The 3rd annual 2026 Grief Awareness & Education Conference brings together leaders, educators, helping professionals, and grief-informed voices for two days of conversation, practical learning, and connection centered around this year's theme: Meaning Making at Work.

On September 24, attendees will gather in person at the historic Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, for an immersive day of education designed to move beyond simply acknowledging grief in the workplace and toward understanding what meaningful, grief-literate support can actually look like. Through skills-building sessions, concurrent breakout workshops, expert-led conversations, and a fireside chat, attendees will explore the intersection of loss, leadership, workplace culture, communication, and organizational responsibility.

The conversation continues virtually on September 25, expanding access to additional speakers, perspectives, and education for attendees joining from wherever they are.

Whether you work in HR, management, healthcare, education, nonprofit leadership, bereavement support, or simply find yourself responsible for supporting people through life's inevitable changes, this conference is designed to offer more than awareness. It's an opportunity to leave with new language, new perspectives, and practical tools you can carry back into the places where you work and lead.

Why “Meaning Making at Work”?

Grief doesn't clock out when the workday begins.

Loss, change, caregiving, illness, identity shifts, financial disruption, and major life transitions follow us into our workplaces, affecting how we think, communicate, connect, lead, and perform. Yet many organizations still approach grief as a temporary event to accommodate rather than a human experience that can fundamentally change the way someone moves through the world.

This year's theme, Meaning Making at Work, asks us to go deeper.

Meaning making isn't about finding a silver lining in loss or forcing difficult experiences into a tidy lesson. It's about understanding how people integrate profound change into their lives, identities, relationships, and work. And it's about recognizing the role workplaces can play in either complicating that process or creating environments where people have the space and support to adapt.

Throughout the conference, we'll examine what happens when grief meets organizational culture, leadership, communication, policy, and everyday working relationships. We'll challenge some of the assumptions we've inherited about what support is supposed to look like and explore what it means to build workplaces that are not simply compassionate in difficult moments, but genuinely grief-literate.

Because the goal isn't to remove grief from the workplace. It's to become better equipped to work, lead, communicate, and connect alongside it.

What You’ll Learn

The Grief Awareness & Education Conference is designed to move beyond awareness and into application. Across two days of in-person and virtual programming, attendees will hear from professionals bringing expertise, lived experience, and practical perspectives to the ways grief and major life transitions show up in our workplaces and communities.

Through keynote presentations, skills-building education, breakout sessions, and candid conversation, we'll explore topics including:

Grief-literate leadership: What managers, HR professionals, and organizational leaders need to understand about supporting people through loss and significant change.
Practical workplace tools: Communication strategies and approaches leaders can begin using with their teams immediately.
Organizational culture and systems: How policies, practices, expectations, and leadership behaviors can either support or complicate an employee's experience of grief.
Meaning making after disruption: How loss and change can affect identity, relationships, purpose, decision-making, and our relationship with work.
Communication through difficult moments: How to move beyond fear of “saying the wrong thing” and respond with greater confidence, clarity, and humanity.
The realities of grief at work: Honest conversations about what organizations get right, where good intentions fall short, and what meaningful support can look like in practice.

Attendees won't leave with a script for “fixing” grief. Grief doesn't work that way.

Instead, you'll leave with better questions, stronger language, practical tools, and a deeper understanding of how to respond when loss and change inevitably enter the workplace — whether you're leading an organization, managing a team, supporting employees, serving clients, or navigating these experiences yourself.

Meet the Experts

Meaningful conversations require voices willing to bring both knowledge and experience to the table.

This year's conference brings together professionals with expertise spanning grief and bereavement, workplace culture, leadership, mental health, and organizational support. Each speaker brings a distinct perspective to Meaning Making at Work, creating a program designed to challenge how we think, deepen how we understand, and strengthen how we respond to grief and change.

Meet the experts guiding this year's conversations and explore the sessions they'll be bringing to the conference.

Event Host/Presenter (In Person & Virtual)

Kate Mollison

Kate Mollison is a grief educator, coach, author, TEDx speaker, and founder and CEO of On Tuesdays We Wear Black LLC, where she creates grief-informed education and wellness programs that bridge the gap between loss and life. Before founding OTWWB, Kate spent nearly a decade in retail management, where her leadership centered on employee engagement, retention, team development, and systems efficiency. That experience gave her a firsthand understanding of the relationship between employee well-being and organizational performance, as well as the critical role managers play in shaping workplace culture.

Following the sudden death of her husband, Kate began examining that relationship through a new lens: what happens when profound personal loss collides with professional expectations. Today, she combines lived experience, research, and operational leadership expertise to help individuals and organizations better understand how grief and significant life transitions affect the way people think, communicate, connect, and work.

Kate has brought this conversation to the TEDx stage, speaking about the need to rethink how we understand and respond to grief. Through education, coaching, workplace training, writing, and advocacy, she works to move organizations beyond well-intentioned compassion toward practical, grief-literate systems that support both people and the workplaces that depend on them.

Kate at the Conference

Across both days of the conference, Kate will explore what happens when loss and significant change enter the workplace — and what leaders can do differently when they do.

In Person | From Loss to Leadership: Tools for Managers, HR, and Teams Navigating Change

During the in-person program, Kate will lead a practical, skills-based plenary designed for application. Attendees will examine common challenges that arise when supporting employees through grief and major life transitions and leave with communication strategies, leadership tools, and grief-informed practices they can begin using with their teams on Monday morning.

Virtual | From Loss to Leadership: Reflections for Managers, HR, and Teams Navigating Loss

On the virtual day, Kate will shift the conversation from tools to reflection in her keynote address. Drawing from her experiences on both sides of workplace loss — as a longtime manager and as an employee navigating profound personal grief — she'll explore what these moments ask of leaders, how organizational responses can shape an employee's experience, and what it means to lead people well through periods of loss and change.

Together, the two sessions approach grief-literate leadership from complementary perspectives: what we can do differently and why doing it differently matters.

Keynote Speaker & Fireside Chat Guest (In-Person)

Andy McNiel

Andy McNiel, MA, is the CEO of The Compassionate Friends, a national nonprofit organization supporting families following the death of a child. An author, trainer, bereavement support professional, and nonprofit leader, Andy brings more than three decades of experience providing care and creating supportive spaces for bereaved individuals and families.

His career spans hospice care and leadership within regional and national grief organizations, giving him extensive experience at the intersection of bereavement support, education, organizational leadership, and community care. Andy is widely regarded as a presenter, educator, and thought leader in the grief-support field.

He also serves as a trainer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and is a member of the International Workgroup on Death, Dying, and Bereavement. Across his work, Andy has dedicated his career to strengthening the ways individuals, communities, and organizations understand and respond to grief.

Andy at the conference

Fireside Chat: Designing a Grief-Literate Organization

What does it actually take to build an organization that understands grief — not simply when a loss occurs, but as part of its culture, leadership, and everyday operations? Andy and conference host Kate Mollison sit down for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about grief-literate leadership from the executive perspective. Together, they'll pull back the curtain on what it looks like to lead organizations where grief isn't theoretical — it's part of the people, the work, and the communities being served.

The conversation will explore what happens when compassion moves beyond something an organization says it values and becomes something it actually practices. From leadership responsibility and workplace culture to communication, policy, and supporting the humans behind the organization, Andy and Kate will dig into the decisions, tensions, and opportunities that shape grief-literate workplaces. This won't be a conversation about getting everything right. It's an opportunity to talk candidly about what works, what well-intentioned organizations still get wrong, and what becomes possible when we stop managing around grief and start designing workplaces that know how to meet it.

Presenter (In-Person)

Sweta Vikram, A.D.

Sweta Vikram, A.D., is a Doctor of Ayurveda, certified grief coach, trauma-informed yoga teacher, adjunct professor, award-winning entrepreneur, and international speaker. Her work helps leaders and organizations create healthier, more resilient workplaces by translating the timeless principles of Ayurveda and modern science into practical strategies for navigating stress, burnout, change, and grief.

As the award-winning founder of NimmiLife, Sweta has worked with organizations including Pfizer, Deloitte, Fidelity, Hofstra University, and Justworks. Her engaging, evidence-informed approach equips managers and teams with actionable tools to strengthen resilience, support employee wellbeing, and lead with greater compassion during periods of disruption and transition.

Sweta is also the bestselling author of 15 books, including the forthcoming Rhythms of Resilience. Her work and expertise have been featured in The New York Times, NBC, NPR, and MindBodyGreen.

Sweta at the conference

Leading Through Invisible Loss: Practical Tools for Supporting Teams Through Change

Change doesn't just affect strategy. It affects the people responsible for carrying it forward.

During organizational transitions, employees may be navigating invisible forms of grief that quietly affect trust, creativity, engagement, decision-making, and performance. Yet most managers have never been taught how to recognize these experiences or respond to them effectively.

In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how invisible grief can show up in the workplace and learn practical strategies for leading teams through uncertainty and disruption. Drawing from grief science, leadership research, and holistic wellbeing practices, the session will examine how leaders can communicate with greater empathy while maintaining accountability, strengthen psychological safety, and help teams move from disruption toward resilience.

Attendees will leave with a Leading Through Invisible Loss Toolkit, including a manager conversation guide, team check-in template, communication do/don't checklist, and return-to-work conversation script — practical resources designed to be put to work immediately.

Presenter (In-Person)

Jason Harris

Jason is a Fort Worth native, certified celebrant, aftercare specialist, preneed funeral counselor, and founder of Mourning Into Dancing, where his work challenges traditional ideas about how we grieve, remember, and celebrate the people we love.

Driven by a passion for grief support, Jason partners with multiple funeral homes throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, helping families reframe the experience of honoring their loved ones by making space for storytelling, connection, joy, and laughter alongside loss.

He is the author of Good Grief. Celebrate Your Life. The Five Questions That Will Change Your Life, an approach that invites people to think differently about legacy, remembrance, and the ways we celebrate a life well lived. Known for his uplifting perspective and commitment to putting the “FUN” back into “funeral,” Jason brings warmth, humor, and a refreshingly different voice to conversations about grief and remembrance.

Jason at the Conference

Transforming Grief Into Celebration

What if remembrance could hold both tears and laughter?

In Transforming Grief Into Celebration, Jason explores an uplifting and deeply personal approach to honoring life after loss — one that makes room for joy, humor, storytelling, and meaningful connection alongside grief.

Drawing from his experience creating personalized celebrations of life, Jason will introduce his “Five Questions” Framework, designed to help shift perspectives around legacy and remembrance. He'll explore the therapeutic role laughter can play during grief, how joyful remembrance can transform the experience of memorializing someone we love, and why grief literacy matters long after the service has ended.

Participants will also gain practical insight into supporting grieving people with greater confidence, including what to say — and what not to say — when someone is navigating loss.

This session invites attendees to reconsider the assumption that honoring grief must always be somber and discover how celebration, laughter, and love can exist alongside sorrow.

Presenter (In-Person & Virtual)

Jason Wendroff-Rawnicki

Jason Wendroff-Rawnicki is a Somatic Grief Therapist, keynote speaker, best-selling author, certified yoga educator, and holistic wellness practitioner with an MA in psychology. For more than 20 years, his work has explored the connection between grief, the nervous system, and embodied healing.

Jason's approach to grief is deeply rooted in both professional practice and lived experience. After the death of his sister Lauren in a car accident in 1998, he began looking beyond traditional talk therapy and discovered healing through breath, movement, mindfulness, and daily ritual. That experience continues to inform his belief in a “physiology first” approach — that working with the body can create a foundation for emotional resilience, self-awareness, and renewed purpose.

An entrepreneur and co-founder of Shine Yoga Center in New Jersey, Jason travels nationally and internationally leading workshops, retreats, and trainings. Through somatic practices, yoga, mindful communication, and holistic wellness tools, he helps individuals and families navigate loss, reconnect with themselves, and move forward with greater emotional vitality.

Jason at the conference

Across both days of the conference, Jason Wendroff-Rawnicki will explore what happens when grief enters the workplace — from the way we respond to the person directly in front of us to the beliefs that quietly shape how entire organizations respond to loss.

In Person | Lunch & Learn: A Place for Grief at Work: Creating Safety, Connection, and Support

Grief comes to work, whether we make room for it or not. In this experiential Lunch & Learn, Jason moves beyond policy and into practice, helping participants develop the skills to stay present when loss enters the conversation.

Through theater-based exercises, grounding techniques, and real-world scripts, attendees will practice responding with care without overstepping or trying to fix what cannot be fixed. Together, they'll explore how safety is created through the body, language, listening, and human connection — leaving with practical tools for supporting grieving employees and building more grief-supportive workplaces.

You don't need the perfect words. You need the ability to stay grounded, listen, and meet the person in front of you.

Virtual | What We Carry Into the Room: Beliefs, Grief, and the Way We Lead

When grief, change, or transition enters the workplace, leaders don't respond from policy alone. They respond through their beliefs — about grief, strength, productivity, what people should need, and how quickly they should “bounce back.”

In this interactive virtual session, Jason will guide participants through three layers of belief: how we see the world, what we believe about others, and what we believe about ourselves. Through guided breakout conversations, attendees will examine their own assumptions, hear perspectives different from their own, and explore how those beliefs influence conversations, decisions, silence, and ultimately workplace culture.

Together, Jason's two sessions move from how we show up in the moment to understanding what we're already carrying with us when we enter it.

Presenter & MC (Virtual)

Dr. Karen Kramer

Dr. Karen Kramer is affectionately known as “Dr. Karen”. A mindset facilitator, grief recovery expert, speaker, bestselling author, and personal transformation leader with more than three decades of experience helping people navigate grief, trauma, and life's most challenging transitions.

Her work has reached hundreds of thousands of individuals, from corporate and nonprofit leaders to healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, families, and young people. Organizations including the CIA, United Way, American Express, Nike, Boeing, and Google have sought her expertise in leadership, resilience, and performance.

Inspired by her own experiences with loss, her son's recovery, and the transformations she witnessed in her clients, Dr. Karen authored the bestselling book Healthy Grief. Her signature Healthy GRIEF Framework reflects an approach that blends science and soul, incorporating neuroscience, executive coaching, subconscious work, hypnotherapy, holistic practices, and intuitive insight.

Dr. Karen holds a Ph.D. in Human & Organizational Development and multiple certifications spanning NLP, hypnotherapy, Time Line Therapy®, QHHT, and neuroplasticity. She is also the founder of VillaVision Wellness & Retreat Center in San Diego, where she leads educational workshops, immersive retreats, and individualized experiences designed to help people reconnect with purpose and create meaningful change.

Whether she's on stage, on-air, or working one-on-one, Dr. Karen's mission remains the same: to heal hearts, inspire minds, and impact the world.

Karen at the conference

The Mirror of Grief: What Our Triggers Can Teach Us About Meaning, Healing & Choice

What if it isn't only what happens to us that shapes our experience, but the meaning we make of what happens? Grief, loss, change, and transition don't stay at home when we go to work. They influence how we think, feel, interpret, and respond to the people and situations around us — sometimes revealing themselves through the emotional triggers we encounter along the way.

In this experiential presentation, Dr. Karen Kramer introduces her five-stage Healthy GRIEF Framework as a practical approach to navigating grief, triggers, and transition. Participants will explore the difference between an experience and the meaning we assign to it, while examining how compassion for others can coexist with responsibility for our own emotional responses.

Through reflection and practical application, attendees will learn to recognize grief as both a reflection and an invitation — moving from reaction toward conscious response, and from processing what has been lost toward intentionally creating what comes next.

Presenter (Virtual)

Lisa Keefaufer, MSW

For more than 20 years, Lisa Keefauver has helped more than half a million people reshape limiting personal narratives, transform their relationship with grief, and move from numbness toward aliveness in a world full of loss.

Lisa is the creator of Reimagining Grief, host of a long-running, top-rated grief podcast, an inspirational TEDx and in-demand keynote speaker, retreat leader, grief guide, and grief-smart workplace consultant. She is also the author of the internationally acclaimed book Grief is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss.

Through her work with grieving individuals and purpose-driven organizations, Lisa brings warmth, wisdom, and wit to conversations about loss and transition. Her approach helps people challenge the narratives that can keep them stuck and create new ways of understanding, integrating, and living alongside grief.

Lisa at the conference

Why Creating a Grief-Smart Workplace Culture Matters

Grief is already in the workplace. The question is whether our workplaces are prepared to meet it.

Loss is universal, often experienced multiple times throughout our lives, and it doesn't disappear when we arrive at work. Yet in a largely grief-illiterate culture, organizations can be left unprepared for the very real human, cultural, and financial consequences that follow when employees experience loss.

Drawing from her experience as an organizational leader, narrative-therapy-trained social worker, and widow, Keefauver uses metaphor, science, storytelling, and humor to expand our understanding of who grieves, what grief encompasses, and how it shows up at work.

Participants will explore the role policy, management training, and leadership play in creating a grief-smart workplace, while gaining practical skills for becoming more effective grief supporters and allies. The session offers attendees the language, practices, and perspective needed to create cultures where grieving employees feel welcomed and supported rather than expected to leave their grief at the door.

Because workplaces are stronger when we address the grief that's already in the room.

Join the Conversation

Grief will touch every workplace, every team, and every leader eventually. The question isn't whether we'll encounter it. It's whether we'll be prepared to meet it differently.

The 2026 Grief Awareness & Education Conference: Meaning Making at Work is an invitation to move beyond awareness and into conversation, connection, and meaningful action.

Join us September 24 in person at The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, and September 25 virtually for two days of education designed to change the way we understand grief — and the way we support the people carrying it.

Whether you're joining us as an HR professional, manager, organizational leader, helping professional, educator, grief-support provider, or simply someone who believes we can do better when loss enters the room, there's a place for you in this conversation.

Ready to join us?

Visit our Eventbrite page to explore the complete agenda, choose your attendance option, and reserve your ticket.

VIEW THE AGENDA + GET TICKETS HERE: https://Gaec26.eventbrite.com

Meaning Making at Work: A New Conversation About Grief, Leadership & the Workplace