We are thrilled & grateful to feature our speakers, presenters, and panelists.
Emma Acker
End-of-Life Doula & Founder, All's Well InitiativeEmma Acker has been working as an End-of-Life Doula since 2017. She trained under Henry Fersko-Weiss (INELDA), and completed the End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate at The University of Vermont. In 2021, Emma founded All’s Well Initiative to provide compassionate end-of-life care across the socioeconomic spectrum of NYC. Partnering with the Pathways Program at All Angels’ Church on NYC’s Upper West Side, Emma created the Health Care “Proxy Project” supporting unhoused individuals. Emma joined University of Vermont's End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate Program as an academic instructor in 2025. She is a founding team member of Here to Honor.
John Alsdorf
Retired, Human ResourcesJohn Alsdorf worked in corporate Human Resources for over 30 years, during which he led management seminars and directed a major project to create a proprietary HR and Payroll database. He was also instrumental in introducing the intranet as a means to provide information on employee benefits and other programs.
John has an MDiv, loves teaching theology, and often leads adult education programs designed to deepen Christian faith engagement and application to challenges of 21st century life. Today, John focuses his energy on helping adults of all ages live more thoughtfully and intentionally in light of our shared mortality—a reflection of both his theological background and his personal experiences with life’s transitions.
Michael Balboni, Ph.D.
Theologian, Pastor, Researcher at Harvard UniversityMichael Balboni, Ph.D., Th.M., M.Div., is a theologian, congregational pastor, and researcher whose work focuses on the relationships among medicine, spirituality, and religion. He is a Research Affiliate with the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and co-directs the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University. He holds a Ph.D. in practical theology from Boston University and completed postdoctoral training at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Divinity School.
He has published approximately fifty articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals at the intersection of faith and serious illness. With Tracy Balboni, he co-authored Hostility to Hospitality: Spirituality and Professional Socialization in Medicine and co-edited Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine, both published by Oxford University Press. Their newest book, Walking Lois Home, explores the role of Christian faith communities in accompanying and caring for people facing serious illness and death.
Amy Cunningham
Funeral Director & CelebrantAmy Cunningham was a magazine writer until 2009 when her elderly father’s memorial service ignited a passion for helping folks plan home funerals, green burials, cremation gatherings, and all manner of memorial events. When she’s not directing funerals for her NYC firm Fitting Tribute Funeral Services, she writes a funeral planning blog called TheInspiredFuneral.com. She believes that a good funeral can send everyone in attendance out the door with an altered view of the world we share, and the beginnings of a plan for moving forward.
Katie Benn, RN, MPH
Clinical Nurse, OncologyKatie Benn works at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as an oncology nurse with an emphasis on palliative care. Her interest in end-of-life work has come from years of bedside nursing in a culture that remains uncomfortable discussing end-of-life planning. Katie has published her research on caregiver experiences with the transition to home hospice. She teaches various courses related to communication and palliative care. Katie is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Nursing at Hunter College.
Marni Blank
End-of-Life & After Loss ConsultantMarni Blank is the founder of Begin With The End. Her services are curated to empower individuals and families to prepare for logistical and emotional aspects of death, dying, and grief. This can include accountability in completing end-of-life decisions and documents, facilitating family conversations, getting your important documents and digital life organized, and legacy projects. For families in grief, she offers after loss support to help executors and families work through the paperwork and logistics to close the estate. She is a trained end-of-life doula, mediator, after-loss consultant, recovering lawyer, and female-founded small business owner (and a lifelong learner at heart).
Gabrielle Gatto
Manager of Programs, The Green-Wood CemeteryGabrielle Rose-Reggie Gatto is the Manager of Programs and Death Educator at The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Her work bridges education, culture, and care, encouraging people to get comfortable with the uncomfortable truth of our shared mortality. She is a trained death doula and grief and bereavement specialist, as well as the proud daughter of a plumber and a living saint.
Erica Hill
Founder, Sparrow Funeral HomeErica Hill is the co-owner of Sparrow, A Contemporary Funeral Home in Brooklyn, NY, and of The Alpha Society by Sparrow in Los Angeles, CA. She is also a licensed funeral director in California. Erica brings a modern, thoughtful approach to end-of-life care. Whether arranging traditional funerals, memorials, or innovative eco-friendly options such as aquamation and human composting, her commitment to dignity and respect remains unwavering. As the only funeral home of its kind in the country, Sparrow is redefining the funeral experience with a warm, design-forward space and a focus on inclusivity, transparency, and innovation. Sparrow has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, NBC, Morning Brew, and Good Housekeeping.
Kimberly Hong, LCSW, APHSW-C
Palliative Care Social WorkerKimberly is a licensed clinical social worker who received her MSW from NYU Silver in 2018 and has additional training from the esteemed NYU Zelda Foster Palliative and End of Life Care program. She also received her Advanced Palliative Hospice Social Worker certification in 2025. She has been working in the Palliative/End of Life Community for about eight years, primarily in large NY hospital settings. Kimberly knew from the beginning of her social work journey that she was passionate about working with individuals in this population, particularly drawn to the elderly and Asian populations, being a Korean American herself. For the last two years, Kimberly has also developed a small private practice and has been enjoying helping those who are struggling with grief and loss, currently receiving care as patients, or exploring their own Asian roots and identities.
Tatiana Lloyd-Dotta, LMSW
Geriatric Social WorkerTatiana is a geriatrics social worker, end-of-life care specialist, and lifelong seeker of meaning through connection. Raised by a constellation of mothers, Tatiana carries a deep appreciation for community care, nontraditional kinship, and the sacredness of tending to others through life’s most vulnerable moments. Professionally, Tatiana was a founding care manager at Hera, a pioneering health‑tech company that supports families in keeping loved ones at home as they age. Tatiana has also worked at a private practice in New York City as a geriatrics care manager, supporting dozens of clients through late‑life transitions and end‑of‑life care and is a graduate of New York University’s Zelda Foster Fellowship in Palliative and End‑of‑Life Care.
David Kim
CEO and Co-Founder, GoldenwoodRev. Dr. David Kim is the CEO and co-founder of Goldenwood, a non-profit cultivating spiritually attentive communities to envision work enlivened by hope and the fullness of our humanity. Over the past several decades, David has trained, consulted, and counseled hundreds of leaders and organizations in developing a robust, meaningful integration of faith and work. He has served as the Vice President of Faith and Work, Executive Director of the Center for Faith & Work and Director of the Gotham Fellowship, and as Editor of the NIV Faith and Work Bible. David’s passion is to help people and organizations see the unseen realities that give rise to the world we create.
Ellie Ledin
Creative Brand Manager, Inheritance of HopeEllie Ledin is a Certified Child Life Specialist who worked in a pediatric hospital for a few years before entering into the grief space in the nonprofit sector. Now the Creative Brand Manager and Legacy Storyteller at Inheritance of Hope, Ellie's work focuses on legacy development for young families facing the loss of a parent due to terminal illness, through the management of the Legacy Video and Legacy Song programs. She created and launched the Inheritance of Hope Podcast, where she facilitates honest conversations about some of the hardest questions families face as they find joy in the midst of sorrow.
Venus Mahmoodi
Dr. Venus Mahmoodi, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University and provides psychotherapy to women across the reproductive lifespan in The Women and Reproductive Psychiatry (WARM) Program. Her clinical practice focuses on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, infertility, and pregnancy loss. As a Whitaker Scholar in Developmental Neuropsychiatry, her research interests focus on perinatal wellbeing in diverse populations. Dr. Mahmoodi completed her PhD at the Palo Alto University in California and her clinical internship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in NYC.
Professor of Medical Psychology, Columbia University
Daphne McWilliams
End-of-Life DoulaDaphne McWilliams is an End-of-Life Doula who offers a calm, compassionate presence to those navigating death and grief, trained under Henry Fersko-Weiss and INELDA, with a Companion Animal End-of-Life Doula certificate from the University of Vermont. She's also a Death Café facilitator, believing that facing death, rather than avoiding it, is what shows us how precious life is. Daphne manages Sparrow Nesting, the boutique store of Sparrow Contemporary Funeral Home, offering home and comfort goods alongside handcrafted urns, and is currently building The Grief Box, an audio archive of grief stories to be sealed in a time capsule and opened a century later, whose voices will speak to listeners none of us will meet. Her work honors each person's story, helping them find meaning, comfort, and dignity in life's final chapter.
Mary Malhotra
End-of-Life Ministry, St. James' ChurchMary Malhotra is a parishioner at St. James' Church in Manhattan and started the End-of-Life ministry there. The ministry centers on getting our spiritual and logistical end-of-life "houses" in order. This is done through workshops, book groups, and small group sessions.
Rebecca Missel
Grief & Bereavement Specialist, Death EducatorRebecca Missel is an exuberant and purposeful community builder specializing in building human-centered systems of care, connection and support around death, dying and grief. A Certified Grief and Bereavement Specialist and trained Death Educator, Rebecca is the lead consultant at Shomer Collective where she has designed and scaled a community-focused grief care initiative, grounded in the Jewish rituals of shiva. Across her more than 20 years working in the nonprofit sector, Rebecca delights in transforming ideas into vibrant programs that engage people and invite them to show up with authenticity. Rebecca lives in Jersey City with her community.
Ronalda Nicholas
Pastoral Resident, Hope Church NYCRonalda Nicholas, Pastoral Resident at Hope Church NYC, is a dedicated pastoral leader with 5 years of experience in congregational care at Hope. She has a passion to see her Hope Church family connect and grow, and has a particular passion in equipping her community to serve in facing mortality together. She is a graduate of Leadership Transformations’ Selah Certificate in Spiritual Direction 2-year training program and has an M.A. in Christian Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Currently, Ronalda is a Fuller Theological Seminary DMin student working on her dissertation project: implementing a pilot spiritual gifts training and development program at Hope Church NYC to help members use their gifts in service.
Natalia Rodriguez
Dementia Care Educator, PSS Circle of CareNatalia built her career in education as an elementary teacher, school administrator, and instructional coach, helping students and teachers alike grow in skill and confidence. When she became a caregiver for her own parents, she brought that experience into a new calling: dementia care education. Today, as a dementia care educator at PSS Circle of Care, she equips family caregivers and professionals to support people living with dementia with compassion, dignity, and practical skill. Grounded in theological training and fluent in English and Spanish, she works to make caregiving education accessible across cultures and communities.
Amy Shea
Amy Shea is an essayist and the author of Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Portland Review, The Massachusetts Review, the Journal of Sociology of Health & Illness & others. She works as the Writing Program Director for Mount Tamalpais College, a free community college for the incarcerated people of San Quentin.
Author
Marisa Sifontes
Associate Rector, St. James’ ChurchRev. Marisa Sifontes wears many hats — she is an avid adventurer, mother, priest and any number of other things, depending on what day it is. She serves as an Associate Rector at St. James’ Church in Manhattan where she works with a busy congregation to breathe life into the Gospel. She also serves as the Chair of the Moses Commission in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, an organization tasked with helping the church chart a path towards repair. Prior to discerning a call to ordained ministry, Marisa practiced law, and also trained as an end-of-life doula.
Rachel Snyder
Chef & Founder, Rachel Snyder HospitalityRachel Snyder is an event strategist, chef, and founder of Rachel Snyder Hospitality, a New York–based hospitality company. Through her work designing dinners, weddings, corporate events, and celebrations, Rachel helps teams think through the details that shape a gathering and create a sense of belonging.
Katherine Sokol, MSN, AGACNP-BC
ICU Nurse Practitioner, Columbia UniversityKatherine Sokol holds an MSN from the University of Pennsylvania and currently works as a nurse practitioner in the medical intensive care unit (ICU) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in NYC. Throughout her career, she has cared for patients in a variety of clinical settings, including the emergency department, outpatient oncology, surgical and cardio-thoracic ICUs, and COVID-19 ICUs during the height of the pandemic. She is passionate about reducing undue distress at the end of life by guiding and equipping patients and their loved ones to reflect on mortality, communicate about their wishes, and plan for end-of-life care.
Elsie Soto
Elsie Soto is a public health professional and the Director of Friends of Hart Island. Her advocacy is deeply personal, as both her father and brother are buried on the island. Through storytelling, family engagement, and policy advocacy, she works to protect the dignity of those buried there and improve access for their families. Elsie holds degrees in Public Health and Health Education and Promotion, with a minor in Disability Studies.
Public Health & Advocacy
Andrea Steinkamp
Minister, United Church of ChristRev. Andrea Steinkamp (she/her) is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the United Church of Christ (“UCC”). Her call to ministry is rooted in a desire to create and facilitate spaces of respite and community where people can be fed, both physically and spiritually, nourished to encourage and sustain their ethical action in the world. Andrea received her Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary with a concentration in cross-testament Biblical studies, where she was the recipient of The Hudnut Award, The Maxwell Fellowship of Auburn Seminary, and The Scholarly Excellence Award.
Dana Tanamachi
Artist / Founder, Tanamachi StudioDana Tanamachi is a graphic designer, illustrator, and muralist in New York City. After working under design legend Louise Fili, Dana founded her eponymous design practice, Tanamachi Studio, where she has created custom typography, illustrations, and large-scale installations for brands such as Target, Nike, Starbucks, USPS, Penguin Books, Uniqlo, Instagram, the Obama Foundation, and West Elm. Her work has graced the covers of TIME and O, The Oprah Magazine and appeared on a USPS Forever stamp.
Eva Ting
Founder / CEO, Here to HonorEva Ting founded Here to Honor, a social enterprise that cultivates community around end-of-life learning through offering education that addresses practical, relational and spiritual concerns around death. Prior to starting Here to Honor, Eva served as the Director of W83 Ministry Center, a community events facility at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. With a career in arts and events management spanning Boston, Shanghai, and New York, she is passionate about creating meaningful community experiences and facilitating connections. Eva trained as an end-of-life doula with INELDA (International End-of-Life Doula Association), and she holds bachelor’s degrees from Boston University, and a master’s degree from New York University. Eva also currently serves as the Director of Operations at City Seminary of New York.
Scott Wohl
VP of Community and Public Affairs, LiveOnNYScott Wohl joined LiveOnNY in 2017 and currently leads strategic outreach to build public trust and awareness around organ and tissue donation. He guides community-driven initiatives, empowering staff, volunteers, and partners to advance the organization's mission through service, equity, and collective action. Before LiveOnNY, Scott spent 20+ years in public policy, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement, driving inclusive and impactful change.
Threshold Choir sings for those at the thresholds of life, guided by a vision of a world where all at life's thresholds may be honored with compassion shared through song. Founded in 2007, the New York City chapter is made up of 30 volunteer singers of a range of ages who bring gentle, comforting song to the bedsides of people nearing the end of life. Singing in small groups of two to four, members visit homes, apartments, hospitals, hospices, and care facilities across Manhattan and Brooklyn, always offering their gift of song free of charge.