Jake Messier, MBA is a former Marine and seasoned non-profit marketing professional living with stage 4 metastatic male breast cancer, initially diagnosed in 2023.​ He bravely shares his journey on TikTok and Instagram to raise awareness about the rarity and challenges of male breast cancer – and currently has the largest audiences on the subject at 45k. ​Jake advocates for research and inclusivity, aiming to improve outcomes and support for EVERYONE facing this disease.

Jennifer Zona is the creator of La Loba Soul Support, a private practice for people carrying the losses that don’t get a funeral: an identity that quietly dissolves, a chapter of life that ends without announcement. She works with people in what she calls the desert, the disorienting space between who they were and who they are becoming.

After 20-plus years as an educational psychologist, Jennifer entered the desert herself. She began volunteering in hospice and watched old grief come up at the bedsides of the dying. Buried things don’t stay buried. They wait. Raising a daughter with significant needs, she carried a grief for years and called it love. The longing was her own.

Jennifer draws on depth psychology, spiritual direction, dreamwork, somatic work, and energy healing. She is a certified Spiritual Director, Psycho-Spiritual Life Coach, End of Life Doula, and Shamanic Reiki Master Teacher. She is based in New Jersey and works with clients online and in person.

Mary McGreevy is the creator and host of Tips From Dead People, where she shares life lessons gleaned from obituaries submitted to her from around the world. She currently has more than 400,000 followers across Instagram, TikTok, Substack, Facebook, and YouTube. Whether the obituary is hilarious, impactful, poignant, heart-breaking or just plain quirky, McGreevy demonstrates compassion and warmth as she reads aloud these captivating short stories that teach us about our shared humanity. As she often reminds us, our life is not our resume. In the end, it’s the little things that are the big things. Come for the life stories, leave with life lessons you didn’t even realize you needed.

Nicole Mixdorf is a Transformational Healer, Intuitive Guide, Certified Akashic Healer, keynote speaker, and host of HEALED with Nicole Mixdorf. Through her work in the Akashic Records, Nicole helps people uncover and heal the deeper roots of what they’re carrying, release patterns and wounds from this life and beyond, and reconnect with the wisdom of their soul. Her own experiences with loss, ancestral healing, and connection with loved ones in spirit have deeply shaped her understanding of healing and the enduring nature of love.

Rebecca Feinglos is a certified grief support specialist, founder of Grieve Leave, host of the podcast Grief’d Up, philanthropist, and public speaker helping normalize conversations about grief.

After losing her mother as a teenager, father suddenly in 2020, and navigating a long difficult divorce, Rebecca took a year-long “grief sabbatical.” What started as a personal reset became Grieve Leave, a global community and education organization helping people and companies talk about grief in ways that are real, practical, and human. Rebecca creates space for grief, helps create change, and continues to push for broader policy reforms.

Today, Grieve Leave reaches millions through storytelling, workplace training, and community programs designed to build a more grief-informed world. Rebecca has also established The Susan and Mark Feinglos Grief Initiative at Duke University in honor of her parents provides grief resources for patients, families, and their care teams.

Tia Ma is an entrepreneur, resilience coach, and Shaolin Qigong instructor who has spent 4 decades exploring what it means to heal, transform, and create from the inside out.

Her work blends nervous system education, tools for embodying resilience, and somatic energy practices. Through online courses, 1:1 coaching, retreats, and international workshops, Tia helps people reconnect with their bodies, build emotional regulation, and discover the inner resources that carry them through life’s transitions with greater awareness.

A focus of her work is grief and our collective relationship with death and dying. She advocates for the legalization of Death with Dignity and teaches people not only how to grieve, but how to be a safe support for others in grief, bringing communities together so no one has to grieve alone.

Grief is not something to “get through quickly.” It is a sacred doorway to meaning, creativity, connection to the Divine, and deep transformation.