Founding Members
Jade Desmarais has an academic background in Anthropology and is a former apprentice funeral director who, before entering the death care industry, provided care for chimpanzees retired from biomedical research in the United States and Canada. She is an advocate for organ/tissue donation and has presented virtual educational information sessions on the topic. She dreams of a world where economically accessible, ecologically beneficial, and culturally sensitive death care are available to all. Jade currently works in veterinary pathology, and previously worked in the Autopsy and Decedent Affairs division of the Department of Pathology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.
Liz Dunnebacke is the founder and Executive Director of Wake, a nonprofit deathcare service organization based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Liz has served on the board of directors of the Green Burial Council International, and has a background in television production.
Heather Massey, MSW, is an end-of-life specialist, Death Educator, trainer, consultant, and Funeral Consumer Rights Advocate. She is passionate about reviving the ancient art of natural death care at home and in community, and is an advocate of the many benefits of natural burial for the environment and grieving families. As a former hospital Social Services Director and a VNA/Hospice Administrator, Massey has over forty years of experience caring for the dying, dead, and bereaved. As a national speaker, she curates and hosts several educational platforms on end-of-life, death, dying, post-death care, and bereavement.
Amy Shea is an essayist with a PhD and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. Her book, Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins, is set to be published in September 2025. Preorder of her book can be bought HERE. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Pangyrus, Portland Review, The Massachusetts Review, Spry Literary Journal, Fat City Review, From Glasgow to Saturn, End of Life Studies Group Blog & the Journal of Sociology of Health & Illness. She works as the Writing Program Director for Mount Tamalpais College, a free community college for the incarcerated people of San Quentin. Learn more about Amy here.
Kat Kimbal is a funeral consumer rights advocate, and an experienced family/community deathcare advocate. She found being able to participate in the care of her loved ones during and after the dying process to be an incredibly transformative experience. Kat has hosted public Death Cafes in cemeteries and lends her artistic flair and efforts (especially in graphic design) and tech knowledge to a number of death education nonprofits. She currently works for a nonprofit that provides services to neurodiverse individuals, and is passionate about equitable disposition options for all.
Database Thank Yous!
Thank you to all those who worked on the database project. The work each person did was instrumental in getting to this point.
- Founding members.
- Isabel Knight and Meadow Guthrie – this project
- All the amazing volunteers who crowdsourced the data.
- Pamela Prickett and her student team.
Equitable Disposition Alliance 