Team Directory
Meet the people whose contributions have shaped The Good Listening Project – a community of leaders, poets, educators, and healthcare professionals dedicated to humanizing healthcare through the healing power of listening and poetry. From those who helped build the foundation to those continuing the work today, each person has played a vital role in this ongoing story.
Together, our leadership team, Board of Directors, Listener Poets, and alumni carry this work into diverse care settings and communities around the world.
Aillie McKeever is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 10 alum with over 20 years of experience in higher education. In her listening practice with students and poemees, she attunes to the energy beneath words and gazes—as Hafez suggests—with a full moon in each eye.
Anne Marie Wells is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 9 alum and an award-winning and Pushcart-nominated poet as well as a playwright, memoirist, and oral storyteller.
Avni Vyas is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 6 alum, as well as a poet and professor living in Florida. She is the author of Little God (Burrow Press, 2021) and the chapbooks Far From Glorious Feeling (TOA, 2021) and When I Was a Barefoot Cloud (Anhinga, 2024).
Beck Klassen became The Good Listening Project's first Listener Poet in 2018 when they helped pilot the program at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington D.C. They thrive on connecting with and learning from people in personal and professional environments.
Camilla Barber is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 6 alum, and a Community Coordinator and Dance Fitness Instructor supporting accessible wellness across New York City.
Carina L. Dacer is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 4 alum, and compliance professional who volunteers with healthcare center and charities. She serves as Treasurer on the board of The Good Listening Project.
Chanice Withers is an educator, poet, and proud graduate of the Certified Listener Poet program Cohort 7. A natural-born teacher, she shares her gift with the community through her monthly workshop, Poetry in the Park—a space for connection, creativity, and healing.
Chidube Nkiruka (1976–2024) was a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 8 alum whose work reflected his deep commitment to healing and justice. His fascination with rhythm and poetry was connected to its capacity to birth resilience, resistance, and recovery amidst those suffering from neglect, abuse, and addiction.
Chuck Behrens has been an ordained minister since 1980, a hospice chaplain since 1994, and is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 8 alum. He is a current member of the National Speakers Association and is often asked to give keynotes and lead workshops on end-of-life care, spirituality, effective communication, holding space, and compassion fatigue.
Dawn M. Schocken is the Director for the Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation, and a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 1 alum.
Devon M. Bremer is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 2 alum and Director of Clinical Education Administration working with medical students and physicians.
D'ete Blackshire is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 3 alum, facilitator, and artist with a calling to create healing spaces that offer opportunities for transmuting struggle into seeds of hope.
Dylan Klempner is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum, award-winning journalist, and multidisciplinary artist whose work focuses on the role of creativity in health and healing.
D. F. Tweney is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum, journalist, editor, poet, community builder, and publisher. He lives in the California Bay Area, where he helps tech companies tell their stories, takes care of his family, practices mindfulness in the Plum Village tradition of Vietnamese Zen, and swims in the Bay.
Elizabeth Pringle is part of the co-founding team of Listener Poets and has produced The Good Listening Podcast. She explores language and the human experience through theatre and film, arts and media education, leadership coaching, and professional development.
E. Tan is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum, researcher, educator, administrator, and multi-arts creative with a Ph.D. in Literature and an M.Ed. in Instructional Leadership.
Elizabeth Torres (b. 1987, Bogotá) is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum, a Colombian-American poet, translator, and interdisciplinary artist residing in Denmark.
Ellen J. Reich is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum, a Spiritual Companion, and a Process Writing Facilitator. She loves deep listening and guiding others to honor their inner critics – by sending them on vacation – so that word-play can bounce around uninterrupted and with joy.
Erin “Fitz” FitzGerald is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 9 alum, and a human who believes deeply in the healing power of generous listening. She is a hospice and palliative medicine physician and was an instructor and director of Healer's Art, which utilizes generous listening as a skill to be with others' suffering and humanize medicine.
Frankie Abralind co-founded The Good Listening Project in 2018. He began experimenting with this work when he was lead designer at Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital's Innovation Hub.
Geva Thole is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 7 alum, a poet, and Behavior Health Specialist living in Wisconsin.
Gina Petersen is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 7 alum, and creates through mothering, nursing, mentoring, teaching, reflecting, reading, writing poetry, listening, and exploring nature with her husband, dog Rosie, newly born son, family, dear friends, and the souls she meets on the sojourns of her days.
Gray Davidson Carroll is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 7 alum, and a white, transfemme writer, dancer, singer, cold water plunger and (self-proclaimed) hot chocolate alchemist hailing from Brooklyn by way of western Massachusetts and other strange and forgotten places.
Heather Coats is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 4 alum, Nurse Practitioner, and Director of Research at Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association.
Ingrid Berg serves as Board Chair of The Good Listening Project. She is a palliative care physician and medical humanities scholar who services the inpatient team at CHI Health in Omaha, Nebraska.
Jennifer Chassman Browne is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 10 alum. She has been an educator for over 25 years, and has since founded New Ground Educational Consulting, a DEI consulting company with an emphasis on disability. She delivers keynote presentations and develops and facilitates workshops related to disability and inclusion.
Jenny Hegland is part of the co-founding team of Listener Poets and serves as Executive Director of The Good Listening Project. She is a creative facilitator, coach, and social entrepreneur whose life’s work centers around community engagement, participatory leadership, and social justice.
Jo Linder, MD is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 7 alum, and recently retired after serving for more than a decade as Assistant Dean for Students/Director of Student Affairs in Maine Medical Center’s Department of Medical Education. She serves on the board of The Good Listening Project.
Joseph M. Jablonski is a typewriting street poet in addition to being a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 1 alum of The Good Listening Project. As a street poet, he entertains as the “Walking Mall Poet” on the downtown pedestrian mall of Winchester, Virginia and beyond.
Julia McDonald (She/They) is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 9 alum, and a Maine-based physician, writer, and international humanitarian. McDonald’s writing has appeared in mainstream news media as advocacy for patients and commentary on the intersection of politics and medicine.
Julie Jenson is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 8 alum, a qualitative researcher, strategic advisor, writer and poet based in London. She works globally across pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, and public and private healthcare systems.
Kaitlin Dyer is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 10 alum, and a born-Appalachian, raised-Midwestern, transplanted-Californian queer poet. She’s the author of Alter Lives of Alter Egos (Dancing Girl Press, 2015) and her poetry has appeared in journals such as Witness, Crab Orchard Review, and PANK, among others.
Katherine Gekker was part of the co-founding team of Listener Poets and is the author of In Search of Warm Breathing Things (Glass Lyre Press, 2019). Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Kathryn West (she/her) is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum, a social worker, and health communications professional who lives and works in the Chicagoland area.
Kay Abesamis serves on the board of The Good Listening Project. She is a seasoned pharmaceutical commercial leader with deep experience in both science and business. Known for a collaborative and diplomatic leadership style, Kay thrives in complex, fast-changing environments and builds strong partnerships across cultures and disciplines.
Kay McKean co-founded The Good Listening Project in 2018, following her work in leadership development and studies in Healthcare Administration.
Kelsey D. Mahaffey is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 7 alum and Nashville poet who keeps half her heart in New Orleans. Her work can be seen in: Deep South Magazine, Pinch, and Cumberland River Review, among others. No Fault of Water is her debut chapbook.
Kevin Dieter is a hospice physician and educator with over 35 years of experience in end of life practice and education. He is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum.
Khaliah Johnson is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 5 alum. Dr. Johnson’s particular career interests are in community-based pediatric care, health equity, healthcare advocacy, and developing strategies to improve access to high-quality palliative care services to marginalized populations.
LaShaune Johnson is a public health professor, breast cancer survivor/advocate, and culturally responsive evaluator. She is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 2 alum.
Latasha Drax is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 6 alum, and is a self-published poet and writer from Brooklyn, New York. She uses her poetic voice for creative expression, advocacy, and awareness of social injustices.
Leigh Finnegan-Hosey is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 9 alum and spiritual care provider with experience working in both higher education and health care settings. She currently serves as the pediatric and reproductive health chaplain for a large academic medical center.
Matt McBride is an Assistant Professor of English and a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 3 alum.
Maxwell Nanes serves on the board of The Good Listening Project. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in English with an emphasis on creative writing and pursued medical school later as part of a non-traditional path towards becoming a physician.
Mindy Shah grew up near the shores of Lake Erie, in Ohio, and spent much of her childhood tramping around the woods and writing stories she seldom finished. She is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 1 alum.
Monica Storss is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 10 alum. She is a poet and researcher whose work on Relationality and Emerging Technology is based out of Northeastern University and MIT.
Nancy S. Scherlong, LCSW, CHHC, SEP, CP, PTR/CJT, CM is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 8 alum and serves on the board of The Good Listening Project. She is owner of the psychotherapy, coaching and training business entitled Change Your Narrative LCSW PLLC. She is a corporate wellness educator, coach and trauma therapist.
Nicole “Nix” Demos, a disabled inclusive educator for over 32 years, and now author, strives to educate on the importance of inclusion, disability identity, advocacy, equity, and belonging. She is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum.
Rebecca Wilson (she/her) is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum. She is a cultivator of creativity, queer poet, curious observer, and soulful storyteller, uniquely gifted at bringing people together, speaking gently to harsh realities, and stirring transformation.
Ravenna Raven is part of the co-founding team of Listener Poets and serves as Education and Publications Lead. Early childhood experiences with first responders, surgeons, and hospice nurses propelled her toward writing as a practice for healing and making meaningful connections with others.
Sailaja Devaguptapu is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 2 alum. She is a published poet, writer and researcher, wellness facilitator, designing and developing courses on Health Humanities; and an organizer and trainer for programs and workshops related to wellness, arts, writing & poetry in the context of healthcare and mental health.
Salaam Green is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Birmingham, Alabama (2024–2026), a native of Greensboro, and founder of The Literary Healing Arts. A storyteller and healer, she is a Kellogg Foundation Racial Healing Facilitator and Alabama Humanities Foundation Road Scholar. She is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 1 alum.
Sharon Dardis is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 4 alum, and recently retired RN, BSN, and hospice and children’s bereavement coordinator.
Sibihan Lawrence is a London-born Performance poet, Certified Listener Poet Cohort 9 alum, Theatre maker, Arts Education Specialist, Storyteller. And a dismantler of master-narratives.
Sophie L. Schott is a medical student, researcher, and writer based in Houston, Texas. She is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 11 alum. Her scholarly work bridges clinical education and advocacy, aiming to strengthen medical training through inclusive, justice-oriented curricula.
Tara Waudby is a middle school principal, inspired by the power of listening through poetry. She is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 3 alum.
Té Speight is a community builder with a current focus on adult and young men’s health. He is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 2 alum.
Yvette Perry is part of the co-founding team of Listener Poets and serves as Health Equity Programs Lead. She is a lover of music and books, an amateur photographer, a collector of antique typewriters, and one fourth of a Marvel Cinematic Universe household that includes her husband and twin daughters.
Zina Mercil is a lover of people, connection, compassion, words, artistic expression, and life. In her roles she specializes in increasing personal awareness, growth, and performance while decreasing burnout and health consequences. She is a Certified Listener Poet Cohort 1 alum.
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