Amy McDonald

Amy McDonald, Owner Principal, Under a Tree Health and Wellness Consulting, United States

Amy McDonald is the owner of Under a Tree, a 15-year firm specializing in the business of wellness and has designed renowned international  experiences that support optimal health and financial sustainability. Specialties include customized turnkey concept, development and operational consulting for independent hotels, brands and integrated medicine clinics. Amy is committed to taking the best of integrative wellness and hospitality service to the senior care and Death Positive space. She was inspired to create and now Co Chair the Dying Well Initiative after supporting both her parents through their end-of-life journeys in their home.

Christine Caldwell

Christine Caldwell is Vice Chair, Dying Well Initiative. She is a Psychedelics Educator, Advocate and Founder of the educational nonprofit End of Life Psychedelic Care. Christine envisions a world where we all have access to the safe use of psychedelic medicines to help transform the death and dying process to one where the journey is sacred and peaceful. Christine collaborates with palliative and hospice care physicians, nurses, and chaplains, and end of life doulas to determine whether psychedelic medicine can benefit those faced with a terminal illness and, if so, how to safely facilitate their experience.

Bringing together 30 years’ experience in executive management and work with individuals toward the end of life, Christine is excited to bring her skills and passion to the Dying Well Initiative. Highlights from her career include serving as the Vice President of Marketing for a $22 million database company, Owner of a $2.2 million home healthcare agency, and is a graduate of the 12-month Psychedelics Today Vital Therapies and Integration Program.

Mónica Giraldo Castaño

Monica is a woman, a daughter, a friend, girlfriend, and expert in comprehensive end-of-life support at the individual, family, and societal levels. Since childhood she has been confronted with death and the process of grieving the loss of her father. Since then, it has been her life’s work to facilitate conversations about death and to help re-signify experiences of grief. She trained in thanatology. She has extensive experience in the health sector with programs, including experience with chronic and terminally ill patients and providing psychosocial support for patients and families in bereavement processes. Currently, Monica works with Colombia’s Right to Die with Dignity Foundation, supporting decision-making process at the end of life and promoting the development of advance directives. She is a lecturer and teacher on topics related to end of life and dignified death. She also creates social spaces to talk about death (e.g., death cafes).

Alexis Goth

Alexis Goth is an experienced and diverse primary care practitioner. She completed her Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona and advanced training in Functional Medicine. Alexis offers Integrative and Functional medicine for complex chronic stress conditions. She works as a hospitalist, including palliative care, and is an assistant professor at the Dalhousie University School of Medicine. Alexis introduced psychedelic-assisted medicine to her practice. She founded Holos Integrative Health, a multidisciplinary clinic for mental health, end-of-life issues, and palliative care. Alexis is a mother of three and resides in Halifax, NS, with her partner.

Jennifer Moran Stritch

Jennifer Moran Stritch is a lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) in Limerick, Ireland.  She is the founder and primary principal investigator of the Loss and Grief Research Group, part of Social Sciences ConneXions Research Institute at TUS. Having trained as a social worker in the United States, Jennifer is a frequent speaker and workshop facilitator in Ireland and internationally on death education, thanatology, and experiences of loss across the lifespan.  In addition to teaching at TUS, she is module coordinator for the Irish Hospice Foundation/Royal College of Surgeons Ireland MSc in Loss and Bereavement programme. Jennifer is a member of the Association for the Study of Death and Society, the Irish Childhood Bereavement Network, and Dementia Research Network Ireland.  She is a Certified Thanatologist (CT) with the Association for Death Education and Counselling and a founding member of the Limerick Bereavement Network and Death Café Limerick.  Throughout her teaching, research and community engagement work, Jennifer is passionate about bringing conversations around loss, bereavement, dying and grief into the everyday spaces of life.

Christopher Taktak

Christopher Taktak, Founder of Pisces.

Christopher Taktak is the founder and Managing Funeral Director of Pisces, an eco-friendly cremation business in California. Christopher is one of the youngest licensed Funeral Directors and Crematory Managers in the United States and has pioneered access to a new, sustainable alternative to cremation and burial — aquamation. Aquamation is one of the most eco-friendly methods of disposition, using water instead of fire, and releasing absolutely no harmful emissions. Christopher is focused on building an end-of-life experience for families that is compassionate, honest, and good for the environment. Christopher received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2021 and has been working in death care ever since. Alongside his activities around immediate-need deaths, Christopher knows the benefits when families make end-of-life arrangements before their time comes. As a result, he is motivated to make pre-planning an easier, more widely accepted, and cohesive process through his work in the Dying Well Initiative.