INELDA Update – MAY 2022
NEW INELDA EDUCATORS | NEW BOARD MEMBER | LIZ LIGHTNER IN THE NEWS | SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINES
MEET INELDA’S NEWEST EDUCATORS
Dr. Qwynn Galloway-Salazar is based in Snellville, Georgia, where she works as an end-of-life doula, educator, hospice volunteer, and qualitative researcher. With over two decades of work serving the military and veteran community, she recently found her footing in the space of social change and began sparking conversations nationally and internationally related to suicide prevention and end-of-life care for our nation’s veterans. As an Army veteran, spouse of a retired combat veteran, and mom to rock-star daughters, Qwynn understands how one’s military experience can have long-term impacts on one’s life and the lives of caregivers. Most importantly, she has gained valuable insight into how these experiences can resurface and how we must collectively stand in the space and compassionately companion those who have served. With much passion, Qwynn is thrilled to join the cadre of INELDA educators who are changing the way we navigate death and dying.
Omni Kitts Ferrara has spent the majority of their life educating about the body, working to dampen misinformation and disconnection—and encouraging animacy and connection. Omni works as a somatic facilitator on many levels: movement, birth, living, relationships, and death. Omni facilitates, processes, and holds space for others as they move through the work of living and dying.
Omni weaves paradox back into the binary by just being themselves and hopes to create spaces where others feel safe to embrace the fullness of who they are. Omni loves to explain the mechanisms of pain, as they view pain as an invitation to be received. Currently in nursing school, Omni looks to dive even deeper into a role of service and companionship. With INELDA, Omni is here to empower anyone into the work of death as an auspicious task of being with others and is honored to be a part of this organization and community.
Rasalin Neudeck was born and raised by grandparents in St. Louis, learning early in life the meaning of “transition.” The meaning deepened in parenthood, higher education, and community building in El Paso, Texas, for almost a decade. Her role in supplementing the provision of health care includes ensuring quality of life alongside access to basic needs, education, public resources, and mental and physical health during transition for those in focus and those in surrounding support. Rasalin’s competency with the American health care system exists to guide the community through insured, and noninsured interactions. Informed consent and autonomy are imperative to legacy creation, and she hopes to create connections through education on the various ways we arrive and depart from “this thing called life.” Rasalin’s hope is that people are seen, heard, cared for, and guided to anchor themselves in order to improve the trajectory of life and ancestral lineage. When she is not deep into birth and/or death transitions, Rasalin is outside in nature with her partner and their dogs. Her hands stay in the dirt of her garden, or attached to her fishing rod.
Lara Stewart-Panko (she/they) is someone who has a passion for individual, family, and community issues. Lara finds end-of-life fascinating, challenging, and ripe with opportunities for healing and connection. “I feel humbled and privileged to be involved in work that is so intimate, empowering and profound,” Lara writes. “I believe compassion is never wrong, liberation is an imperative, and I love the power of community.”
Professionally, Lara is a registered social worker and family educator residing in Ontario, Canada. For over two decades, Lara worked as a full-spectrum birth and postpartum doula. Those experiences with pregnancy, birth, and early family life, as well as Lara’s time providing counseling and psychotherapy, led to training with INELDA.
As a member of the queer and nonmonogamous communities, Lara currently is cochair of INELDA’s LGBTQIA2S+ Advisory Council and also enjoys contributing to INELDA’s newsletter.
With a deep love of nature, enjoyment of the arts, and devotion to being active in a myriad of ways, Lara is always up for a good laugh to balance out the seriousness, and simple joys keep them going.
WELCOME NEW BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEMBER
Tito Guerrero first started learning about business and operations at the age of 8 when he started working in his father’s automotive machine shop. At the time he had no idea of the education he was receiving. Over the last 12 years he has been in the nonprofit world, working within the Goodwill family. Tito landed on Goodwill’s doorstep out of necessity, not desire. In 2009, in the middle of a recession, he was released from prison after long-term incarceration. Goodwill afforded him an opportunity when no one else would. He fell in love with the mission, the passion, and the results he saw and decided to pursue a career there. He first started out as a truck driver, and over the course of more than a decade he moved through two other Goodwills, with his last position being that of vice president of retail operations.
Tito has reached many milestones since his release from prison, from getting off parole to purchasing a home to returning to prison as a speaker to help others prepare for freedom. One achievement—outside of becoming a father—that he is most proud of is opening a transitional/sober living environment home, Granny’s House in Bay Point, California. Tito has his own belief that we all have an obligation to the human health of the communities that we work and live in. He believes we all have a responsibility to nurture the socioeconomic needs of the people where we live and work, so he invested money, labor, and most importantly, time to open Granny’s House. Tito is proud to say that since its opening in the fall of 2016, there are six individuals who are no longer homeless thanks to Granny’s House.
He believes in servant leadership, in constant improvement, and in people’s potential. True leadership is about the team, not the individual. Building relationships and fostering a culture of open candor have been cornerstones of every team he’s worked with. Tito believes in keeping team members SAFE: supported, appreciated, fulfilled, empowered. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with family, hiking, learning new things, playing sports, and developing motivational content for social media.
Interested in joining INELDA as a board member? Check out our job listing.
DOULA IN THE NEWS
INELDA-trained doula Liz Lightner was interviewed by Clair McFarland in Cowboy State Daily about her doula work.
SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINES
Scholarship applications for our 2022 July EOLD trainings are due on May 23rd. Scholarship applications open on June 1st for our 2022 August EOLD trainings.