DEATH DOULA ✦ EDUCATOR ✦ ACTIVIST

Tracey is a passionate death work activist in her end-of-life practice where her focus is on Queer end-of-life assistance, pet loss & bereavement, advance care planning, death cleaning, and abortion doula services. She studied animal and human medicine, has additional certifications in deathwork, thanatology and pet bereavement and is an ordained Celebrant . 

With over a decade of teaching experience across diverse disciplines in medical, nursing, and holistic programs, Tracey has also engaged in direct in-patient care, specializing in acute care for the elderly. Her professional journey includes volunteering with Hospice organizations and early career years in veterinary medicine, including studying chimpanzees with Dr. Jane Goodall. Driven by a passion for fostering open conversations surrounding death, she engages audiences through education and public speaking on deathwork. Certified as a Death Doula in 2018, she served as the Educational Program Director for a death doula training organization for four years. Currently, Tracey contributes as a Subject Matter Expert with the University of New England, where she actively shapes the curriculum and is the instructor for the End-of-Life Pet Doula course.

She has served and chaired on numerous performing arts boards, facilitated medical clinics in Kenya and the Caribbean, and represented the United States for the WHO World AIDS Day conference. Tracey served on the Board of Directors for the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA) from 2019-2021, as the Webinar/Education & Assessment Chair.

It is this experience that provides the foundation for her to fight to be your best advocate in deathcare and while striving to reshape the cultural narratives, implicit bias and ingrained fear surrounding death and dying. 

Tracey, along with her wife, divides their time between West Michigan and New York City. A Pisces who paradoxically dislikes water, she advocates for daily Champagne indulgence and cherishes the kitty companionship of Bruce Frances and Douglas Kerrigan until they can provide a suitable lifestyle for a rescue dog...or two…or ten.