Anne Blankenship, MAR

Anne Blankenship is working on her PhD in American Religious History at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her prior documented knowledge stems from an MAR in Religion from Yale Divinity School (2002) and a BA from the University of Puget Sound (1998). Anne studies the confluence of religion, culture and secular, and as a result, she has researched deathcare independently. Her interest in deathcare issues began with useful ties between her academic work and the more practical work that must be done on the ground to improve the ethics of American deathcare, both in and out of religious organizations.

Diana Lane, MA

Diana is a third order Carmelite and active parishioner in her home congregation. She has worked as the Director of Human Resources at many big name companies, but is currently enjoying her work as the Director of Human Resources at a large non-profit in Boston, MA. Diana is also a long-time hospice volunteer. 

 Joe Primo, MDiv,  President

Joe Primo holds a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University Divinity School. He is a former interfaith chaplain at The Connecticut Hospice (the first U.S. hospice), where he developed a passion for working with dying persons and their families. His ministry with end-of-life issues stimulated his curiosity with deathcare, becoming an advocate for the rights of decedents, bereaved persons, and those who care for them. He currently ministers as an interfaith chaplain in Southern Connecticut, in addition to being an advocate for ethical deathcare.

contact: joseph.primo@irdsh.org

Jennifer Seaich, MDiv

Jen is the Director of the St John's Catholic Student Center at Idaho State University.  She has an MDiv from Yale Divinity school and has worked closely as a community and union organizer because she deeply believes in the connection between justice issues and  spirituality. Having lost her own mother and gone through the exhausting and bewildering process of planning a funeral, without knowing what the options were and being too tired and grief-stricken to find out,she do believes that the death industry needs reform. She believes "losing a loved one is terrible, [and] the brutal process adds to the pain." She similarly believes that the faith community must be more involved in the end of life, both for the beloved dead and the families left behind, rather than leaving so much of death care up to morticians and sellers of burial plots and gravestones.

Marion Visel, MDiv

Rev. Marion B. Visel, is a Unitarian Universalist minister and a hospice chaplain.  She holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Graduate Theologic Union, Berkley, CA.  Marion is a minister at the Unitarian Society of New Haven in Connecticut and  feels strongly that people should have the option of natural burial based on her religious beliefs and concern for the earth.