The Dying Year
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Staff and Teachers

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Christina Wall
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Administrative Assistant and Teacher

Contact:
cwalleoldoula@yahoo.com



Christina's experience comes from three areas: working and training as a professional end-of-life doula, volunteering for hospice and personal experience in end of life transitions. She completed the end of life doula training in January of 2020 and First Steps Advance Care Planning training with Merilynne Rush in February of 2020. Since that time, she has helped numerous clients during the end of life transition time. She specializes in working with adult children who are in caregiving roles and well as with caregivers to patients with dementia. Additionally, she have been an active hospice volunteer since September of 2018.

Services: EOL Doula, specializing in caregivers and dementia

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Olivia Hunter
Baltimore, Maryland
Teacher& Team Member
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Contact:
OliviaKHunter@gmail.com
                                                                                       Olivia Hunter is a student of the mystical and metaphysical. She is a Reiki Master and ordained minister serving a multi-denomination church in Washington, D.C.  Recently retired from 30 years as a Human Resources professional, she currently consults with small businesses in the WDC-metro area. Introduced to the Death Positive movement while volunteering for hospice, Rev. Olivia is pursuing a next chapter career as both a life- and an end-of-life doula. By applying her professional and ministerial expertise, she seeks to serve those entering any type of transition with listening, coaching, counseling, companionship and ritual.

Services: EOL Doula, EOLD Mentoring, Group Facilitation

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Star Fallin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Teacher & Team Member

Contact:
startwaddle@gmail.com



Star, the mother of 7, lives in Milwaukee. A wannabe photographer, drummer, writer, and consummate, hyperactive “oddball,” she has been part of the death industry for 12 years as an autopsy technician, disaster site clean-up specialist, end-of-life planning guide, zoomeral facilitator, search and recovery diver, EOLD, and memento-mori artist. While she continues to work off and on as a home birth midwife, EOLD work is what she is most passionate about, teaching her community to welcome death and dying into mainstream conversation and celebrate departures in ways that create peace for those crossing the veil, and offer comfort, compassion and love for those who remain. “I would that every one of us are prepared for and unafraid of death, which, in turn, offers the space to create beautiful lives in the present.”

Services: EOL Doula, perinatal loss, sudden death support 

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Jessica Kilbourn
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Teacher& Team Member
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Contact:
jessicakilbourn73@gmail.com



Jess (she/her) lives in Ypsilanti, MI. As an embodied entrepreneur in the healing arts for 25 years, she offers Reiki, massage therapy, and BodyMind method Coaching, and will soon complete an Aromatherapy certification. Jess has taught Women’s and Gender Studies at Eastern Michigan University (for 23 years), Reiki at the Evenstar Institute, and grief work at the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. She has been a certified EOLD since 2016, has a deep interest in nature, anti-racism and social justice of all kinds, grief, and community death care, and believes that death is an integral part of life.

Services: EOL Doula, Grief education, bodywork, home funeral guidance, working on aromatherapy certification


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Toula Saratsis
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Teacher & Team Member

Contact:
toulasaratsis@gmail.com



Toula’s mission is to assist clients and their families by providing services that promote well-being for end of life and after death care. Her daughter Angelica had a life-limiting condition that was diagnosed at three days old; she lived fully and with purpose until almost 6. Angelica provided the inspiration for Toula to be an end-of-life doula and home funeral guide. Toula is a certified EOLD, a member of the National Home Funeral Alliance and the Pediatric Palliative Care Coalition of Michigan, and a volunteer in both pediatric and adult care with Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor. She writes and speaks frequently to medical students, parents and staff about supporting changes in how we help others achieve a meaningful final rite of passage. Toula has been a high school Spanish teacher for 21 years, is proud of her Greek-American heritage, maintains family connections in Greece, and is deeply involved in her Greek Orthodox faith community.

Services: Pediatric EOL Doula care, home funeral guidance

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Robin Bow
Belleville, Michigan
Teacher& Team Member
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Contact:
regnur1@aol.com


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Robin Bow is a registered nurse with 26 years of patient care experience - 12 years as a hospice nurse and 14 years as a nursing assistant. Robin is the Nurse Clinical Coordinator at Angela Hospice. She previously owned and operated a non-medical home care business dedicated to working with hospice patients. Robin received her EOLD training in 2016 and is also a Reiki practitioner. Robin has a true passion for end-of-life care and ensuring that dying patients and families receive the support and care that is needed at such a crucial time.

Services: EOL Doula, EOLD mentoring


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​Compassionate Communities: A Public Health Approach to End-of-Life Care by Merilynne Rush, MSHP, RN, BSN

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THE DYING YEAR
Merilynne Rush

Ann Arbor, MI
734-395-9660
​thedyingyear@gmail.com
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Website designed by Lee Webster, Side Effects Publishing
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  • Home
  • Meet the Team
    • Founder
    • Staff and Trainers
  • Consulting
    • Consulting Services
    • Advance Care Planning
    • End of Life Doula Mentoring Discussion Groups
    • Home Funeral/Green Burial Consulting
  • Trainings
    • Educational Trainings
    • Advance Care Planning Facilitator Training
    • End of Life Doula Training >
      • FAQs About EOL Doulas
      • Certification
    • Home Funeral Guide Training
    • Payment and Registration
  • Resources
    • Books, Articles, Videos, and Interviews
    • Newsletters
    • Helpful Links >
      • Covid-19 Care Advice
    • Natural Burial in MI
  • Blog
  • Contact