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THURSDAY OCTOBER 10 ~ 7-9PM
Come and Ask our Panel the Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask about Death and Dying
Our Panel will include a range of Death Professionals from the local death care industry. Panelists are now confirmed!
(see Bios below):
Sheri Mila Gerson ~ Psychotherapist, Social Worker and Researcher in Palliative Care
Heidi Connolly ~ Author, Intuitive Medium, Coach
Meghan Carlisle ~ Field Director of Wild Grief
Glenn Harper ~ End of Life Caregiver and Facilitator of local Death Cafes
Karen Lohmann ~ Ceremonalist and Chaplain
Lucia Malo ~ Family Service Adviser
Kelsang Jima ~ Buddhist Nun and Retired Hospice Nurse
Feel free to email us your questions ahead of the event and we will try to include as many as we have time for.
THIS EVENT IS FREE. JUST TURN UP OR RSVP ABOVE IF YOU CAN.
Sheri Mila Gerson (Mila) is currently working as a psychotherapist and researcher, based in Olympia, Washington. She holds a PhD in Palliative Care from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago. She has over 35 years of experience as a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker primarily focused on work with patients and families coping with chronic and/or serious illnesses.
She has been a researcher, community educator and facilitator of advance care planning, community conversations on death and dying, cultural traditions and customs before and after death, ethics and clinical issues related to medical aid in dying. Mila maintains a psychotherapy and consultation practice for people coping with trauma, complex grief, and end of life
decision making.
She is particularly interested in how the transformational impact of psychedelic medicine can be utilized for people experiencing symptoms of trauma, existential/spiritual distress, death anxiety, and awareness of dying connection.
It was only after Heidi Connolly’s husband Randy transitioned in 2012 that she was introduced to her ability to communicate with the other side.
Owner of Harvard Girl Word Services for over 20 years, Heidi was shocked when Randy woke her up one night to coauthor her award-winning book Crossing the Rubicon. Since then, her multidimensional compass is set to a practice of mediumship, intuitive coaching
of High Sensitives, creating custom music encoded with healing frequencies, and living life as what Randy calls a “Vacationing Angel.”
During the pandemic, Heidi authored The Gateway Café, a novel of visionary fiction, and Elevating Your HSPnessa unique guidebook and accompanying video course inspiring Highly Sensitive People to live glorious lives.
Heidi Connolly is known for her down-to-earth
approach and light-hearted, authentic charm that guides her in her communication with Spirit to create powerful, moving experiences for the people who come to see her. As one client says, “There is a great gestalt of connection—you come away with a resonance of clarity, ease, calm, wholeness, and lightness.”
Meghan is the Field Director of local Olympia organization, Wild Grief.
Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Megan finds peace in the lush mossy forests and salty air of the Puget Sound landscape. Her love of wild spaces has informed her passion as a climate activist and soil conservationist. For over 10 years she has studied and taught permaculture design, a holistic system of sustainable agriculture that renews natural resources and enriches local ecosystems. This work brought her to the amazon rainforests of Ecuador where she helped create curriculum “guardians of the soil” to support farmers affected by the toxic legacy of oil exploration.
Her extensive work with soils, toxins and compost got her the groundbreaking role as operations manager at Recompose, where she helped open the world's first human composting facility and funeral home. In 2021, when she lost her father, she saw the importance of the Wild Grief vision of a vital, resilient, and connected community with a healthy response to death.
She sees grief work as an extension of her climate activism, because society can’t address the problems of the future until we learn to open up to our grief and heal.
Glenn is an end-of-life caregiver by profession with an abiding interest and curiosity in philosophy, religion and the Great Mystery we all must face.
He facilitates many death cafes in the Olympia and Lacey areas of WA and is the
President of the Elderhood Senior Alliance.
He believes that, since aging and dying are inescapable, we should learn about, and lean into, these areas of inquiry so as to be equipped for the path ahead.
The discussions are always interesting, often entertaining and surprisingly energizing and life-affirming!
Karen has worked in the field of death and dying for 20 years. She began at the bedside as a Comfort Care Therapist for a local hospice in 2004. She has provided home funerals, worked as a clinical, board certified chaplain at St. Peter hospital for 12 years, and as a Hospice chaplain these past 3 years. She retired from Hospice this summer.
Karen is interested in the exploration of the human condition, as it relates to how cultures and individuals navigate making sense of the Great Mysteries: death, life and the "thin" or "in-between" spaces.
Her interest in making one-of-a-kind shrouds stems from her desire to participate in "Legacy Conversations" so she can stitch together pieces of a person's life story into the art of a burial shroud.
She is also an artist, working in pastels, flowers, plants, paints, and fabrics. People and plants are her greatest teachers.
Lucia is a Family Service Adviser in Tumwater, WA, and works with many local funeral homes in the area. She provides a comprehensive planning guide that serves as a valuable resource for funeral planning. This planning guide helps to connect community members with important information, fostering meaningful conversations.
Educator, storyteller and lover of life, Lucia has spent 30 years as a former educator advocating personal choice, teaching on an Indian Reservation in Arizona, writing for a newspaper while raising her family.
She has received educational awards, library grants improving her community in New York and Texas. Presented at the New York Library Association and Texas Library Association conferences as well as serving community outreach in civic clubs as a National Geographic Educator.
What brings her to the world of funeral prearrangement? Her mother's passing
Jima is a long time Kadampa Buddhist practitioner and ordained nun, based in
Olympia, WA.
She found Buddhist teachings when her husband, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and it greatly helped the challenging years that followed.
Jima has a wealth of experience on the topic
of death and dying.
Prior to ordination, Jima worked as a nurse for 40 years, 10 of which were as a Hospice Nurse. She cared for her own mother until her death in 2014 as well as her husband Jim, who died in 2020.
The venue at the Old Olympia Glass Building is accessible from the street on the ground floor with no stairs. There are no accessible toilets on-site, so we do suggest you use other local locations and facilities where possible.
On the Edge Ask a Death Professional Poster (pdf)
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