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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.