After a happy 30-year career as a palliative physician in the UK, Kathryn took early retirement in 2015 to figure out how to ‘do something’ about the widespread and woeful public misunderstanding of dying she encountered daily in her work. She wondered how we might recapture public understanding by using stories. Fortunately, an unanticipated invitation to describe ‘ordinary dying’ on national radio led to a huge and positive audience response, resulting in opportunities for more media work, an approach by a literary agent who brokered a book deal… and her book of stories about the lives of her patients With The End In Mind became an international best-seller, now translated into 18 languages. 

It’s all been a little bit unexpected. With a second best-selling book (Listen – how to find the words for tender conversations) under her belt and a third book on its way, Kathryn has been invited to speak at conferences, on radio and TV, and at ideas festivals across the UK and around the world. She’s on a mission to change the public conversation about dying, and her method is an age-old device for passing wisdom between generations: storytelling.

Kathryn is delighted to be invited to End Well 2025, to gather with fellow storytellers and celebrate our shared determination to re-claim dying as an important phase in all our lives.

(Photo by Darren Irwin)

John Onwuchekwa is an Atlanta-based storyteller, author, entrepreneur, and speaker. He holds a Doctorate from Emory University with a focus on grief, storytelling, and cultivating virtues. As the Founder of ventures like We Go On Tour and Portrait Coffee, John has been instrumental in endeavors that establish new narratives, particularly for Black and Brown communities. Tying all these plot lines together is John’s desire to see both individuals and communities thrive. His deep and abiding belief is that tragedy doesn’t ruin anyone, hopelessness does. He desperately wants to help people hold on to hope, however they can.

John is the curator of the We Go On Tour, an immersive experience designed to help people experience the serenity that comes from living at the intersection of grief and hope. The tour is an extension of his most recent book We Go On: Finding Life’s Purpose in Life’s Sorrows and Joys. John is married to Shawndra and is the proud dad of Ava.

Rebecca Feinglos is a founder, philanthropist, podcast host, and former policy advisor. Rebecca founded Grieve Leave in 2021 as a way to document her experience on a year-long grief sabbatical — she lost her mother in her teens, her father suddenly in 2020, and her marriage in a drawn-out divorce. Grieve Leave has grown into a global community reaching millions that provides tangible takeaways, resources, and a healthy dose of humor, creating an entire movement around taking intentional time to grieve. Through her podcast “Grief’d Up,” Rebecca brings raw, honest conversations about loss into the open, featuring experts and storytellers who help make grief feel a little less lonely. 

Rebecca has been featured in LA Times, Fortune, TIME, HuffPost, Slate, ELLE, and more for her raw and revolutionary voice, inspiring a more grief-informed world. 

Before becoming a go-to resource on grieving, Rebecca’s career started as a bilingual Spanish/English public school educator, and grew into government: She served in the Chicago Mayor’s Office, and was a senior advisor in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Rebecca was instrumental in spearheading the effort to secure bereavement leave for state employees in North Carolina, and she continues to work with state lawmakers to expand bereavement leave to public school teachers. 

Rebecca is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, and earned her Master’s Degree in Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Rebecca is originally from Durham, North Carolina, and now splits her time between Durham and Montreal, alongside her two dogs, Daisy Duke and Ralphie.

Joél Simone Maldonado, affectionately known as The Grave Woman, brings over a decade of groundbreaking expertise and innovation to the fields of end-of-life, death and grief care. As a sacred grief care practitioner, licensed funeral director and embalmer, award-winning educator and speaker, Joél is dedicated to empowering professionals, organizations and governmental agencies to create and implement culturally sensitive protocols and inclusive practices that honor diverse cultures and traditions.

She is the founder of The Multicultural Death & Grief Care Academy where she offers expert insights into cultural competency and dignified end of life, death and grief care for communities of color empowering organizations to navigate the complexities of serving diverse families, staff and communities with authenticity and respect.

Joe’l is also the host of The Death & Grief Talk Podcast and The Grave Woman YouTube Channel provide a safe space to explore the complex emotions surrounding loss and grief. Highlighting compassionate experts, each episode offers insightful conversations, expert advice, and real-life stories to help individuals navigate the often-overwhelming journey of grief. Her signature slogan is that “culture is the medicine for grief”.

Shoshana Ungerleider, MD is an internal medicine physician, the host of the TED Health Podcast and leading voice in healthcare who regularly appears as a medical expert voice on CNN, MSNBC and CBS News. She has been involved with 2 Academy Award-nominated Netflix documentaries on end of life. During her training and early years practicing medicine, she often found herself caring for frail, often older patients who were alone, suffering in pain and surrounded by strangers in a hospital setting. Shoshana knew there had to be a better way, a way to make the end of life more dignified and human-centered so that ending well became a measure of living well. She founded End Well in 2017 to do just that.

Liz Salmi is a self-taught communicator, accidental researcher, and long-term brain tumor patient who believes health care should be more transparent, human, and accountable to the people it serves.

As Communications & Patient Initiatives Director for OpenNotes at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Liz helps clinicians and health systems see the world through patients’ eyes. She has co-led national research collaborations, helped secure federal funding for brain cancer quality of life studies, and is one of few “patient PIs” to earn a PCORI award without institutional backing.

Liz is carving out a path for non-traditional researchers—especially those whose expertise comes from lived experience—to have a seat at the table in academic medicine, policymaking, and beyond. Her work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, The BMJ, and JAMA Network Open, and she has been recognized by the Society for Neuro-Oncology and the Society for Participatory Medicine for advancing the role of patients voices in clinical research.

She lives with her husband Brett and their cat, and is the voice behind TheLizArmy.com, a blog chronicling life, serious illness, and brain cancer since 2008.