About Us

EVENT CO-ORDINATOR

Libby Garcia has worked as an emergency nurse, a hospice nurse, and a cider maker.  She organises the local DEATH CAFE 3 times a year to cultivate more conversation about end-of-life and all aspects of death and dying. She helps people with Advanced Directives and custom legacy projects. Libby is actively exploring the possibility of Green Burial on Orcas including having funeral gatherings in the home post death avoiding unnecessary transportation off and on the island. Additionally she collects songs and poetry about death and dying with the future idea of creating a Threshold Choir.

TREASURER + COMMUNICATIONS

Tom Nickel, Ph.D. is a death educator and a support for dying people and their families. He has made mortality a central part of his life, as a volunteer caregiver for Kaiser Permanente and the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, as a teacher in university and continuing education programs and as a host of weekly metaverse events on death and loss.  His XR workshops have been offered through Educators in VR and his work has been featured in MIT Tech Review and the Tripp meditation app. 

VISUALS

Jaime Beechum is a death-curious soul who advocates for the weaving of the inevitable into our culture and daily lives. She co-founded SOURCEpaper which explores artistic and experiential ways to cultivate culture and creatively explore how we can be, live and die harmoniously with the planet.

MEMBER AT LARGE

Heidi Bruce is a trained End-of-Life Doula, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) and Aging and Family Case Coordinator for San Juan County Senior Services. Having provided hospice support to her mother and other loved ones, Heidi’s intention is to accompany clients and their constellation of support with humility, kindness, and deep listening. She has special interests in educating and empowering individuals, families, and the community in equitable and ecologically respectful end-of-life choices, planning, and post-death care.

EVENT CO-ORDINATOR

Sarah Whitridge is an ordained Rev Minister of Walking Prayer, an Intuitive Astrologer, Mother, Creative and Counsellor. Sarah enjoys bringing specialists in the field of death-work to the island for connection and further education. She has organized and attended a Death Vigil workshop and an End-Of-Life Doula Training. Sarah has served as an End-of-Life doula on the island and is a keen singer & advocate for a future Threshold Choir. She is currently studying Astrological Death Charts, a niche aspect of astrology, as an aid to support bereavement counselling.

SECRETARY

Kaylee Lowder is passionate about tending to the sacred process around death and holds space for beauty, grace and love to be witnessed through its portal. Kaylee is in service as a recently trained Death Doula. She helps those dying and their loved ones navigate the practical matters of death and crafts heartfelt, meaningful ritual to honour the blessed passage. Kaylee has trained as a birth doula and herbalist. She is Orcas Threshold Collective’s acting secretary and also works at Wildflower Medicine.

EVENT CO-ORDINATOR

Leslie Walker has been death-curious since she was 6 years old. She has known personal experience grieving both sudden loss and death. Leslie has cared for people at bedside and has trained as a Death Doula. Her strong interest is in advocating for Advance Healthcare Directives for over 18’s. Within the OTC Leslie’s passion is to de-stigmatize conversations around illness and death and to empower people to face their mortality. In an effort to get those conversations started she is organizing a free death film series on Orcas coming in 2025.

MEMBER AT LARGE

BIO COMING SOON

MEMBER AT LARGE

BIO COMING SOON