died after an eight-year battle with brain cancer. A year later, her mother died. In 2017, the Loomis resident started the website Salt Water (findyourharbor.com). The website is chock-full of blogs with topics ranging from loss to caring for yourself after loss. It also offers resources for the bereaved as well for tips for comforting the bereaved. (...

Jennifer O’Brien helps people talk about caregiving and end of life. She encourages compassionate, real conversation through her book, The Hospice Doctor’s Widow: A Journal, where she shares her story of caregiving through collages and writings. 

After years of caring for people with serious illness as a physician, Jennifer’s husband, Bob Lehmberg, was diagnosed with a stage IV, metastatic cancer. But caregiving for the...

Ken Ross, son of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, is the founder of the EKR Foundation (2006) and President (2006-2013 & 2018-Present). He also served on the board of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Center from 1989-2005. Ken was the principal care provider for his mother in the last 9 years of her life until her passing in 2004.

His responsibilities include handling over 80 publishers of Dr. Ross’ work, public relations, copyright &...

Emma is a seasoned technology entrepreneur, MIT graduate, and award-winning change-agent, who started building online communities before Netscape was born. Her 25 year career leading online and mobile projects has included building tools to register young people to vote, creating online networks of support for families facing health challenges, and launching North America’s first online crisis intervention line. She also founded a ...

“Nobody likes to sit down and listen to a talk about life’s challenges. But somehow, Rachel makes it all Okay. Her warmth and sensitivity, and especially her story, enables us to hear brutal honesty and embrace it, rather than fear it. Bravo, Rachel Kodanaz.” —Ora DeMorrow, Senior Financial Advisor, Vice President Merrill Lynch

No one knows better how to embrace life’s challenges than Rachel herself. Overcoming her own adve...

Absolutely Delicious: A Chronicle of Extraordinary Dying

After a life marbled with exploration, academia, and domesticity, the writer Valerie Lester retired to a residential hospice and set about enjoying the final act of her life. She died nine weeks later, having engaged in dying with equanimity, curiosity, and even amusement.

In Absolutely Delicious, Valerie’s daughter describes a journey that illuminates the...

Vicky Roncero is a certified Usui Reiki Master Practitioner/ Instructor with a private practice, in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. She is grateful to be working with Reiki and empowering clients to use this beautiful energy in whatever way is helpful to them. Some clients are healing from illness and injury, or managing stress and anxiety. Others are looking to feel more centered or grounded and are balancing their Chakras, to keep t...

Phyllis Shacter courageously shares the first personal story ever written about Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED). This memoir and guidebook follows the journey she took with her husband, Alan. Alan decided to VSED – so he didn’t have to live into the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

This is their love story, their partnership, the brave territory they traversed, including how they prepared themselves ...

An End of Life Doula is a non-medical person trained to care for someone holistically (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) at the end of life. End of Life Doulas are also known around the world as: end of life coaches, soul midwives, transition guides, death coaches, death doulas, doula to the dying, end of life doulas, death midwives, than a doula, and end of life guides.

Due to the enormous number of the elder population...

Claire B. Willis is a clinical social worker who has worked in the fields of oncology and bereavement for more than 20 years. A cofounder of the Boston nonprofit Facing Cancer Together, Willis has led bereavement, end-of-life, support, and therapeutic writing groups. She has co-taught Spiritual Resources for Healing the Mind, Body, and Soul at Andover Newton Theological School. She maintains a private practice in B...

Connie Ducaine, PhD, LPC, LCADC, Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions, Vital Decisions

Dr. Connie Ducaine is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions at Vital Decisions and started her career with the organization 9 years ago working directly with health plan members who were approaching end of life. Through her clinical work, Dr. Ducaine has witnessed the benefits of advance care planning and patient engagement....