Open to Hope International Day of Hope and Healing After Loss Conference 2025

Date: Monday, March 24
Time: 9:00am-2:00pm Pacific Standard Time (PST)

In need of a dose of hope? Please join Open to Hope for our International Day of Hope and Healing after Loss with experts in the field of grief and loss devoted to supporting the bereaved. Our mission is to provide an uplifting day of hope and healing to those grieving the loss of a loved one. Thanks in advance. We couldn’t do this without you!

About this event
The International Day of Hope and Healing after Loss is a free online experience brought to you by the Open to Hope Foundation with the mission of helping people find hope after loss. Our expert presenters have generously donated their time, talents, and advice to share with you.

Topics

  • Partner Loss
  • Child Loss
  • Parent Loss
  • Afterlife
  • Sibling Loss

We look forward to spending this special day with you; if you’ve lost hope, lean on ours until you find your own.
Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley, Founders, Open to Hope.


 

Time Contents
9:00 – 9:05 a.m. Opening Remarks: Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr. Heidi Horsley
9:05 – 9:10 a.m. Introduction: David Kessler
9:10 – 9:30 a.m. David Kessler – How to do Grief Work in a World that wants you to move on
9:30 – 9:35 a.m. Introduction: Dr. Donna Schuurman
9:35 – 9:50 a.m. Dr. Donna Schuurman – Five Life Lessons from Teens Who are Grieving
9:50 – 9:55 a.m. Introduction Parent Loss Panel: Meghan Riordan Jarvis, Moderator, Hope Edelman, Barri Leiner Grant, Brennan Wood, Claire Bidwell-Smith, Ken Ross, Heidi Gessner
9:55 – 10:15 a.m. Parent Loss Panel
10:15 – 10:20 a.m. Introduction: Eric Brewer
10:20 – 10:35 a.m. Eric Brewer – Navigating Death and Loss: Life Transitions, Trauma, and Faith!
10:35 – 10:40 a.m. Introduction to Partner Loss Panel: Jill Johnson Young- moderate, Abel Keogh, Red Hoffman, Dawn Nargi,Tysha Scott
10:40 – 11:00 a.m. Partner Loss Panel
11:00 – 11:05 a.m. Introduction: Dianne Gray
11:05 – 11:20 a.m. Dianne Gray – The Long Tail of Grief: Change, Communication & Community
11:20 – 11:25 a.m. Introduction Sibling Loss Panel: Zander Sprague, Moderator – Elizabeth Devita Raeburn, Cindy Tart, Dr. Chris Lourenco, Jason Wendroff-Rawnicki, Jordan Ferber
11:25 – 11:45 a.m. Sibling Loss Panel
11:45 – 11:50 a.m. Introduction: Ken Druck
11:50 – 12:05 p.m. Ken Druck – The Path Forward After a Loss: What to Say ‘Yes’ To
12:05 – 12:10 p.m. Music Break –
12:10 – 12:15 p.m. Introduction: Paul Denniston
12:15 – 12:30 p.m. Breath/Movement with Paul Denniston
12:30 – 12:35 p.m. Introduction Afterlife Panel: Elizabeth Boisson, Moderator – Gordon Smith, Dr. Mary Neal, Jacob Cooper, Brian Smith
12:35 – 12:55 p.m. Afterlife Panel
12:55 – 1:00 p.m. Introduction: Colin Campbell
1:00 – 1:15 p.m. Colin Campbell – Keeping Community As We Grieve
1:15 – 1:20 p.m. Introduction Child Loss Panel: Debbie Dullabaun, moderator, Pamela Hagen, Glen Lord, Johnny Sirpilla, Raul Morales
1:20 – 1:40 p.m. Child Loss Panel
1:40 – 1:45 p.m. Introduction: Jill Colucci
1:45 – 2:00 p.m. Candle ceremony: Jill Colucci

 

 

All Grief Conference Speakers

Abel Keogh

Abel Keogh is a relationship coach and the expert on widower relationships. Abel is the author of six books including The Wife in the Next Life, Room for Two, and Dating a Widower. His Dating a Widower YouTube channel contains valuable advice for widowers and the women who are dating or married to them.

Barri Leiner Grant

Barri Leiner Grant is a grief specialist and the founder of The Memory Circle for group and 1:1 grief support. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Psychology Today and Maria Shriver’s Sunday Magazine among other prestigious tv outlets and podcasts. She is a former journalist who leans on writing as a healing modality. She honors her late mother Ellen, in all of her work.

Brennan Wood

Brennan Wood is the Executive Director for the Dougy Center, supporting children and families who are grieving. As a past Dougy Center participant, volunteer facilitator, and current Dougy Center parent, it is my life’s work and passion to further this critical mission. Outside of work, my time is spent with family and friends honoring my mother’s legacy of making every day a celebration.

Brian Smith

Brian Smith is a life coach, certified grief educator, and small business consultant. He is on the Advisory Board for IANDS and Helping Parents Heal. Brian is also the author of “Grief 2 Growth: Planted. Not Buried” and the host of the Grief 2 Growth podcast.

Dr. Chris Lourenco

Chris lost his two brothers, Zach and Alex, on July 4, 2003 to electrocution. He attended his first Compassionate Friends conference in 2005 and met other siblings who understood what he was going through. Since then, he has been an active volunteer at the national level to honor his brothers.

Cindy Tart

Cindy is currently a clinical social worker and has volunteered in the grief field for more than 35 years. After the death of her brother Dennis, she knew there were other bereaved siblings whose grief was being overlooked. Cindy has worked with The Compassionate Friends as a workshop presenter and member of the board of directors to help bring more awareness to sibling grief.

Claire Bidwell Smith

Claire Bidwell Smith is a therapist specializing in grief and the author of multiple books, including Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief. Claire offers numerous online programs for grief in addition to working with people one-on-one, as well as training other clinicians to work in the field of grief and loss. Led by her own experiences with grief, and fueled by her work in hospice and private practice, Claire strives to provide support for all kinds of people experiencing all kinds of grief.

Colin Campbell

Colin Campbell is an Academy Award nominated writer and director for theater and film. He teaches theater and film at Chapman University and Cal Poly Pomona University. When his two beautiful and brilliant teenage children, Ruby and Hart, were killed by a drunk driver in 2019, Colin fell into a terrifying chasm of aching and hopelessness. He drew strength and inspiration from the mourning rituals of his wife’s Jewish traditions and learned to lean into the pain of grief. His book, Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss With Hope and Purpose, was published by Penguin Random House in March 2023.

David Kessler

David Kessler is a grief specialist, speaker, and author of six books, including his latest bestselling book, Finding Meaning. He co-authored two books with Elisabeth Kübler Ross. His first book received praise from Saint (Mother) Teresa.

He facilitates a new model of online grief groups that are attended by people worldwide and leads one of the most respected online grief certificate programs. He is the founder of Grief.com which has over five million visits yearly from 167 countries.

Dawn Nargi

Dawn Nargi is the Executive Director of The W Connection, an organization for widows she co-founded after the death of her husband in 2009. Experiencing firsthand both the needs of widows and the limited support services available, Dawn committed herself to providing better resources for women to rebuild their lives after the devastating loss of a partner.

Dianne Gray

Dianne is a 34-year End-of-Life Doula, Grief Educator, Grief Specialist, Tech Innovator, Patient Navigator, and Global Palliative Care Advocate.

She helps people:

  • understand the mind-body-spirit connection during end of life, death and grief
  • find answers to their most difficult questions surrounding meaning, purpose, hope, faith, legacy building, belonging, spirituality, unconditional love, boundaries, control, the ego, and change
  • navigate the healthcare system while finding medical resources for patients and family coping with serious illness, death and/or grief
  • challenge imbalances in communication norms between patients & clinicians
  • find peace amidst chaos, especially following tragedy, loss, estrangement, separation
  • better understand our resistance to change
  • make connections to professionals who can help with diagnosis, symptom management and care throughout serious illness, death and grief
  • by speaking “with vs at” individuals while respecting cultural values, customs & rituals
  • by helping them understand their suffering & including inter-generational trauma, while also helping them recognize and develop resiliency
  • by accompanying actively dying patients and their family members
  • by practicing compassionate listening and companioning

Debbie Dullabaun

After the death of her six-year-old son, Dale Lee Dullabaun, III, in 1998, Debbie began to work in his memory with several non-profit organizations. Along with volunteering for many years with the American Red Cross and San Fernando Valley Domestic Abuse Response Team, Debbie recently became a Court Appointed Special Advocate, representing the needs of children in the Los Angeles County child welfare system. Debbie has also been active in the Compassionate Friends grief support organization, serving as the founding chair of its Diversity Commission, and as a former member and president of TCF’s national board of directors.

Dr. Donna L. Schuurman

Dr. Schuurman has a 35-year history with Dougy Center, the first bereavement center for children in the U.S. She serves on the board of The Compassionate Friends Foundation, and is a Founding Board member of the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. She loves to ski, camp, and ride her Harley-Davidson.

Elizabeth Devita Raeburn

Elizabeth oversees cancer and oncology coverage. Before joining Everyday Health, she was an editor at American Health and Harper’s Bazaar, and spent a number of years freelance writing for Discover, Psychology Today, The New York Times, and others. She is the author of two books, including The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer is Winnable — and How We Can Get There, which she coauthored with her father, Vincent T. DeVita Jr, MD. She has a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a master’s in science writing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In her spare time, Elizabeth enjoys kayaking, yoga, and playing guitar.

Elizabeth Boisson

Elizabeth is the President and Co-Founder of Helping Parents Heal. She has four children, two of whom are in Spirit: Chelsea, who passed when she was two days old in France, and Morgan, who transitioned at the Base Camp of Mount Everest in Tibet.. She also has two beautiful daughters: Alix and Christine. Elizabeth attended and taught at UNC-Chapel Hill for undergraduate and graduate school and at the Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier, France. Elizabeth is the compiling author of Life to Afterlife – Helping Parents Heal, The Book. She is also a certified yoga instructor and teaches healing yoga.

Dr. Eric Brewer

Dr. Eric Brewer is the Founder & Senior Pastor of Transform Church Global Ministries, bringing over 30 years of ministry experience and a heart for serving others. A graduate of Morehouse College, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Drew University, where he earned his Doctorate of Ministry, Dr. Brewer’s work focuses on healing, resilience, and grief recovery—particularly within the Black community.

A COVID-19 survivor and widower, Dr. Brewer founded a national support group for Black widowers and is a Certified Thanatologist and grief coach. His upcoming book, From Grief to Growth: A 31-Day Journey of Healing and Renewal Through Love and Loss, releases February 2025.

Dr. Brewer finds joy in traveling with his wife, Rev. Tiffany Williams Brewer, a former NJ judge, spending time with their daughter, Elana Joy, and connecting with people through ministry. He’s passionate about empowering others to grow through life’s challenges and embrace hope and renewal. www.drericbrewer.com.

Glen Lord

Co-creator of Walking Through Grief, a peer grief support program used in 500+ groups; co-founder of The Grief Toolbox; former president of The Compassionate Friends; CEO of Peer Support Community Partners and director at the Support After a Death by Overdose project. He is a bereaved parent, sibling, and child.

Gordon Smith

With a career spanning over 4 decades, Gordon has been hailed by the UK’s media as “Britain’s most accurate medium”.   
His accuracy has been subject to several years of testing at Glasgow University by emeritus professor Archie Roy – Head of The Scottish Society of Psychical research, whose findings were published in three scientific journals.
More recently, in addition to speaking and demonstrating at the last two Helping Parents Heal conferences in Phoenix, Arizona, Gordon also hosted the online Younity International “Flow Summit 2024” and has been a keynote speaker at both the “Find Your Flow” 2023 and 2024 festivals (the largest in Europe), where he demonstrated his mediumship on the main stage to more than 10,000 attendees.

Heidi Gessner

Heidi Gessner, MDiv, BCC, BCC, is an Ordained United Church of Christ Minister who serves as the palliative care chaplain and bereavement coordinator of University of North Carolina Hospitals, a level one trauma center. As the bereavement coordinator, her main priority is connecting with the family members who have had a loved one die in the hospital. Her specialty is connecting with these family members, staff, as well as community members, and helping them feel they are not alone. For in her deepest suffering after her father died, she experienced the presence of Love. She was so overwhelmed by this sense of a benevolent Presence, it changed the course of her life. The awareness of being cared for and connected to something bigger came suddenly, and helped her want to share this feeling with others. Heidi is also a certified life coach, who creatively cultivates hope, nurtures growth, and encourages people to be good stewards of their grief, and to learn from it when they are ready.

Jacob Cooper

Passionate about promoting healing, Jacob L. Cooper, best-selling author of Life After Breath and The Wisdom of Jacobs’s Ladder, is a Near-Death Experiencer and sought-after speaker on mental health, spirituality – consciousness, offering elevating seminars and individualized services to help others find purpose and connect to their inner power. 

Johnny Sirpilla

Johnny Sirpilla is a seasoned executive leader with a dynamic 30-year career spanning entrepreneurship, impactful leadership roles, and revered speaking engagements. As a former president of a national retail giant with $4 billion in annual sales and ownership experience, he’s navigated diverse landscapes, from boardrooms to corporate governance. Rooted in personal tragedy, Johnny’s mission emerged from the death of his triplets, two sons and a daughter. This profound experience spurred a transformative journey, redefining leadership with compassion while creating clarity for the man he wanted to be.

Dr. Ken Druck

Ken Druck is an international authority on courageous living and healing after loss. Recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Contribution to Psychology award, Ken has inspired and guided clients, communities, readers, audiences for over 45 years. His books, including Courageous Aging and his new best-seller, How We Go On, are about mastering the “What now? Moments” in this life — and summoning the courage to meet them. Ken’s life’s work after the tragic loss of his daughter, Jenna, come through his work as an educator, speaker, trainer, coach, consultant and community leader.

Dr. Ken presents a variety of world-class programs for distinguished conferences and organizations including the United Nations, Harvard School of Public Health, Open to Hope and the Young Presidents Organization. He teaches and trains doctors in Grief Literacy and Compassionate Care at the UCSD School of Medicine and his work is featured regularly on CNN, NPR, PBS, Fox, network specials and the world’s leading newspapers, magazines, podcasts and social media sites. His recent article in Psychiatric Times featured groundbreaking guidelines for End-of-Life Care and Grief Literacy.

Ken lives in Del Mar, California with Lisette, his “beloved better 2/3rds,” only a few minutes from his earth daughter, Stefie, her husband, his twin 5-year-old grandsons and the offices of Druck Enterprises.

Ken Ross

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.

Dr. Mary Neal

Dr. Mary Neal is a board-certified orthopaedic spinal surgeon who authored the #1 NYT best-selling books “To Heaven and Back” and “7 Lessons from Heaven” that are based on her profound experience of drowning on a South American river. Her dramatic after-death experience, the miracles, and the insights she gained as a result, have been the subject of many media productions and offer great hope and inspiration to all who fear death, have suffered loss, or seek to live a joy-filled life.

Melissa Red Hoffman

Dr. Red Hoffman started her professional career as a naturopathic doctor and a yoga teacher and now practices as a trauma surgeon, a hospice medical director, and an associate medical director of palliative care, all in Asheville, North Carolina.  She is one of approximately 100 US surgeons currently board certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and is a clinical assistant professor of surgery at University of North Carolina School of Medicine.  She speaks and writes nationally and internationally about the intersection of surgery and palliative medicine and her work has been featured in JAMA, Doximity, KevinMD and General Surgery News.  Red is the founder and host of both the Surgical Palliative Care Podcast and the Surgical Soul Podcast and is the co-founder of the Surgical Palliative Care Society (www.spcsociety.org).  Her Tedx talk, Making Meaning After Violent Death, was presented during Tedx Asheville in 2024.  

Hope Edelman

As the “mother” of motherless daughters, Hope Edelman is the author of eight nonfiction books, including the bestsellers Motherless Daughters and Motherless Mothers, and her most recent book, The AfterGrief. Her books have been published in 17 countries and 11 languages and have sold more than 1 million copies. Motherless Daughters, often considered required reading for any woman who has lost a mother, is now in its third edition and has been in print for nearly 30 years.

Hope speaks at venues and conferences all over the world and has appeared frequently on television, including Today, Good Morning America, CNN, KTLA, CBC, and Good Morning Australia.

Jason Wendroff-Rawnicki

Jason is a Somatic Grief Therapist, keynote speaker, best selling author, certified yoga educator, MA in psychology and Essential Oil Leader. After losing his sister Lauren in a car accident in 1998, became passionate about empowering individuals with simple & effective tools to naturally manage their mental, emotional and physical health. When we change our physical state, we have the energy to do the mental and emotional work needed to bring hope back into our lives. In 2019 he started SIBS Online, a peer support group for bereaved siblings that meets every week. www.SomaticGriefTherapy.com

Jill Colucci

Jill Colucci is a multi-platinum award-winning songwriter with #1 hits including Song of the Year “No One Else On Earth” by Wynonna Judd, “I’m Gonna Be Somebody” by Travis Tritt, and “Anymore” which she co-wrote with Travis. Her songs have sold over 20 million records worldwide. Jill has entertained America as the writer and vocalist of the theme song for ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos for nearly three decades, as well as singing for numerous films and national commercials. Although Jill has enjoyed much commercial success, she has also experienced great loss. She refers to this period in her life as “The Lost Decade” because she lost so many of her loved ones, lost herself in the care-giving process, and then fell critically ill and almost lost her own life. During this time, her music changed, her heart was opened more fully, and her songs became the vehicle for her healing. Her new CD, “Heal My Heart”, is an expression of her triumph over loss and the manifestation of her new path in life.

Jill Johnson-Young

Jill Johnson-Young, LCSW is the CEO of Central Counseling Services in Riverside, California. She specializes in grief and loss, dementia, end of life, and recreating life after loss, and is a national and international speaker in those areas. Her career has included more than a decade with hospice as a medical social worker and as director of social workers, chaplains and grief staff. Jill has authored several books for children and adults on grief. She facilitates a monthly dementia support group in the community and an online grief chat live every Friday on FB. Jill has been widowed twice, with children, and is married to a funeral director.

Jordon Ferber

Jordon Ferber is a comedian, podcaster and public speaker. Two years into his burgeoning comedy career, Jordon ‘s brother Russell was killed in a car accident on July 6th, 2002. Since then, Jordon has become a much needed voice in the bereavement community, working with the Compassionate Friends both locally and nationally, as well as hosting the popular podcast, “Where’s The Grief?” He and his family run The Russell Ferber Foundation, which provides scholarships to the Culinary Institute of America, and produces a yearly comedy benefit show, continuing to bring people together and carry on the spirit of his brother Russell through love and laughter. In his spare time, Jordon enjoys writing short blurbs about himself in the third person.

Meghan Riordan Jarvis

Meghan Riordan Jarvis, MA, LCSW is an author, podcast host, two time Tedx Speaker, and psychotherapist specializing in trauma and grief and loss. After the deaths of both of her parents within two years of each other Meghan began speaking on a larger scale about the importance of supporting grievers. Founder of MRJ Consulting, Meghan and her team consult regularly with companies addressing grief in the workplace. Meghan’s podcast “Grief is My Side Hustle” and grief writing workshop “grief mates”.

Pamela Hagens

Pamela Hagens, better known as SAMUEL’S STEADY – found that the 19 & ½ summers with her eldest son, just did not seem to be enough time to walk through all the moments of love. She shares that loving Samuel- was blessing, a learning of parenting, an adventure- filled with fun, fast, breath- taking, SPECTACULAR HEART MOMENTS! Samuel’s Steady, transparently shares that life looks different, feels different, but acknowledges that she has surprisingly been invited to walk with others in beautifully intimate space. She finds comfort, strength and calm in many ways, resources and relationships. She also shares; that encouragement, support & Hope often meets the ‘missing’ when you least expect it. Samuel’s JOY for living is carried on by his father, two brothers, little niece; and a broad circle of family and friends.

Paul Denniston

Paul Denniston is the founder of Grief Yoga® and the author of Healing Through Yoga: Transform Loss into Empowerment.

The mission of Grief Yoga is to use movement, breath, and sound to release pain and suffering to connect to empowerment and love.

Grief Yoga combines many different forms of yoga to channel and release anger to allow unresolved grief a compassionate space to breathe and move. His gentle work creates a safe space of movement and healing to transform trauma and connect to the resilient loving warrior within.

Paul has taught and trained this practice to thousands of therapists, counselors, yoga teachers and health care professionals around the world.

Raul Morales

Retired Port Authority Police Sergeant (30 years service) Sports official – At all levels – from Recreational to NCAA collegiate and Professional Baseball- High School sports official Basketball and Football. I started officiating sports in 2010 after Jonathan’s passing to fill the void of what we shared. Black belt in Karate -studied martial arts in my teens.

Tysha Scott

Tysha joined the CSC Board in 2021. Tysha spent over 24 years as a Management Consultant, in her own consulting business primarily serving nonprofit organizations, grass roots community groups, colleges/universities, educational
membership organizations and Fortune 500 companies. Her clients included Heritage Health and Housing, Inc., Planned Parenthood of Nassau County, National Urban League, Hofstra University School of Law/Maurice A. Dean School of Law, Worlddidac, Inc., Deutsche Bank, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and Wagner College.

Prior to her consulting work, Tysha worked at New York Cares as Senior Director of Corporate Relations and Director of Corporate Volunteer Programs where she raised over $10 million. She was part of the initial management team for New York Cares. Tysha created the Corporate Volunteer Program at New York Cares and served as the first Director.

Zander Sprague

Zander Sprague is a best-selling author, internationally acclaimed Speaker, and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor for Sibling Loss. His mission is to help sibling survivors define their loss, choose a positive pathway, and fully participate in their lives.

He is the author of 3 books:

EPIC Begins With 1 Step Forward: Plan Achieve and Enjoy the
Journey

Making Lemonade: Choosing A Positive Pathway After Losing Your
Sibling

Why Don’t They Cry?: Understanding Your Living Child’s Grief.

Zander is currently the sibling representative on the national board for the Compassionate Friends and works tirelessly to raise awareness for Sibling Survivors™

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