We are Certified Death Midwives.
The National Association of Certified Death Midwives (NACDM) is a community of peers who share their knowledge, expertise, and best practices in support of compassionate and family-directed end-of-life care. Certified Death Midwives provide education, facilitation, and a wide array of holistic support services to those seeking more personal, meaningful, and greener options for their end-of-life choices and rituals. Through their work, Certified Death Midwives bridge the gaps that exist between the medical profession and the funeral industry.
Board of Directors
Kathy Miller
Kathy Miller is a licensed clinical professional counselor (LCPC) and owner of Mindfulness Matters PC, a private counseling practice in Skokie, IL. She treats adult individuals and couples seeking to create more peaceful, meaningful, and mindful lives and relationships.
Kathy is also passionate about end-of-life conversation, education, and planning. She is a Certified Death Midwife and the owner of Before I’m 6 Feet Under. She is an experienced Death Cafe facilitator, as well as a hospice vigil volunteer.
Kathy earned a BA in Psychology and MA in Clinical Professional Psychology from Roosevelt University, Chicago. She is married with two grown children and one grandchild.
Kris Koerwitz
Kris has spent over 30 years working as a paralegal, mainly with a trade association which lobbied at the state and federal levels. She took a short break to try her hand at running a gourmet specialty food shop and, while a fun, delicious, and worthy pursuit, she ultimately found her way back into the legal field.
Kris received her Death Midwife certification in 2019. She believes in promoting end-of-life options available outside the mainstream funeral home industry so that individuals and families can take charge of their final wishes with dignity and grace.
Paula Herrmann
She is a certified Death Midwife and an ordained minister with Earth Traditions, facilitating seasonal rituals and rites of passage. She has been involved with interfaith work and was a panelist at the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
She lives with her husband, their cats, and the wildlife in their tiny urban forest where she enjoys gardening, cooking, entertaining, and relaxing under the trees while pondering life’s mysteries.
Patricia Ballentine
Patricia Ballentine is passionate about her work as a certified Death Midwife, ordained minister, artist and author. She is the founder of The Temple of the Creative Flame, an inter-tradition community that has been in existence since 1999.
Additionally, she has nearly 50 years of experience in engineering and technical fields where she honed her skills in the areas of organizational development, implementing corporate structures, project management and process facilitation.
Patricia is a live-in gramma who enjoys the ongoing adventures and inspiration young children bring to everyday life, sitting on the front porch, and sipping good coffee!
Dr. Enjolie Lafaurie
Enjolie is a grandmother, mom, sister, tía, psychologist, hypnotherapist, womb to tomb comadre, and business owner. Originally, from Southern California, she is Afro-Cuban (Taino/Arawak) and Guatemalan (Maya). As a former faculty developer and professor specializing in the Psychology of Gender and Culture, her degrees from Arizona State University and the University of Southern California were in counseling psychology with an emphasis on multiculturalism. In 2007, Enjolie became a certified hypnotherapist and in 2014 received training in mindfulness and biofeedback at New Mexico State University. Currently, she is adding a certificate in Perinatal Mood Disorders to better support her community.
Since transitioning out of academia, Enjolie is incorporating her varied experiences within the nonprofit sector. Given both her business and educational background she is now focusing on her role as the CDO/Comadre of Development for the Cihuapactli Collective, a non-profit organization that supports urban Indigenous families to reconnect with ancestral knowledge.
Lacey Reinhardt
Lacey Reinhardt is a licensed Funeral Director and a Certified Death Midwife in St. Louis, MO.
After attending death midwife certification training in 2021, Lacey set out to explore alternative body disposition methods. Already an active volunteer at a local cemetery, Lacey leveraged her networking skills to find and rally others who believe it’s time to normalize the natural process of death, while bringing some transparency to the funeral industry.
Lacey was part of a core committee that brought the first ever “Death Positive Festival” to St. Louis in 2022 and 2023. She has partnered with family-owned Hughes Funeral Alternatives (the only Resomation facility in MO) to offer the first funeral home in St. Louis specifically designed to invite families to be more active in the post-death care of their loved ones.
Lacey works with a variety of hospice groups, death midwives, funeral directors, legislators, cemetery enthusiasts, and others offering crematory and cemetery tours. She recently accepted the position of Event and Volunteer Coordinator at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum in St. Louis where she will focus on Public Relations, Cemetery Events, and Death Education.
Advisory Board
Laura Kinter
Ryan Cattoni
Ryan Cattoni is an Illinois and Indiana Licensed Funeral Director who has served families across the US. He is the owner of AquaGreen Dispositions, South Holland, IL which is the original Flameless Crematory of IL and the third in the USA. He is considered one of the go-to people regarding flameless cremation and has been contacted by funeral directors and families across the nation and Europe interested in more information.
Ryan is passionate about helping people during their time of grief and informing them of all their green options. He graduated from Worsham College of Mortuary Science with Magna Cum Laude honors.
Beverly Gholson
My professional background as a lawyer in GA provided me with the amazing good fortune to retire 30 years ago, leaving me ample opportunity to explore my passions such as hiking, climbing, working with wildlife, and environmental issues. I followed my interests to live in Boulder CO, then on a barrier island near Charleston SC, and now in the City Different, Santa Fe, NM.
I trained as a Wilderness First Responder when I started rock climbing. Almost two years ago I joined the nonprofit End of Life Options New Mexico (EOLONM) to educate people about their end-of-life choices. To further my education, I became certified as a Death Midwife in 2022. I am very excited about the potential for everyone to choose a more peaceful, dignified death of their choice.
Kjerstin Jacobs, DVM
Dr. Kjerstin Jacobs graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in 1999. She is a general practice veterinarian who co-founded and recently sold Metropolitan Veterinary Center in downtown Chicago. Dr. Jacobs has strong interests in general and emergency surgery, oncology, geriatrics, and the veterinarian-client-patient relationship.