About

Minnesota Death Collaborative

We are a group of integrative death professionals who serve our community in a variety of ways.  We are end-of-life doulas, home funeral and vigil guides, celebrants, green burial advocates, energy and body workers, and much more. We work together to provide death care opportunities to those who are dying, their families, and their support network. Our goal is to educate and inform the public and professionals within the state of Minnesota, and to help those in need find appropriate services and resources.

Mission, Vision & Values

Our Mission

To embrace and honor death as a part of life through learning, connection, and support for
death doulas and other end-of-life practitioners.

Our Vision

To embrace and honor death as a part of life.

Our Values

The MNDC creates experiences and opportunities to reimagine death in meaningful and innovative ways.
The MNDC is committed to a cultural shift through advocacy and education.
The MNDC endeavors to create more opportunities for equity and access to end-of-life resources.
The MNDC respects that individual choices and informed decisions at the end-of-life are to be honored.

Our core focus areas

Providing access to doula education through our Scholarship and Mentorship programs

Learning

Creating opportunities for end-of-life professionals to connect and share through spaces like the Death Download and a private members Facebook group

Community

Facilitating connection and conversation about death with the broader community through our Conference, Community Events, and Book Club

Connection

Frequently Asked Questions

Join MNDC

Join us in the mission to increase connection and support for death doulas and other end-of-life practitioners.

For more information on membership and benefits, visit our membership page. Individual, non-profit, and corporate memberships available.

Our Board

  • Patricia Harmon

    Patricia Harmon

    SECRETARY

    admin@mndeathcollaborative.org

    Patricia Harmon has been an end-of-life doula since 2017. She works in her private practice through her LLC, Limina and as a volunteer with Grace Hospice. The inspiration for her decision to pursue this works come from her personal experiences with death and as an Executive Director of a healing center for cancer survivors and their families. Through that work, she learned the power of supporting and sustaining patients and families as they go through the dying process. Patricia is also passionate about non-profit governance and the power that excellent organizations can bring to community.

  • Becca Nelson

    Becca Nelson (she/her)

    MEMBERSHIP

    members@mndeathcollaborative.org

    Becca is a Going With Grace trained & NEDA proficient End of Life Doula, volunteer with Sholom Hospice, and founder of Partners in Passing. As a former management consultant, Becca is passionate about using her organizational, project management, and communication skills to build community and support for the dying and their circles of support. Becca is committed to facilitating uncomfortable conversations with the aim of making death less weird.

  • Cindy McCreary (she/her)

    DEVELOPMENT

    development@mndeathcollaborative.org

    Cindy McCreary is an End of Life Doula, Grief Specialist and Certified Life Planning Specialist trained through International Doula Life Movement (IDLM). She currently volunteers her services as an End-of-Life Doula at Sholom Hospice in St. Paul, MN and as a volunteer with other hospice organizations in the Twin Cities area. She has recently ended a long career in Organization Development which included leadership and team development, change management and executive coaching. She enjoys using her skills in new ways through her work with the MN Death Collaborative and her volunteer work. She is passionate about making a difference in death work and is grateful to have compassion, kindness and caring at the core of how she spends her time.

  • Liz Liddiard Wozniak (she/her)

    FINANCE

    finance@mndeathcollaborative.org

    Liz is a graduate of the Going With Grace Death Doula Program, and is certified through NEDA. She volunteers at Providence Place in Minneapolis, and has provided Tarot divination to clients for 40 years. Her interest in end of life work was born when her mother died in 2012. Liz was part of the home birth movement in the 70s and 80s, participating in evolving how we are born in this country. The role of midwife is strong in her life work, and she now works to support the evolution of how we die. She sees the importance of normalizing conversations about death, educates people in end of life planning and supports people in thinking about what they want when their time comes. The most profound knowing that has come from this work has been to deeply internalize the reality that she will die. When facilitating groups, her goal is to bring an awareness of our mortality, and often feels a palpable sigh of relief in gratitude that these conversations can be had with courage, humor and love.

  • Libby Hilsendager-Communications

    Libby Hilsendager (she/her)

    COMMUNICATIONS

    communications@mndeathcollaborative.org

    Libby recently stepped away from her full-time career in the field of Radiation Therapy to instead lean in to things she is passionate about, and she found her passion lies in death work. She is a certified Advanced Care Planning Navigator, a volunteer with Beyond Hospice, and is also actively working to bring Natural Organic Reduction to the Twin Cities through Live On Minnesota. She strongly believes everyone should have a “plan” for their deaths and celebrations of life. She, herself, has brainstormed everything from a music playlist, to food she wants served, to pictures she wants hung at her own celebration of life. And to be clear, it’s going to be FUN with lots of laughing and embarrassing stories about her. The only tears allowed at her celebration should be tears of joy and laughter in remembering Libby.

  • Emily Wisser

    Emily Wisser (she/her)

    MARKETING

    marketing@mndeathcollaborative.org

    Emily is an INELDA trained End of Life Doula. After watching her father navigate his end of life journey with cancer, Emily began processing her grief experience through writing and learning about alternative modalities of healing, which led her to discovering death work. As a visual and user experience designer, Emily is drawn to approaching problems with creativity, and she is grateful to support this community and its important mission. She is passionate about removing the stigma around death and grief.

Sage Circle

Retired Founding Members

Jane Whitlock, Founding Member,  2018 to August 2021
Jean Budge, Founding Member,  2018 to September 2021
Nina Guertin, Founding Member 2018-September 2021,
Scholarship Chair April 2021-Present
Susan Lawrence, Founding Member, 2018 to September 2021
Cheryl Larson, Founding Member, 2018 to August 2022
Anne Murphy, Founding Member, 2018 to April 2023
Wendy Brown, Founding Member, 2018 to May 2023