ALI COLE*^

Ali specializes in life transitions and community development. Over the years, Ali has worked to foster individual growth while nurturing community and creativity. Ali has her Death Doula certificate from the Conscious Dying Institute, Hospice Volunteer Certification from Ascension Hospice and Palliative Care and is a member of NEDA. She also holds a MA in Arts Administration from The School of the Art Institute and a BA in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Email: ali@alicole.com

ANNA ZEISEL^

Anna graduated from Macalester College with a BA in cultural anthropology and is currently working towards her Masters of Divinity and Interreligious Chaplaincy certification. She is a 200-hour trained yoga instructor and INELDA-trained Death Doula. Her areas of focus include legacy projects, meditation, sitting vigil and yoga.
Email: annaczeisel@gmail.com

dandelion

Deeply committed to creating spaces of belonging, dignity, and autonomy for those abandoned by institutional care, Dandelion (they/them) offers care as a companion, not a guide—holding space for loss without imposing timelines or solutions. Their work includes threshold companionship for those navigating deep grief, trauma, psychiatric abuse, and medical harm. They hold particular space for queer and trans communities, recognizing that traditional grief structures often fail said communities. Their work ensures that in death and grief, we are met with dignity, agency, and care that reflects who we truly are. Dandelion completed training as a death and abortion doula through A Sacred Passing.
Email: midwestresilienceapothecary@gmail.com

Deanna Rondero

Deanna is a Registered Dietitian, Meditation Teacher, and End-of-Life Doula dedicated to helping individuals heal their relationship with food and body and providing a safe space through life's many transitions. Her approach is rooted in a decolonized perspective, recognizing how systemic factors impact health, wellness and various transitions —especially for marginalized communities. With over a decade of experience in healthcare, Deanna specializes in eating disorder recovery, chronic illness management, intuitive eating, and mindfulness-based nutrition counseling. She also provides compassionate support during life transitions, whether related to health, grief, death or personal transformation. She also desires to provide this support for individuals and their loved ones as they navigate the end-of-life journey. Through emotional, spiritual, and practical guidance, she creates a sacred space for meaningful reflection, informed choices, and peaceful transitions at any place you are in life. Her mission is to honor each person’s unique experience with presence, dignity, and deep respect for their wishes.
Email: deanna@nourishedtransitions.com

emmanuel Reymond

Emmanuel has been in the field of end-of-life companioning for a little over 30 years, first in France then in the US. Currently acting as a hospice visitor (volunteer) and singing at the bedside with the Threshold Choir of Wheaton, they are a certified Death Doula through Doorway Into Light and trained on Home Funerals with Final Passages.
Email: ereymond@ugn.com

erin daly

Erin is a certified End-of-Life Doula with a focus on companion pets and shelter animals. Erin recently transitioned from her doula role at a local open-door animal shelter to a personal pet loss doula through her practice, Anamchara Alchemy. Alongside working with clients who are experiencing or grieving the loss of their companion animals, Erin has been working more broadly throughout Chicago to bring needed awareness to the grief and compassion fatigue that staff and volunteers experience being in a shelter setting. Having worked with shelter clinic clients who come in for end of life services and provided short term emotional support in the weeks before, during, and after the process, Erin has gone on to be certified through the University of Vermont as a Companion Animal EOL Doula and is pursuing a deeper career in compassionate EOL care for all kinds of animals.
Email: anamchara.alchemy@gmail.com

Garrett schwindt

Garrett Schwindt is a Marriage and Family Therapist. At the heart of it, Garrett thinks therapy is a process fueled by curiosity and believes that deepening your understanding of past experiences can contextualize what’s happening in your current situation, creating a path toward progress and healing. Therapy offers us a chance to collaborate on the issues you’re facing. Garrett thinks of their training simply as a tool to use to explore your lived experiences and foster change.
Email: garrett@gracecft.com

HOLLY HOULF

Holly became a certified death doula in October 2023 after being a supportive presence for several loved ones as they were dying. As death is a huge part of life and every day we get closer to it, Holly strives to help people find comfort and beauty in death, versus being scared. Holly utilizes planning and coordination skills while working in commercial production, and is also a yoga instructor certified in meditation.
Email: hollyhoulf@gmail.com

Isabelle rizo

Isabelle Rizo is a Romanian Chicago-based artist, hypnotist, death doula and folk teacher. Inspired by folk art, mystical multiculturalism, mythological folklore, and contemporary social art practice, Isabelle’s work is driven by the desire to instill profound self trust, intuition, and ancestral connection with each piece, class, and space she holds. She holds a master’s degree in Art Therapy and Counseling from Adler University and a bachelor’s degree in Visual & Critical Studies from The School of the Art Insitute of Chicago and brings a trauma-informed, liberation-centered lens to everything she offers—from immersive workshops and ancestral art rituals to hypnosis, tarot, and culturally grounded mental health support.
Website: https://www.isabellerizo.com/
Email: hello@isabellerizo.com

JOHN KOHLHEPP

After losing his mother to cancer and navigating the closing of her estate, John found that there were very few companies offering affordable estate administration services. In response, John became a NEDA-certified Death Doula and Estate Planner. He is the founder and managing director of A Secure Plan, LLC., a company dedicated to supporting end-of-life planning and death aftercare.

Website: https://www.asecureplan.com/
Email: jkohlhepp@asecureplan.com

JORDAN ROSE

Jordan is a Licensed Funeral Director and Certified Death Doula with specialties in queer and trans communities and post-death care. Jordan left the traditional funeral industry to create their own space and is dedicated to changing the conversation around death care, putting the rights into the hands of clients.
Email: roseendoflife@gmail.com

joy sobczak

Joy is an end-of-life educator passionate about normalizing death, dying, grief, and end-of-life care. Also a death doula, Joy completed training through Going with Grace, IDLM, and NEDA, and is a Grief Support Specialist, often working with veterans and their caregivers and the unhoused.
Email: jsobczak424@gmail.com

Katherine Adams

As a queer radical care worker and death doula, Katherine (they/she) has worked closely with both elders and adults with disabilities. They were trained by a life deeply lived, and by the revolutionary Going with Grace. She has collaborated in Chicago for 20+ years with young people and artists as a facilitator and art teacher. Katherine now organizes, practices mutual aid and care with disability justice activists, care workers and sw collectives. As a community member, elder queer, parent, artist and gardener, Katherine believes deeply in our humanity and everyone’s inherent beauty, value, joy, grief and autonomy. They bring calm, warmth and intentionality to situations and conversations of fear, uncertainty and grief. Through her care and death work and relationships, she heralds the importance of love and vulnerable community connection in our fight for collective liberation and justice for all those oppressed, in life and death. Katherine specializes in quality of life, tender physical care, exploring and celebrating legacy through dialogue and/or artmaking, encouraging reflection and peace, intimacy and creativity and heart healing and connection.
Website: https://www.touchstonesdeathdoula.com/
Email: eleanoregg@gmail.com

KIRBY PAGE

Kirby’s professional life has been dedicated to roles that center on people, community, and the vital work of inclusion. Her practice is driven by a dual passion: a commitment to compassionate, individual support and a deep interest in fostering broader systems change that makes holistic death and dying support more accessible to all. To ground this practice in the highest professional standards, she is a member of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA) and received her foundational education from the University of Vermont’s End-of-Life Doula certification course.
Website: https://www.wholelifedeathdoula.com/
Email: Kirby@wholelifedeathdoula.com

KRYS SPRINGER

Krys is an End-of-Life Doula and Pediatric Bereavement Specialist dedicated to a holistic, person-centered approach to end-of-life care and grief support. With professional experience as a chaplain in the Pacific Northwest and Chicago, and advanced training in Counseling Psychology, Divinity, and Clinical Ethics, she is uniquely equipped to honor the full spectrum of a person's needs, tending with equal care to the emotional landscape, psychological questions, and spiritual depth of the dying experience. This commitment to the whole person extends beyond individual care into her work in community development and cultivating grief-informed practices, ensuring systems of support are as compassionate as the care provided within them.
Email: krys.l.springer@gmail.com

LORI HATTON

Lori is an Evanston resident and serves the community as an End-of-Life Doula and an Advanced Care Planner. She is also a hospice and dog therapy volunteer. As founder of Nightingale Crossings (www.nightingalecrossings.com), she strives to provide compassionate care to disarm the fear surrounding death, honor the process, and work towards a “good” death for all of end-of-life clients. She is honored to be trusted, both in advanced planning and in end-of-life support for those nearing the end-of-life, as well as their family members. Lori has received End-of-Life Doula Certifications from the Doulagivers Institute and the University of Vermont and Certifications in Elder Care and Advanced Care Consulting from the Doulagivers Institute. She is a member of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA) and is “NEDA Proficient”. She holds an M.B.A. from the University of Leuven, Belgium and a B.S. from Indiana University.
Email: nightingalecrossings@gmail.com

MARY PHELPS

Mary is a licensed clinical massage therapist and natural healer who holds space for the grieving person and their family. She is a certified full-spectrum doula in birth, end of life, and perinatal loss. She has specialized certification as a grief massage therapist and trained in Japanese Zen Shiatsu bodywork. Her chosen modalities improve the experience of death, dying and grieving for her clients and their families. Mary can attend someone at their end of life with massage and shiatsu or offer grief massage for those who have experienced any for of loss, either of a person, place, animal, or object. Her vision for end of life care includes a world where death is not feared, but embraced and respected as a natural part of life through community education, collaborative conversations, and healthy touch. In her free time, she enjoys dancing with fire and making music.
Email: maryphelpsbusiness@outlook.com

Megan Sizemore

Megan has over 10 years working as a chaplain and spiritual care provider for adult and pediatric hospice patients and families. As an ordained minister, she seeks to guide families and individuals through the end of life process and the grief that accompanies this time. Megan’s experience has allowed her to understand the logistics day to day as well as the emotions that come up during this time. From the time of meeting, Megan seeks to establish a relationship so that no one that is journeying is alone through end of life decision planning to post death memorial services.
Email: sizemore.m@gmail.com

Nancy jean rose

Nancy is a Legacy Doula and Executive Director of Compass Rose Legacy Foundation. Their mission is to be a guiding light on the journey through the tides of life – morning to evening, offering compassionate legacy services and end-of-life doula support. We provide mentoring, learning, and resource opportunities for all professionals and volunteers who perform legacy services.
Website: https://www.compassroselegacy.org/
Email: nancyrose@compassroselegacy.org

Nichelle stigger

Nichelle Stigger is a visionary educator, advocate, and healer whose life’s work centers on walking with others through life’s most profound transitions with grace, courage, and love. A cancer survivor and caregiver, Nichelle understands intimately the terrain of fear, hope, and surrender. She has walked beside loved ones through illness and loss, finding in those sacred spaces the wisdom that living fully means accepting death as part of the human story. She believes that the work of a death doula is not about endings—it’s about accompaniment, dignity, and helping people (and their families) reclaim the sacredness of transition.
Email: nichellestigger@gmail.com

NICOLE DAIGLE*^

Nicole was an elementary school teacher for over a decade before transitioning into doula work. She sees a natural connection between the two vocations - it’s all about listening to what someone needs and guiding more than telling anyone what to do. A doula is a conduit of information; a big part of the job is to help a client explore what a “good death” is for them. Nicole trained with International Doula Life Movement (IDLM) and holds her proficiency badge from NEDA. She is an expert in advance care planning, and also offers a range of other services.
Website: windingpathdoula.com
Email: windingpathdoula@gmail.com

Pamela Bruno*^

Pamela completed training as a Death Doula and End-of-Life Planner through Going with Grace and is proficient with the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance. She volunteers with AccentCare Hospice and Palliative Care and with the No One Dies Alone initiative and holds a BA in Communication Arts and a MA in Interior Design. She is reiki and 200-hour yoga teacher training certified. Her interest in storytelling helps create opportunities for legacy, ritual, meaning making and life review through a variety of mediums.
Website: closingceremonychicago.com
Email: closingceremonychicago@gmail.com

REBECCA Richards

An estate planning attorney and retail entrepreneur in a previous life, Rebecca co-founded TendWell after experiencing the difficulties of navigating end-of-life care for their own loved ones. Rebecca is a certified end-of-life doula and brings legal, corporate strategy and start-up experience to TendWell. She is also a statistic - sandwiched between aging parents and energetic kids. TendWell is her effort to begin democratizing access to non-medical end-of-life care.
Website: https://tendwellcare.com/
Email: BeccaRichards@TendWellcare.com

REBECCA WATKINS

Rebecca is a certified death doula through Going With Grace. Rebecca has a multicultural background, having grown up primarily in Ukraine. Rebecca’s work as a death doula is influenced by their background as a yoga teacher, theater artist, and witchcraft practitioner, as well as influenced by their spirituality. Rebecca has a specific passion for helping communities dealing with violence and cares about preserving and educating regarding cultural practices around death while keeping ancient traditions alive in the modern day.
Email: rebeccaewatkins95@gmail.com

Richard fuhr

Richard is an End of Life Doula, Daily Money Manager, Licensed Massage Therapist specializing in Shiatsu, Public Speaker, and National Age Group Speed Skating Champion. His work is grounded in the belief that every transition — even the most difficult — holds the potential for healing, understanding, and renewal. Specializing in end-of-life planning, funeral support, legacy projects, and daily money management assistance, he offers compassionate guidance for individuals and families navigating transition, bringing structure, calm, and connection to every stage of life’s final journey.
Website: https://www.richardfuhr.com/eol-doula
Email: richard@richardfuhr.com

Sara Suh

Sara is a wife, and mom of one soon to be teen and many pets; one dog, 3 cats, 10 Chickens, many fish and a demanding turtle. She is currently working on her Doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Sara completed her End of Life Doula training this past October with INELDA. She is a volunteer with Rainbow Hospice Ark at Resurrection Hospital in Chicago and is a certified Hospice and Palliative Care Acupuncturist from the National Association of Hospice and Palliative care Acupuncturists.
Email: sara.suh@yahoo.com

TANYA WILLIAMS

Tanya is a death doula, writer and storyteller, with a Master’s in Human Services with a focus on family crisis, grief and bereavement. Tanya is passionate about helping individuals learn to cope with complicated grief and family crisis that grief can sometimes cause or exacerbate. Tanya facilitates an online grief support group, and is the author of “The Dirty Side of Grief”, a blog that focuses on restoring or building a meaningful quality of life while trying to cope with complicated grief. Tanya works as a part-time death doula, helping individuals during the final stages of their lives by offering logistical planning for the time before, during and after of death; coordinating vigils or comforting practices; helping the dying person reflect on their life and values; and explaining the bodily functions of dying to caregivers.
Email: tanyacharita@gmail.com

*denotes Founding Member
^denotes Previous Board Member