2026 MCDES Board Members
Eunie Alsaker - Secretary
Eunie Alsaker, MSSW, LICSW, CT, has been counseling students at Winona State University since 2003. Her specialty areas include grief and loss, treatment of anxiety, and relationship and transitional issues in emerging adults. Eunie facilitates the campus grief support group and provides educational presentations on bereavement. In prior positions, she coordinated a support and education program for children of divorced parents and served as a community mental health therapist in rural Wisconsin. She is a Certified Thanatologist through the Association of Death Education and Counseling. She loves living in the bluff country of Winona and spending time with friends and family.
Diane Bauer
Diane Bauer, Diane Bauer, LICSW, MSW, is a retired clinical social worker with over 40 years of psychotherapy experience, both at the Hennepin County Mental Health Center and in private practice. In addition to providing therapy, Diane taught for 17 years in the combined School of Social Work at St.Catherine’s University/University of St.Thomas master’s program and holds the title of Professor Emerita from UST. A particular area of passion and expertise for Diane is in the areas of grief, loss, and aging. While in the School of School Work, she coordinated the Area of Emphasis in Aging scholar’s program and also taught numerous classes on grief and loss therapy. Diane is a long term board member for the Minnesota Coalition for Death Education and Support and is very active with that group. In her free time she loves to spend time with her three grandchildren, play tennis and golf, and ride her new e-bike!
Allison Chant
Allison Chant, MS, LMFT, has been working in the field of grief and loss for almost 20 years. She is currently in private practice in Minneapolis and also is independent contract therapist with the Center for Grief, Loss and Transition in St. Paul. Allison was a grief counselor with Allina Hospice for many years and spent the last four years on a palliative care research project as the team’s marriage and family therapist. She is a MN Board Certified Supervisor for those completing licensure in Marriage and Family Therapy. She has a passion for working with individuals, couples and families experiencing chronic illness as well and grief, loss and bereavement.
Bob Furniss-Treasurer
Bob Furniss, MDiv., D.Min., is an Episcopal priest with 35 years of experience prior to retirement in 2023, 17 of those years as a hospital and hospice chaplain at Lakeview Hospital and Hospice in Stillwater. One of his responsibilities as hospital chaplain was to oversee the grief groups, Weathering Life’s Losses Adult Grief Group and Kids & Teens in Grief Group. For the last several years he has helped facilitate grief groups with the St. Croix Valley Grief Coalition. Bob lives in Woodbury where he is a member of the Woodbury Rotary Club and helps run the Woodbury Days Beer Tent, as a fundraiser for the Rotary Club. He enjoys reading, writing and bicycling. He and his wife, Jean, have three adult children and a grandson.
Kay L. Johnson - Vice Chair
Kay L. Johnson, LSW, and MCDES Board Vice Chair. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Colorado State University in Human Development and Family Studies, with a concentration in Adulthood and Aging and an emphasis in Death, Dying and Grief. She has practiced social work in the areas of: long-term care, subsidized housing, hospital and hospice. Seventeen years of her health care experience includes either direct bereavement related work or providing supervision/management of the work. This work has included: providing support and education to all ages via phone calls or home visits, facilitating grief support groups and providing grief education presentations. Kay has served on the following boards: MN Coalition for Death Education and Support, Struthers Parkinson’s Community Advisory and the Minneapolis Area Senior Workers Association. Published in Holiday Hope; Remembering Loved Ones During Special Times of the Year. She and her husband have three children.
Kelli Kinney
Kelli Kinney, MSW, LICSW, holds a Master of Social Work with an Area of Emphasis in Aging from St. Catherine University and the University of St. Thomas. Her passion for hospice and end-of-life care began in her work as a hospice social worker and has continued throughout her career. Kelli currently serves as Manager of the Interdisciplinary Group for Allina Hospice. Kelli provides clinical supervision and has provided education to undergraduate nursing and social work students.
Christine Lewis
Christine Lewis, MSN, CNS, FT, is certified as a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) in adult mental health, and is also certified in Thanatology (FT), which indicates credentialing as a grief counselor. For thirty years she worked for Hennepin County providing crisis intervention, therapy, and medication management. Chris also has a private psychotherapy practice, specializing in grief and trauma therapy and offering public speaking about related topics.
Melissa Lundquist
Melissa Lundquist, PhD, LISW, is an associate professor and BSW program director in the Morrison Family College of Health School of Social Work. With more than 20 years of experience supporting individuals and families navigating loss, grief, and end-of-life care, my practice has centered on compassionate, person-centered approaches to bereavement and serious illness across healthcare and community settings. At the heart of my academic work is a commitment to applying a social work lens to deepen and broaden our understanding of how loss and grief, dying and death, shape the wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities.
Lee Ward Schaefer
Ward Schaefer, PhD LP, is a psychologist working at Allina Health in Minneapolis, providing individual therapy to a wide range of adult clients. His clinical interests include trauma, sleep, serious mental illness, and coping with acute and chronic medical illness. He earned his doctoral degree from Georgia State University and completed a fellowship in Primary Care Behavioral Health and Health Psychology at Hennepin Healthcare.
Tamara L Statz
Tamara L. Statz, MA. LMFT, FT is a passionate advocate for older adults and their families. In her work as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice, based in St. Paul she sees adult individuals, couples, families, and groups who are facing chronic or terminal illness, death and dying, grief and loss, dementia, caregiving, and more. Her work focuses on maintaining quality of life in the face of health challenges, wellbeing while caregiving, and support throughout grief and loss. She also holds a Fellow in Thanatology from the Association for Death Education and Counseling. In addition to her clinical work, Tamara conducts research, is an educator, and a board-approved clinical supervisor.
Andrea Tatley
Andrea Tatley holds a MDiv, in spiritual and personal formation. She has been in the field of grief and loss for 11 years through her work as a spiritual health provider and palliative care specialist. She has been a spiritual counselor for 20 yrs and as a writer and coach has authored a blog for 5 years, writing reflections on human formation, resilience and growth. Much of her coaching work focuses on nature-based therapy as it integrates with spirituality and in the use of creativity to lower stress and anxiety and process grief and loss. She appreciates time in the woods or by a lake with camera in hand, leading retreats and taking groups on heart-opening trips to sacred locations.
Tim Thorpe
Tim Thorpe is a business consultant working with organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. He was most recently the Executive Director of Pathways Health Crisis Resource Center, a non-profit, volunteer-sustained organization that provides programs and an environment designed to provide complementary therapy services and programs for people with life-threatening illness. He oversaw community relations & outreach, program & services development, and funding sustainability.
Thorpe’s career includes experience in for-profit business planning, marketing, and advertising executive with strong strategic, media ,and communications planning background. Throughout his career, he has built strong non-profit expertise through experiences with various organizations focused on social services, arts, education, youth, and elderly. This includes the development and monitoring of organization guidelines and governance, organization expansion, community relationship building, site visits, and marketing planning.
Thorpe’s career includes experience in for-profit business planning, marketing, and advertising executive with strong strategic, media ,and communications planning background. Throughout his career, he has built strong non-profit expertise through experiences with various organizations focused on social services, arts, education, youth, and elderly. This includes the development and monitoring of organization guidelines and governance, organization expansion, community relationship building, site visits, and marketing planning.
Florence Wright - Chair
Florence Wright MSW, LICSW, APHSW-C, HEC-C is a palliative care specialist, clinical supervisor, and healthcare ethics consultant who joined the MCDES Board of Directors in 2015 and is the current MCDES Chair. Florence earned her master’s degree at the University St. Thomas and St. Catherine University and is a graduate of the Palliative Care Clinical Social Work Fellowship Program at MHealth/Fairview. Her professional interests include clinical ethics consultation, coping with a serious illness, and the experience of surrogate decision-makers.
