Experience & Training

Experience

• As a professional Life-Cycle Celebrant, created and led hundreds of unique, personalized ceremonies celebrating life’s joys and sorrows
• Advocated for social justice and community wellbeing through 35+ years as an organizer, executive director, and consultant with local, state, and national non-profits, most recently Freedom to Marry and Western States Center
• As a Community Death Educator, designed and presented scores of community education workshops and professional trainings; served as an expert source for the media
• Co-created the free, non-commercial resources Oregon Funeral Resources & Education and Washington Funeral Resources & Education
• Led PDX Death Café (2013-2018) through dozens of conversation events at restaurants, libraries, hospice programs, senior communities, community centers, college reunions, and a music festival
• Founded the Death Talk Project to support useful, honest conversation through monthly movie nights, ritual, and other events (2015-2018) after leading the 500-person, 10-hour day of programming Death: OK, Let’s Talk About It (2015)
• Facilitated conversations around the state with Oregon Humanities Talking About Dying program (2015-2018)

Radio interviews, articles, and essays by or featuring Death Talk Project, PDX Death Café, and founder Holly Pruett:

• 5 People & Groups Leading Conversations About Death, on Ezvid Wiki, 4/31/20
• Advocating for Home Funerals on Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, 10/15/19
• Oregon Funeral Resources and Education – an Interview with Keelia Carver and Holly Pruett, KBOO, 9/30/19
• Crossing the River: Oregon Businesses Reflect Changing Attitudes about Death, Oregon Business, 7/2/19
• Let’s Talk About Death, Portland Monthly, February 2019 (see article image on PDX Death Café page)
• PDX Death Café hosts meaningful talks about the end of life, The Columbian, 1/18/19
• It’s Never Too Late ~ Death: The Podcast, 1/30/17
• Children & Memorial Services: An Interview with Holly Pruett ~ Dear Dougy Podcast, The Dougy Center, 12/19/16
• Ritual & Ceremony in Public Spaces, The Intertwine, 12/6/16
• Meet Two Portland Women Who Make Their Livings Talking About the Ultimate Taboo: Death ~ Willamette Week, 10/19/16
• Want a Natural Burial? Workshops preaching green funerals around Portland ~ The Oregonian, 4/4/16
• Dust to Dust: Improving watershed health with natural burial ~ Outside Voice guest blog post, 3/27/16
• Doing Death Your Own Way ~ Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud, 10/19/15 (24 minute audio segment) featuring four Death:OK presenters
• Dying Here ~ The Times of Tigard/Tualatin/Sherwood, 10/1/15, coverage of Oregon Humanities’ Talking About Dying conversation program
• Let’s Talk About Death ~ The Oregonian, 4/6/15, coverage of PDX Death Cafe
• No Credentials Required: Advocating for a Friend with Cancer ~ chapter by Holly Pruett in I Am With You: Love Letters to Cancer Patients
• Facing the End ~ profile in Reed Magazine, December 2014
• Why I Go to the Death Cafe ~ article by Holly Pruett in Natural Transitions magazine, Summer 2014
• O, Death, Spare Me Til We Talk About It ~ Portland Tribune, 6/19/14
• Death Cafes Find a Home in Portland ~ Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud, 6/26/14 (27 minute audio segment)
• My Friend Marcy Has Cancer. I Don’t (Yet) ~ essay by Holly Pruett in Cactus Heart, Winter 2013
• My work with Lynda Martin-McCormick on her husband’s home funeral was featured in a short video: Death DIY
• My hours-long interview with author Casey Jarman is included as a chapter in this fascinating book

Education & Professional Training

• End-of-Life Doula Proficiency Badge & After Death Care Educator Proficiency Badge, National End-of-Life Doula Alliance; Professional Presence End-of-Life Doula training with The Peaceful Presence Project
• Certified in Thanatology: Death, Dying & Bereavement by the Association for Death Education & Counseling
• Certified in Funerals and Ceremonies for Children and Families by the Celebrant Foundation & Institute and as a Home Funeral Guide by Final Passages
• 10+ years of study with Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW at the Orphan Wisdom School 
• Master’s degree in Applied Behavioral Science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle; BA in history from Reed College
•  Interfaith minister credentialed through the Universal Life Church