Parting Stone is excited to announce its sponsorship of the 2nd Annual LGBTQIA2S+ Death Professionals Meetup! After a long day at the NFDA convention in Baltimore, come raise a glass, reunite with friends, and make new ones at this social hour for LGBTQIA+ death care professionals and allies.
The LGBTQIA2S+ Death Professionals Meetup is Tuesday, October 11, 2022 from 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. at Pendulum 401 bar and restaurant inside the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor (401 West Pratt Street).
This event is hosted by Dr. Sara Murphy (she/her) and Alexandra Jo (they/them).
Dr. Sara Murphy is a death educator, certified thanatologist (Association for Death Education and Counseling), and suicidologist with fifteen years of scholarly, pedagogical, and professional experience in the field. She is a faculty member at the University of Rhode Island in the Honors Program and Department of Gender & Women’s Studies and an affiliate faculty member in the Thanatology Graduate Program at Marian University. Publicly, Sara conducts professional development and educational workshops and seminars on specialized topics of death, dying, and bereavement nationwide for professional organizations, businesses, and schools. Sara is also a suicide and bereavement consultant, an expert witness on disenfranchised grief and on suicide, a contributing writer for the National Funeral Directors Association, and the author of the booklet, “Grieving Alone & Together: Responding to the Loss of Your Loved One during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a free resource for helping professionals and individuals published by the Funeral Service Foundation. She is a lifelong advocate for the legal and social equality of the LGBTQ+ community.
Alexandra Jo is the Director of Outreach and Education at Parting Stone. They are a certified celebrant and first-generation deathcare professional with three years of experience creating forward-thinking content and research for the funeral profession. They produce and host the Deathcare Decoded podcast and write regularly for Connecting Directors and other industry publications. Alexandra gives continuing education lectures on innovation in the funeral profession at death care conferences around the country. As an out and proud member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, Alexandra also offers peer-to-peer grief and relationship coaching through Intrepid Therapy Collective focusing on LGBTQIA2S+ identities, disenfranchised grief, and other relationship issues.
This event is sponsored by Parting Stone, a death tech start up in Santa Fe, NM which offers a complete alternative to cremated remains called solidified remains. Solidified remains resemble a collection of 40-60 smooth stones that are safe for families to touch and hold. Parting Stone’s service solidifies 100% of a person or pet’s cremated remains into a form that can be held, won’t break down in water, and are safe to leave outside. Parting Stone is a registered B-Corporation and is dedicated to helping families that choose cremation have a more positive experience with loss. Parting Stone works to advocate for a more equitable and inclusive deathcare profession for all, and is excited to sponsor the LGBTQIA2S+ Death Professional Meetup in Baltimore.
Learn more about Parting Stone at partingstone.com
