A Florida native, Hank is a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in history and was on football scholarship. He received his Master of Divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
After serving for five years right after seminary in a very traditional church in Macon, Georgia he moved to the Washington, DC area to be a part of the very nontraditional Church of the Saviour. For a year following the move to DC, Hank worked as a carpenter and then for four years directed an inner-city ministry for hard-to-employ people. In 1983 Chaplain Dunn began his healthcare work as a nursing home chaplain. He has served as a hospice chaplain and volunteered nights and weekends as an on-call chaplain at a community hospital.
He is a past president of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and has served on several ethics committees. Hank is a frequent speaker nationally on the topic of making end-of-life decisions and spirituality and healthcare.
To help him explain end-of-life decisions to patients and families, he wrote a booklet to hand to them so they could reflect on the issues discussed. As an afterthought, he sent the book out to other institutions to see if they would be interested in purchasing it for their clients. First published in 1990, Hard Choices for Loving People: CPR, Feeding Tubes, Palliative Care, Comfort Measures, and the Patient with a Serious Illness is now in its Sixth Edition, with over 3.9 million copies sold, and it is being used in more than 5,000 hospitals, nursing homes, faith communities and hospice programs nationwide. His second book, Light in the Shadows: Meditations While Living with a Life-Threatening Illness, is a collection of reflections on the emotional and spiritual concerns at the end of life. Besides speaking on topics related to his books, Chaplain Dunn has also been a leader of silent retreats. Hank has recently moved to Oxford, Mississippi after 39 years living in the DC suburbs of Virginia. He enjoys fly fishing, wilderness camping, hiking, kayaking and life in general.
Suzy Hopkins is a retired journalist who worked for four Northern California newspapers, then founded and ran a community magazine in the Sierra foothills for 10 years.
Hallie Bateman is a writer and illustrator based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Buzzfeed and many others. Together Suzy and Hallie created the book: What to Do When I’m Gone: A Mother’s Wisdom to Her Daughter.
Dr. Cacciatore specializes in counseling those affected by traumatic death. She works with and counsels families from all around the world who have experienced catastrophic deaths. Her therapeutic interventions are always presence-and-mindfulness based and include narrative, dialectical, and trauma-focused therapies. She also teaches meditation, mindfulness, and compassion and ahimsa practices to students and clients from around the world.
As an advocate of “green” mental health care after a traumatic experience, she is a member of the American Psychotherapy Association, the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and the National Center for Crisis Management. She spearheaded and directs the graduate Certificate in Trauma and Bereavement program at ASU.
Her research has been published extensively in peer reviewed journals such as The Lancet, Birth, Death Studies, Omega Journal of Death and Dying, Social Work, Social Work and Healthcare, and Families in Society.
Dr. Cacciatore received her Doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her Masters degree and Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Arizona State University. Her work has been featured in major media sources such as People and Newsweek magazines, the New York Times, Boston Globe, CNN, National Public Radio, and the Los Angeles Times.
She has been the recipient of many regional and national awards for her empathic work and service to people suffering traumatic grief. Among them, the Hon Kachina Award in 2007, the Sr Teresa Compassionate Care Award, the Empathic Therapist of the Year Award, Arizona Foothills Arizona Women Who Move the Valley Award, and the Parents of Murdered Children Father Ken Czillinger Award.
Tom is also a well-known speaker, having offered conference programs across the United States, Canada, and Japan and in England, Australia, Israel, and Germany as well as innumerable talks and workshops for nurses, physicians, funeral directors, clinical psychologists, social service providers, gerontologists, hospice workers, bereavement coordinators, clergy, educators, civic organizations and the general public.
He taught philosophy at Bowling Green State University for nearly twenty-five years, serving as Department Chair for eleven years and leading efforts to establish the first Ph.D. in Applied Philosophy in the world in 1987. Tom left as Professor Emeritus in Philosophy in 1995 to become an independent applied philosopher. A Past President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, he also served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement.
Tom is also a well-known speaker, having offered conference programs across the United States, Canada, and Japan and in England, Australia, Israel, and Germany as well as innumerable talks and workshops for nurses, physicians, funeral directors, clinical psychologists, social service providers, gerontologists, hospice workers, bereavement coordinators, clergy, educators, civic organizations and the general public.
He taught philosophy at Bowling Green State University for nearly twenty-five years, serving as Department Chair for eleven years and leading efforts to establish the first Ph.D. in Applied Philosophy in the world in 1987. Tom left as Professor Emeritus in Philosophy in 1995 to become an independent applied philosopher. A Past President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, he also served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement.
For instance, relatives sometimes worry their loved one will be “doped up” or become addicted to strong pain medications. Or they may fear their family member will suffer severe pain or other symptoms without sufficient relief. In this episode, Dr. Elizabeth Miles will shade some light on all of that.
Katie is a practicing adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner. She is also the founder and CEO of Death Care Coach, a company offering end-of-life guidance, consulting, education, and coaching to families, caregivers, and healthcare providers. Before founding Death Care Coach, she taught full-time as a Professor at Drexel University in the College of Nursing and Health Professions Undergraduate Program, and an adjunct Professor in the Nurse Practitioner Program.
Duncan has been working in healthcare for over 10 years in various roles and various specialties. She has spent time in hospital and intensive care settings. She has also worked in home-care and community settings, navigating her way into diverse homes while developing strong, trusting relationships with her patients and their families. In addition, Duncan has spent time in sub-acute rehab, assisted living, independent living, nursing home, and long-term care facilities. She continues to be an everlasting student continuously learning from those who allow her the privilege of being at their bedside, especially as they journey through their dying process.
Of all the places Duncan has worked, her greatest love has always been end-of-life hospice care. It has been her honor to be at the bedside of irreplaceable fellow humans as they take their last breaths in their physical bodies. Their journeys have taught her that life is a precious gift, and there is an opportunity to find beauty even at the very end. As a result, Duncan has made it her mission to educate, coach, and provide holistic services focusing on end-of-life matters.
She received the Canadian Association of Teacher Education (2021) thesis and dissertation award for her work’s contribution to teacher education. Using her skills and expertise for service, she created and led numerous Grief and Writing Through Grief workshops for educators and bereavement support centers across North America. Apart from being an educator, she is a writer at heart and has released two books based on her doctoral dissertation: Life: To Be Given Back Again to Whence It Came and the companion stories The Revelations of Eapen.
Links:
Book 1: “Life: To Be Given Back Again to Whence It Came” – A dissection of prolonged grief, cultural grief illiteracy, the healing power of rituals and communal grieving, and an analysis of the impact of expressive storytelling on bereavement can be viewed here: www.diopress.com/life
Book 2: “The Revelations of Eapen” – The author’s intimate exploration of eastern and western cultural interactions with the phenomenon of grief before, during, and after her father’s death can be viewed here: www.diopress.com/revelations-of-eapen
Academic Article: “Braiding western and eastern cultural rituals in bereavement: An autoethnography of healing the pain of prolonged grief” – https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2021.1983158
