Vision Statement
We nurture a community that celebrates the sacred wholeness of the human spirit, honors diversity in all forms, and embraces the final season of life.
Mission Statement
The mission of CCLD is to create a community that embodies living a meaningful life through inner exploration and growth, service, and community-supported end-of-life care.
Why Conscious Living & Dying? Read more >
Embracing death as part of life ignites our hearts and enriches our lives.
It is said that facing death is like holding up a mirror to the ways we live. Death allows us to really see, to glean meaning from existence. To feel connected, empowered, and alive! Because CCLD embraces death as a part of life, this community is remembering how to live consciously, and to infuse life with love rather than fear.
- Hannah Fowler, Director of Education
Our Team
Aditi Sethi, MD
Dr. Aditi Sethi is a hospice and palliative care physician, end-of-life doula, and musician. Featured in the forthcoming film The Last Ecstatic Days, Aditi is an emerging and important voice for shifting our culture’s understanding and approach to dying, death, and bereavement care.
Founder and Executive Director
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aditi@ccld.community
Courtney Smith
Courtney Smith, started her career as a music therapist in the realms of both birth and death. These early experiences, along with her work as a Certified Nurse Assistant, Hospice volunteer and trained death doula as well as a 20+ career in social services has imprinted upon her the sacredness of the entire life cycle and the importance of community. Courtney is supported by her lifelong practices of meditation, Kundalini yoga, shamanic studies and ancestry work. She currently facilitates and supports the emergence of the Center for Conscious Living and Dying through strategic planning, organizational development.
Director of Operations
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courtney@ccld.community
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Hayden Lilien
Hayden Lilien is an attorney, mediator, and finance professional. She has spent 15 years running the finance, H.R., and operations departments of growing nonprofit organizations. She also has a private mediation practice where she supports individuals, couples, and groups in navigating divorce or separation. She believes that bridging understanding during conflict deepens connection and builds community.
Chief Financial Officer
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haydenwicker@gmail.com
Hannah Fowler, RN
Hannah Fowler is a hospice nurse, end-of-life doula, facilitator, and educator who brings conscious living and dying practices to individuals and organizations across the US and internationally. Hannah is the Impact Producer for The Last Ecstatic Days feature film. Hannah is on the advisory board of the Completed Life Initiative and former faculty with the Conscious Dying Institute.
Director of Education
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hannah@ccld.community
Megan Anderson-Kelly
Drawing on her background as an end-of-life doula, herbalist and energy worker, Megan Anderson-Kelly (she/her) was first a volunteer at CCLD before joining the team. She has been called to death work since she was a child, though it was through her study of Norse shamanism that the path revealed itself more clearly. Megan’s involvement in the Direct Care, Healing Arts and After Death Care teams provides a thread which seeks to meet the unique physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of each resident. She is a proponent of holistic and inclusive care for all - in life and in death.
Sanctuary Suites Coordinator
—megan@ccld.community
Terry Finder (Volunteer donating their time to CCLD)
Terry Finder had a long career in marketing and advertising, running an in-house agency early on and creating hundreds of radio and TV commercials. She later founded her own agency, expanding into direct marketing, catalogs, and digital projects, including website work as early as 1994. After retiring in 2016 to care for her terminally ill husband, David, Terry's experience led her to explore the mysteries of death and dying. She ultimately connected with CCLD while researching Death Doula courses. “The mission of CCLD has far-reaching potential and aligns perfectly with my passions, making it a joy to contribute my marketing expertise to such a meaningful movement.”
Director of Marketing and Communications
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terry@ccld.community
Chelsea Trinka
What is a Maestra of Magnanimity you might ask? A guide for generosity!
In magnanimity, the Latin root anima means “breath” or “soul” and indicates something alive, lively, or spirited. When joined with the Latin root magnus, meaning “great”, this term is often translated as “big-heartedness." It is Chelsea’s honor to support the development and fundraising endeavors of the Center in this role.
Chelsea joins CCLD following 15 years of entrepreneurship where she founded and operated a technology company providing sales, marketing and support services to hundreds of small businesses. Her skills in systems management and business processes bring ease and flow to all areas of operations. She is joyous to join CCLD at this stage in her life, contributing her energy and expertise to a heart-centered mission that creates more community and connection in the world.
She is also a yoga instructor, mindfulness guide, and mermaid at heart and can be found practicing asanas in the sand or floating in the waves when she is not at the Sanctuary.
David Case (Volunteer donating their time to CCLD)
David Case has been a developer of innovative communities for over forty years. He is particularly drawn to projects that create social impact while working with people he loves that share in the joy of the process. His role with CCLD ranges from safekeeping the Sanctuary property to supporting Aditi and the team to help keep the vision flowing, effective, and daring.
Abundance Magician
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david@caseenterprises.net
"My son, Ethan, was blessed to be taken care of by this community who came together to care for him 24 hours a day for 15 days. I have never witnessed so much love and caring. Food, music, massage, acupuncture and healing touch were all provided. Since I am from NY I did not have anyone here and this community became my family. Ethan said when he was transferred from an inpatient hospice to a home, that he found his community. He was so grateful for all who helped him transition. I can still see his joy coming out of the ambulance to be with a loving community at the end stage. We are eternally grateful for all who helped!"
~ Linda Rothman
Elder Council
Greg Lathrop
Greg is licensed as a Registered Nurse. At age 15, he experienced what he thought would be the moment of his immediate death. The transpersonal, mystical state-of-being he experienced transformed his perspective of consciousness and guided his choices regarding his “work” in this life. Accordingly, his more than 40 years’ nursing experience has included serving within various healthcare realms: acute care, critical care, emergency care, air-medical transport, hospice, and integrative healthcare. Coinciding with his nursing practice, he was invited into a Traditional indigenous Medicine apprenticeship, following his Teacher Will Rockingbear for more than 13 years until Rockingbear's crossing. He is now recognized as a Medicine Elder in the Way of traditional healing. An embodiment of these teachings he received from his Teacher is..."I would prefer that you don't just take care of me. I would rather that you Love me."
Prema Sheerin
Prema Sheerin is a healer, life coach, spiritual mentor, and teacher who draws on 40 years of wisdom training with elders from cultures around the world including the Vedic and Wixarika shamanic traditions. Prema tends to those facing their own death as well as to those grieving all kinds of loss. She is an ancestral lineage healing practitioner, which includes bringing support and wellbeing to recently-departed souls as well as to those long gone. Prema brings care, curiosity and compassion to those experiencing any of death’s many facets. You can find her at premasheerin.com.
CCLD Board/Governance Council
Jennifer Hough - Interim President
Jennifer Hough (pronounced HUFF), the author of UNSTUCK: The Physics of Getting Out of Your Own Way, a #1 international bestseller in eight countries, is a renowned speaker, CEO of The Wide Awakening, and an expert in Scientuality, bridging the gap between science and spirituality.
Jennifer’s gift of holographic vision allows her to see what’s in your way and provide efficient steps that harness the laws of physics to give permanent lasting results, enabling you to fall in love with the life you are living. Her experiential programs (Advanced Guidance) and global community (Agents of Awakening), are designed to fast-track your dreams and help you embody a Thriving Operating System so you’re living in flow. Jennifer helps visionary leaders find meaning and fulfillment in life, having spoken in Fortune 500 companies (Royal Bank, Procter & Gamble, KFC), Schools of Medicine (MD, ND, Chiropractic) and National Associations (Nursing, Speakers, Incontinence, HR), on stages in India, Thailand, Australia, Slovakia, England, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Peru, Costa Rica, Bali, Canada and the USA.
With decades of experience educating doctors (MDs, NDs and DCs), teachers, CEOs and Associations (Nurses, NDs, HR, Native American) in the physics of flow through her program, Get Out of Your Own Way™️️, Jennifer finds great joy in guiding her clients on an experiential journey using everyday physics, positively shifting their ability to flourish in business, health and abundance. Jennifer is a founding member of the Evolutionary Business Council, and ran the largest Nutrition Practice in Canada for 10 years. Visit TheWideAwakening.com for more information.
Frank Marshall - Interim Vice President
Frank Marshall lives with his wife and two daughters in Asheville, NC and is a native of the Appalachian Mountains. He attended UNC Chapel Hill and lived in various locations until coming back to the mountains in 2001. With a background in sales, marketing and public affairs he has been involved with various startups over the years, the most recent being FLS Energy, a utility scale solar developer based in Asheville. Frank comes to CCLD with a deep respect for the hospice process, having both of his parents spending their final days at a care facility in his hometown. When learning of CCLD he realized how much of a deeper and healing experience that process could have been for his own loved ones. He has a passion for the emerging acceptance of alternative forms of treatment for trauma and ptsd and looks forward to those treatments becoming an accepted part of end of life care.
Ron Riffel - Interim Treasurer/Secretary
Ronald, a retired social worker, lives in Black Mountain with his wife Carla. His career included directing two mental health centers and a psychotherapy practice. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards. His career being mainly in Colorado made settling in the mountains of NC an easy choice. He has had a long term interest in mysticism and death and dying as a portal to transformation.
David Torrence
Until 2022, David spent his entire life as a resident of SE Pennsylvania, which included a successful, rewarding, and challenging sales and marketing career within the contract interior design and commercial furniture industries. His final role was as a Sr. VP of Sales & Marketing for 20+ years, for a contract furniture dealer with headquarters in Allentown, PA. He managed sales and marketing, major account development, customer service and segments of operations. He now lives in Swannanoa, NC and enjoys spending quality time with his life partner, tinkering around home, reading on his deck, biking/hiking, traveling, and spending time improving his pickleball game.
Jackie Dobrinska
Jackie Dobrinska is an educator, spiritual leader, and wellness professional with over 20 years of experience. Currently serving as the Director of Education & Community for Ram Dass' Love, Serve, Remember Foundation, Jackie develops and facilitates programming that brings people together internationally to explore personal growth, transformation, and spiritual truths.
Ordained as an inter-spiritual minister by Jubilee! Community, Jackie integrates a wide range of spiritual traditions into her work, including Christian Mysticism, Bhakti, Female Spirituality, and Buddhism. Her diverse expertise spans Yoga (500-E RYT), Ayurveda, Mindfulness Meditation, holistic breathwork, and Western Herbalism. Jackie has led workshops and facilitated programs at renowned institutions such as Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, Yoga International, South College, Lawrence University, The Pearl Institute, and Mission Hospital, where she combines her holistic approach with deep spiritual teachings.
Committed to guiding individuals on their personal and spiritual journeys, Jackie empowers them to live with purpose, authenticity, and a greater sense of connection to themselves and the world around them.
Linda Solomon
Linda Solomon is a Marriage and Family Therapist, Parenting Coordinator and Mediator. In her 35 years of private practice in Dallas, Texas, she specialized in working with conflict in personal and business relationships. She has had the great honor to travel to many countries in the world training others in her area of expertise. She has recently retired and still enjoys mentoring others in her field. She moved to Asheville 7 years ago and knew immediately she had found her home.
She has served on several profit and non-profit boards and is grateful for the experience of working with people with many different opinions, outlooks and problem-solving abilities.
Linda has experienced the many gifts that CCLD offers to someone who is dying, and his family, first-hand. Her loved one, David, spent his last 13 days of life at CCLD being surrounded by loving volunteers. She credits all of them, and Dr. Aditi Sethi, with “holding her up” during this difficult transition. That experience was life changing for her and helped her move past a few of death and, instead, embrace it as another step in the journey.
