COVID Grief Network Gathering: Looking Back, Looking Forward
Over the last two years, COVID Grief Network (CGN) has offered one-to-one and group-based support to young adults in their 20s and 30s who lost a loved one to COVID.
This event will celebrate COVID Grief Network’s new home under Reimagine, a community-driven nonprofit dedicated to transforming the world by facing loss, death, and adversity together. To read the full announcement about the transition, please click here.
Join us to learn about the transition of CGN to Reimagine, hear from CGN’s beloved group facilitators and support group members, and ask your questions to leadership at both organizations. We’ll discuss new peer-led, project-based cohorts to support folks on journeys of growth from grief and a series of monthly grief gatherings for young adults and people of all ages planned for the fall.
We welcome CGN young adult participants, CGN volunteers, others impacted by COVID but not yet connected to the CGN community, and a broader Reimagine audience of all ages interested in our work.
Speakers
Sami Feld (she/her) - Sami is the Strategy Director and one of the co-founders of the COVID Grief Network. Since losing her mom to breast cancer in 2015, Sami has worked to build community and connection with other young people who have shared experiences of deep loss, which has been powerful and healing in her own journey. In her day job, Sami works for the County of Sonoma where she plans and evaluates programs and services for people involved with the criminal legal system. She lives in Santa Rosa, CA with her partner and two fur babies.
Noah Cochran (they/them) – Noah is the Program Director and one of the co-founders of the COVID Grief Network. Noah found their way to the grief world following the loss of both of their parents in their teenage years. Now trained as a licensed clinical social worker and working as a therapist at Smith College, Noah believes in the healing power of relationships and community. Noah lives in Western Massachusetts with many books and plants.
Chloe Zelkha (she/her) – Chloe is the Strategic Advisor and one of the co-founders of the COVID Grief Network. After her dad died suddenly in 2017, she felt called to grief work, and completed a chaplaincy residency at UCSF Mission Bay Hospital. Her belief in the transformative power of group experiences helped motivate her work with CGN and the young adult grief retreats that preceded it. She is currently studying towards rabbinic ordination in Philadelphia.
Ari Eisen (she/her) - Ari is the Executive Director and one of the co-founders of the COVID Grief Network. Ari lives in Berkeley, CA and she has been serving in leadership roles in Bay Area nonprofits throughout her career. She first connected with the other CGN leaders through running a young adult grief retreat program, and she has been a collaborator ever since. Ari currently works as a nonprofit consultant with Build Consulting, where she helps nonprofit leaders with strategy and technology planning. =
Amy Shoemaker (she/her) - Amy is the Operations Director and one of the co-founders of the COVID Grief Network. Amy is pursuing her Master in Divinity at the Graduate Theological Union’s Institute of Buddhist Studies and currently works as a hospital chaplain at Stanford and UCSF. Her work providing spiritual and emotional support to people of diverse backgrounds and grief journeys is part of what brought her to CGN. Amy lives in the East Bay, CA and loves slow mornings, books, and tea, especially all together.
