Building Grief and Deathcare Support for Communities of Color with PAUSE

Alica Forneret (she/her) is an educator, speaker, and consultant dedicated to creating new spaces for people to explore grief and grieving. She is the Founder and Executive Director of PAUSE, a nonprofit focused on supporting Communities of Color through grief and end of life.

Alica consults on product development and systems change to help companies create resources and tools for grieving communities. She facilitates sessions focused on inclusive  bereavement responses and how to address grief at work for companies including Google, NASA JPL, Nielsen, and The California Department of Education. And she has partnered on international events and projects with The Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation, Columbia University, and Lululemon.

Alica is currently a guest facilitator with Humane Prison Hospice Project, Claire Bidwell Smith’s “Grief Training Program”, and is an expert Contributor with Help Texts. Alica previously held roles as the Chief Operating Officer of Going with Grace and the Program Lead and Content Strategist for School Crisis Recovery & Renewal’s “Pedagogy of Grief”. She’s a member of Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), Association of Death Education and Counseling (ADEC, membership committee), Sage, and The California Black Healthcare Network. She previously sat as an associate board member for Our House and an inaugural member of the BC Women’s Health Foundation Young Women’s Council.

Alica’s writing and work about grief, work, and race have been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Psychology Today, Huffington Post, GQ, and has been translated into Spanish, French, Tagalog, Polish, and Hmong.