Living with Grief®: Before and After the Death - Panelists
Frank Sesno, an Emmy-award winning journalist, special correspondent with CNN and a faculty member George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, moderated the program, which featured panelists:
Scott W. Bradley, MSW, CT, CFSP, a practicing psychotherapist as well as owner and managing partner of Bradley & Son Funeral Homes, LLC. Mr. Bradley has been a licensed funeral director in New Jersey for 19 years. Since receiving his master’s in social work from New York University in 1999, Mr. Bradley has been treating patients with a full range of diagnoses at various community mental health care centers in northern New Jersey. Mr. Bradley has continued his clinical training and attends the Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis (ACAP) in West Orange, N.J. Mr. Bradley is certified in thanatology, and is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, Association for Death Education and Counseling, National Funeral Directors Association, New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association, Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice, National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, and International Critical Incident Stress Foundation.
Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv, a professor of gerontology at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle. He is also a senior consultant to Hospice Foundation of America and helps direct the annual Living with Grief teleconference. Dr. Doka has written or edited 17 books, including HFA’s Living with Grief series, and has published 60 articles and book chapters. He is editor of Omega, a professional journal, and Journeys, HFA’s monthly bereavement newsletter. Dr. Doka was elected President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) in 1993, and in 1998, ADEC presented him with an Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Death Education. He was elected to the board of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement in 1995, and served as chair from 1997 to 1999. His alma mater, Concordia College, presented him with its first Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2006, Dr. Doka was recognized as a mental health counselor under New York State’s first licensure of counselors. Dr. Doka is an ordained Lutheran minister.
Lorraine Hedtke, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, specializes in working with people who are dying and with families after a loved one has died. She is employed by VITAS Innovative Hospice Care as a Bereavement Services Manager for the Inland Empire in California. She regularly teaches nationally and internationally about death, dying and bereavement and narrative therapy. Her articles have appeared in numerous professional and trade publications and newspapers. She is the author, along with John Winslade, of the book, Re-membering Lives: Conversations with the dying and the bereaved (Baywood Publishing, 2004). Her recent children’s book, My Grandmother is always with me, is co-authored with her 13-year-old daughter, Addison. Ms. Hedtke’s work represents a departure from conventional ways in which death and grief are thought of. Her teaching and writing embodies innovative theory in practical applications about “re-membering conversations”. This relational way of thinking about grief affirms that stories can potentially transcend physical limitations as living points of strength, resource and love. Further information about her unique approach to death and grief can be found at www.rememberingpractices.com.
Patricia Murphy, PhD, APN, FAAN, Clinical Ethicist at UMDNJ-University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, and an Associate Professor in the New Jersey Medical School Department of Surgery. Dr. Murphy was a member of the New Jersey Bioethics Commission, the multidisciplinary body that developed the Advance Directive and Brain Death legislation in New Jersey. A past president of the New Jersey State Nurses Association, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Nurses Association and Vice President of the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Dr. Murphy is board certified as a Grief Therapist and as a Clinical Specialist in Advanced Psychiatric Nursing. She has more than 50 publications in the area of ethics and end-of-life care and has been selected by the American Medical Association to teach its EPEC curriculum on End-of-Life Care. In the fall of 2006, she became a faculty member for the ELNEC program on End-of-Life Care in ICU. For more than 30 years Dr. Murphy has worked with patients who are dying and families who are acutely grieving.
Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, Professor and Director of Psychotherapy in the Department of Psychology at the University of Memphis, where he also maintains an active clinical practice. Dr. Neimeyer has published 20 books, including Meaning Reconstruction and the Experience of Loss, and serves as editor of the journal Death Studies. The author of nearly 300 articles and book chapters, and a frequent workshop presenter, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process. Neimeyer served as President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and as Chair of the International Work Group for Death, Dying and Bereavement. In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he has been granted the Eminent Faculty Award by the University of Memphis, and was made a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
Robert Washington, PhD, MDiv, a licensed clinical psychologist and minister. During his 32-year career, he has held various administrative positions in mental health, including Commissioner of Mental Health Services for the District of Columbia and Executive Director for the Community Mental Health Council of Chicago, and William Wendt Center for Loss and Healing in Washington, DC. For the last 20 years, Dr. Washington has specialized in grief counseling, working with those who are ill, dying and/or bereaved, and training others to do likewise. As a result of this work, Dr. Washington developed a strong interest in the interface of psychology and spirituality. He retired from mental health administration to pursue a second career in ministry. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Dr. Washington currently works as a chaplain in the Admissions Department of Montgomery Hospice in Maryland. In 2005, he retired as adjunct professor in the End-of-Life Care Program at George Washington University.
Frank Sesno, is Professor of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University (GW) in Washington, DC, where he teaches about the media and its impact on the shape and direction of public policy in America. In addition, Sesno serves as a Special Correspondent for CNN. From 2004-05, public television aired "Sesno Reports," a series of programs focusing on key issues facing the country.. In 2003 he hosted "worldtalk," an Emmy award-winning globally-focused public affairs series on WETA. Prior to joining the faculty at GW, Sesno served as a university professor of public policy and communication at George Mason University in Virginia. He has anchored and reported many major international news events, including presidential and economic summits, Middle East Peace talks, and the 50th anniversary of D-Day from Normandy. Sesno has been a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a former trustee of Middlebury College, and he is a former board member of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism awards. Sesno originally joined CNN in 1984 from AP Radio where he was an overseas correspondent based in London and later a White House correspondent. He started his broadcast career with WCFR Radio in Springfield, Vermont. Sesno earned an honors degree in American history from Middlebury College, graduating cum laude. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Monterrey Institute of International Studies.
