The Last Ecstatic Days

Karen Sanders, MSN, RN, AHN-BC, HWNC-BC, Holistic RN Pt Advocate, founder of RN Patient Advocacy NC, PLLC, and the Holistic RN Patient Advocacy Training Institute®, has a BSN from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, and MSN from UNC-Chapel Hill. Karen has over forty years of nursing experience in diverse clinical, education and leadership positions including Critical Care, Nursing Education, Case Management, and Clinical Informatics. With a passion for helping others, Karen helps patients and families navigate the dysfunctional, healthcare system with less stress and more peace of mind. She teaches “Become an Informed Consumer Advocate for Your Healthcare,” to older adults at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, NC, and she co-leads the Asheville Death Cafe also at OLLI, on the third Friday of the month. Website: rnpatientadvocacync.comPhone: 828.778.8882Schedule 30 minutes with Karen

Jose' Saïd Osio is the founder of Thirdmessenger ( www.thirdmessenger) a grassroots community organization that promotes Being and Dying. He is a curator of public events such as Death Café for over 10 years and in 2014 the Before I Die Wall in downtown Nashville with over hundred thousand visitors. His personal mission is to impact local communities through bringing forth Death Literacy education. Besides being a positive death activist, CDI Sacred Passage doula and Four Seasons Hospice volunteer his activism integrates his passion as a creative in his work with Being with dying. His professional career as a business development strategist and managing director was in identity design in Los Angeles , New York and San Francisco where Saïd had a background in branding and corporate identity and worked with both for profit and non profit institutions in healthcare, entertainment Arts and education. He lives in Zirconia ( the sticks) in Western North Carolina outside of Asheville.