Training And Speaking On The Work Of Remembrance
The work of remembrance is changing - and so are the people who are called to it.
I serve as End-of-Life Instructor at the Celebrant Academy, training aspiring celebrants in the craft of meaningful ceremony. I also speak to organizations, community groups, and professional audiences on what celebrants do, how ceremonies are evolving, and what it means to do this work well.
Training:
Celebrant Academy
I'm honored to serve as End-of-Life Instructor at the Celebrant Academy, working with aspiring celebrants to develop the skills, sensitivity, and confidence to serve families through funerals, memorials, celebrations of life, and graveside services.
The training covers more than technique. It teaches new celebrants how to listen for a life. How to gather the stories that make a person who they were. How to develop and write a personalized ceremony that fits the family and the moment. And how to stand and tell that story well.
This work changes the practitioners who do it. The aspiring celebrants I teach come from many paths - funeral home staff considering a wider practice, hospice and end-of life professionals deepening their care, second-career adults answering a call to meaningful work. What unites them is the same instinct: to help families honor a life well.
If you are considering this path, the Celebrant Academy is where I'd send you. You can learn more about the program and enroll directly through them.
Speaking
I'm available as a speaker for funeral industry gatherings, hospice teams, community groups, historical societies, and any organization curious about how we mark the end of a life. I bring a practitioner's perspective, drawn from officiating ceremonies for families across central Michigan and training the next generation of celebrants at the Celebrant Academy.
Topics I speak to:
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Celebrant work itself. What celebrants do, how the practice is different from clergy-led services, and why personalization has become central to modern end-of-life work.
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The changing landscape of end-of-life ceremonies. The rise of non-religious and interfaith families, the shift toward celebrations of life and personalized services, what funeral directors, end-of-life practitioners, and hospice teams are seeing on the ground.
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Cemetery art and symbolism. A historian's look at the stories told in stone - the symbols, the language, the meaning behind the markers we walk past every day.
I tailor each session to the length and audience you have in mind - from short talks to half-day workshops. If your organization is looking for a speaker, I'd welcome the conversation.