Joan Heller Miller holds a Master’s Degree in education with a focus in counseling and consulting psychology, and has authored books and articles in the field of special education, mental health, grief, loss and healing. She feels honored to have served as one our Trustees since 2012. Her “beloved” volunteer work began with us in 2002, serving as a support group Facilitator with our Good Grief Club in schools, a Big Buddy as well as a Facilitator at Camp Caring and Camp Erin Montgomery, a Book Group Facilitator at Hospice Caring, a member of Hospice Caring’s Speakers Bureau, and a Facilitator in our Family Program which she feels privileged to have helped launch four years ago.

 

Joan, a two- time cancer survivor was treated for leukemia, leaving behind her three young children throughout her lengthy hospital inpatient treatments. While facing her own mortality, and feeling frustrated by the lack of support services, particularly for children, Joan made the commitment that if she survived, she would devote herself to improving support services and providing hope for others facing end of life issues, grief, loss and healing.

 

Since then, she has enjoyed developing and facilitating support programs for grieving children and families in Connecticut (where she helped launch our Good Grief Club,) volunteered in Uganda and Ethiopia with Health Volunteers Overseas and Hospice of Africa, and presents to healthcare professionals on the topic of grief, loss, resiliency and personal growth after illness. Joan brings four unique voices to her book, Healing Grief: A Story of Survivorship, as a survivor of cancer and major depression that followed, a mental health professional, author, and spouse of an oncologist.