ALICE RYAN

Alice Ryan (she/her) began her social work career over 23 years ago. Most of her practice orientation has been in large healthcare settings. She was drawn to the needs of patient and families as illness progressed towards the end of life. Her practice eventually led her to her current work in accompanying people in their grief journey, with special emphasis on the experience of complicated grief through the death of a child. Alice is particularly interested in finding ways to increase access to culturally responsive grief support for all communities. She is the Journey Program Clinical Manager at Seattle Children’s, and has also been a faculty member of the UW School of Social Work since 2012, teaching in the MSW program. Although she values her presence in academia, she strongly identifies as a practitioner and believes that service to others informs and shapes theoretical constructs.

DEB DE SOUZA

Deb de Souza (she/her) was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has lived in the Pacific NW for most of her adult life. She joined Wild Grief as a volunteer in the Spring of 2022. Her love for the outdoors and passion around normalizing grief made the work and mission of Wild Grief a perfect fit. 

After spending over 20 years in Project and Program Management in corporate environments, Deb has shifted careers by earning a MA in Education - Clinical Mental Health Counseling, from Seattle University last Summer, and is currently working as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, supporting individuals dealing with grief, depression, and anxiety disorders. 

Deb is passionate about making the outdoors accessible and safe to communities of color as well as using a culturally sensitive approach to grief and mourning, seeking to understand and honor individual cultural practices. 

KAREN KIRSCH

Vice President

Karen Kirsch (she/they) has been volunteering for eight years as a facilitator for children grieving death of a family member. She is a certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, and a registered Somatic Movement Therapist. She has a Masters in Somatic Psychology and training in many mind/body disciplines. Karen brings the power of movement and play into every group she leads, fostering self understanding through expression and connection.

MICHELLE SCHUYLEMAN

President

Michelle (she/her) has been working in the grief and loss field since 2002, and with Wild Grief as a working board member since 2017. She was the coordinator of the SoundCareKids Family Grief Support Program for many years, and also worked at BRIDGES: Center for Grieving Children. Grief work is her passion. Michelle is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, a Children's Mental Health Specialist, a former foster parent, a mom, and a nature lover.

PEARL MORRIS

Pearl Morris (she/her) got connected with Wild Grief through a friend and fell in love with the vision of Wild Grief. She lost her boyfriend to suicide and her grandfather to cancer while in high school, it was then that she realized schools aren’t prepared to do the tough emotional support work. Pearl has found that healing intergenerational trauma to be more difficult the longer it is ignored and she plans on incorporating socio-emotional learning into her classroom to allow students the opportunity to understand and embrace their positionality within society. Pearl is a student at Western Washington University involved in the Elementary Education and social justice programs. Her work focuses on creating equitably inclusive classroom systems and resources. Healing trauma through nature is a key element in revitalizing Indigenous culture and reintroducing society to Indigenous solutions to larger environmental and societal issues. ¡Se habla Español!

COLETTE AUGUST

Canku Duta Win (Red Road Woman)

Tla’amin First Nation Citizen (Coast Salish), Little Shell Chippewa (Anishinaabe) and has family ties to Lower Sioux Community (Dakota). Colette has worked at Tahoma Indian Center since 2017 . She has worked in human services since 2006. She has started an Overdose Awareness Day, Camp Rosey, and Survivors of Suicide Loss Support Group at Tahoma Indian Center.   Colette's dedication to her role is evident through her pursuit of a Master's degree in Tribal Governance. She’s volunteered at Bridges Center for Grieving Children since 2012. Her drive and passion for community and healing derives from her love of family. She has 5 sons and a granddaughter that motivate her to ensure the community they live in will be a safe and healthy place. Colette loves roller skating, bike riding, hiking, Muay Thai training and photography to rejuvenate her to be able to provide her best self to her family and community.

BREANNA TRYGG

Breanna Trygg (she/her) has been volunteering with grieving children for over 10 years, and considers grief support her “heart work”. Breanna is an organizational consultant, supporting environmental education, natural resource and non-profit organizations. She has an M.A. in Organizational Leadership from the Organization Systems Renewal Program at Pinchot University. She is passionate about creating community though authentic connection and building networks within organizations that will have the creativity and resilience to face the complex challenges of our time.

JIM CUBBAGE

Treasurer

Jim Cubbage (he/him) was initially drawn to grief support work through his own mother’s death at age 10. Jim has facilitated grief support groups for Sound Care Kids through Providence Hospice for 9 years. He has been a big buddy (camp counselor) for Camp Erin, a grief support camp, for 8 years. Before that he was a volunteer at the Thurston-Mason Crisis Clinic for 9 years and taught crisis intervention to new volunteers and staff for 5 years. He has been on several boards including the Crisis Clinic, Cascadia Research and Nisqually Reach Nature Center. He is an avid backpacker and is a Wilderness First Responder. His past careers include being a marine biologist for 10 years, an environmental scientist for 9, and he is currently a software developer and owner of a software company.

LINDA SISSON

Linda Sisson (she/her) is committed to supporting youth through building stronger families. She has spent her adult life providing parents with tools and support so they can in turn provide the best parenting they can to nurture their own children. She has worked with parents whose children have special needs or are in the foster care system. She assists with pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding and runs several breastfeeding support groups. She helps families navigate the experience of domestic abuse and other traumas.

She works for the Family Support Center and teaches a monthly parenting class at the Hands On Children’s Museum. She has guided many parents through their own grief while parenting children who are grieving the death of a loved one. She has volunteered for Sound CareKids for five years. Resilient families start with resilient parents and all parent can use support on the incredibly fulfilling and difficult task of raising our future generations.

MEGAN CARLISLE

fIELD Director

Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Megan finds peace in the lush mossy forests and salty air of the Puget Sound landscape.  Her love of wild spaces has informed her passion as a climate activist and soil conservationist.   For over 10 years she has studied and taught permaculture design, a holistic system of sustainable agriculture that renews natural resources and enriches local ecosystems. This work brought her to the amazon rainforests of Ecuador where she helped create curriculum “guardians of the soil” to support farmers affected by the toxic legacy of oil exploration.  

Her extensive work with soils, toxins and compost got her the groundbreaking role as operations manager at Recompose, where she helped open the world's first human composting facility and funeral home.  In 2021, when she lost her father, she saw the importance of the Wild Grief vision of A vital, resilient, and connected community with a healthy response to death.  She sees grief work as an extension of her climate activism, because society can’t address the problems of the future until we learn to open up to our grief and heal.  

MONICA ANNEY

Program Director

Monica (she/her) worked as a Peer Support Group Facilitator and Youth Program Coordinator at YWCA Olympia for 8 years. She is passionate about supporting spaces that foster healing, connection, and community care. She spent four summers leading wilderness rites of passage for young women; cultivating a deep relationship with the earth is a core need that she loves to share with young people.

Monica lost both parents as a young adult, and she draws upon her own grief journey to inform her work at Wild Grief. She works closely with the Olympia chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), and is committed to using her privilege as a white, cisgender, able bodied human to make spaces for healing and connecting with the outdoors more accessible and welcoming for folks with marginalized identities. Monica has a B.A. from The Evergreen State College and is trained in Crisis Intervention, Mediation, and Motivational Interviewing.