End-of-Life Conversation Webinars

We held an insightful, helpful, and uplifting lunch and learn on April 24th, 2024, about end-of-life planning and facing illness with confidence and control. It might sound crazy, but this plan can include joy, humor, and fun. Check out the recording.

This presentation features John Keenan, senior partner at Signature Estate and Investment Advisors’ Virginia office. Discover invaluable insights into planned giving strategies, including charitable bequests and donor-advised funds. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how planned giving can align with your financial and philanthropic goals.

Planning precisely is an act of love and compassion to those who are left behind,” said Bishop Vashti Murphy Mackenzie, keynote speaker and one of more than 15 presenters at The Journey Home: A Comprehensive Discussion on the Power of Planning. This dynamic summit hosted by the Compassion & Choices African American Leadership Council in Washington, D.C., brought together thought leaders, experts and community members in-person and virtually to empower participants to prepare for life’s end.

Despite knowing that death is the common thread that unites us all, we tend to keep the topic at arm’s length. Yet acknowledging the inevitability of death, contemplating what we wish the end to look like, and sharing our thoughts with loved ones can make our final moments profoundly meaningful. Aid-in-dying legislation, the availability of death doulas to assist in the dying process, even green burials and body composting, make it possible to end life on our own terms. Reimagining death before we close our eyes one final time liberates us to celebrate the moments we have so much more fully.

This conversation was a part of Aspen Ideas: Health 2023.

Aspen Ideas is an annual health gathering of healthcare and public health practitioners, researchers, business leaders, policymakers, advocates, artists, and journalists around the globe to elevate and accelerate bold approaches to better health for all. Despite knowing that death is the common thread that unites us, we tend to keep the topic at arm’s length. Acknowledging the inevitability of death, contemplating what we wish the end to look like, and sharing our thoughts with loved ones can make our final moments profoundly meaningful. Aid-in-dying legislation, the availability of death doulas to assist in the dying process, even green burials and body composting, make it possible to end life on our own terms. Panelist include:

• Dr. Lucy Goddard Kalanithi, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and an advocate for culture change around healthcare value. She is the widow of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling memoir When Breath Becomes Air.

• Dan Diaz: Dan Diaz, Compassion & Choices contractor, medical-aid-in-dying advocate, husband to the late Britney Maynard.

• Alua Arthur: Founder of Going with Grace, death doula and innovator in the field of end-of-life care. Was on the cover of Compassion & Choices magazine in the summer 2023.

• Katrina Spade: Founder of Recompose, a company that supports human composting and working to legalize it in more states and, eventually, around the world.

Encouraging Lively Conversations about Death with Stefanie Elkins, Founder of Be Present Care and Death over Drafts Lori LoCicero and Lisa Pahl, Co-creators of The Death Deck

Talking about the end of life can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be! Join Lori LoCicero and Lisa Pahl, LCSW, co-creators of the Death Deck; and Stefanie Elkins, eldercare specialist/end-of-life doula with Be Present Care and founder of Death Over Drafts; and Angela Schultz, MSW, with Compassion & Choices to learn interesting, compassionate and fun ways to discuss death.

A webinar in Spanish to learn how to fill out your own advance healthcare directive. // Español: Un taller para aprender cómo completar su propia directiva anticipada de cuidados de salud.

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Dr. Martha Calihan, M.D. discusses her book, “A Death Lived”. Through her dual vantage points of wife and physician, Dr. Calihan takes us on the journey of her husband’s final illness and death, and how they, as a family, mindfully navigated this most difficult of challenges. She explores these issues on a personal and professional level while weaving in the mystical aspects of dying as she witnessed them.

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Watch our facilitated discussion in honor of National Healthcare Decisions Day with experts in the fields of end-of-life planning and care, and see how the next generation is planning for the final stage of life.

This virtual town hall kicks off the first in a series of webinars geared to help empower you to get the end-of- life care consistent with your values and priorities. Facilitated by Compassion & Choices President & CEO Kim Callinan, this interactive format features an eye-opening Q&A session with extraordinary thought leaders in their respective fields and the opportunity for presenters to react to participant questions. You should walk away from this informative town hall feeling less anxious and more comfortable with the uncertainties we are all dealing with in today’s climate and ideas on how to channel this awareness in an empowering and productive way.