Alica Forneret (she/her)
4050 Larchwood Place, Riverside, CA, 92506
323-681-5116
I am an educator, speaker, and consultant dedicated to creating new spaces for people to explore grief and end of life. I am fiercely committed to making sure that our conversations about grief, death, and dying go beyond hospital rooms and funeral homes, and am excited to be contributing to how we handle grief in the workplace, in our personal relationships, and, most importantly, publicly.
Today, the bulk of my work is focused on acting as Executive Director of a first-of-its-kind nonprofit solving the gap in end of life care People of Color receive; as well as consulting on product development and systems change to help tech companies and digital platforms create informed, safe, culturally-relevant tools for grieving POC and LGBTQ* communities.
As a facilitator and organizer, I’ve worked with voices and partners from across the death, social justice, publishing, and health industries to raise awareness of inequities related to the way we live and die. My own voice and thought leadership about grief, work, and race have been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, Huffington Post, GQ, and has been translated into Spanish, French, Tagalog, Polish, and Hmong.
WORK HISTORY
PAUSE | Executive Director and Founder | June 2020 - Present
Founded PAUSE after identifying critical needs held by Communities of Color by conducting years of market analysis and industry research. Recruited Board of Directors (subject matter experts in the death, grief, philanthropy, and business industries) and worked with them to built out our business plan, fundraising strategy, theory of change, and 1-year 2-year and 5-year organizational plans
Raised $26,000 in first digital campaign (Q4 2021) and secured $75,000 from The John and Wauna Harman Foundation for our pilot Residency program (Q1 2022)
Hired from within the communities PAUSE serves to build a team of subject matter experts in the areas of program management, operations, fundraising, and content production.
Launching first-of-its-kind pilot Business Development Residency for end-of-life-focused entrepreneurs from Communities of Color, offering unique and robust resourcing to foster sustainable business plans.
Ensuring PAUSE staff and Board are actively engaged in industry conversations and events (ie. PAUSE’s “Black Maternal Grief: A panel on supporting Black families through infant and mother loss” for 2022 Black Maternal Health Conference”)
Forneret Co. | Founder and Principal Consultant | October 2016 - Present
Creating custom end of life resources for POC grief and mother loss communities, reaching 7,000+ newsletter subscribers and 5,000+ instagram followers.
Hosted workshops addressing inclusive bereavement responses and how to address grief at work for international clients including Google, Culture Amp, Nielsen, and The California Department of Education.
Founder of “Motherless Mother’s Day”, an annual international event attended by 2000+ people globally. Worked with with partners and sponsors including The Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation, Columbia University, Whole30, and Lululemon.
Selection of Forneret Co. Clients
School Crisis Recovery and Renewal Project (SF, CA) | June 2021 - Present
Founder of SCRR’s Pedagogy of Grief programming, including two Communities of Practice (focused on suicide postvention and memorialization & commemoration) and one grief support group (sessions dedicated to supporting educators who have experienced the death of a student). These offerings are critical collaborative spaces for people from the nonprofit, government, and academic sectors to convene and solve issues related to student loss and systemic issues causing educator grief burnout.
Grief Coach (Seattle, WA) | October 2021 - June 2022
Supporting Grief Coach product team in the curation of new identity-specific grief content and contributors to enhance their ability to serve their users who are from Communities of Color, LGBTQ* community, people who are disabled, and people who are immigrants. These updates to their platform are creating an enhanced user experience rooted in inclusivity and deep awareness of how grief intersects with each user’s personal lived experience.
Roundglass EOL (Seattle, WA) | October 2020 - December 2021
Conceptualized grief support programming and product updates to support EOL’s extensive user database of grievers and end of life providers. Launched two exceptionally attended event series (“Grief Support” and “Griever’s Guide to…”) covering the intersections of grief and identity while working closely with EOL’s Founder and team of product managers and event managers.
Culture Amp (SF, CA) | Content Marketing Manager | September 2019 - June 2020
Conceptualized and hosted “How to create antiracist organizations” panel at Culture Amp’s international annual conference, Culture First; Joined by Ibram X. Kendi and Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga.
Wrote one of Culture Amp’s most widely read articles of all time, “One Black Employee’s Answer to How Can I Help?”; Led content marketing team in developing similarly impactful native content for Culture Amp’s employee engagement, wellbeing, and productivity-focused tech platform
Supported our internal Employee Resource Group (ERG) leadership team by hosting bereavement sessions and disseminating custom resource lists for Culture Amp’s Women’s ERG and BIPOC ERG
RADIUS Social Innovation Hub at Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, BC) | Communications and Recruitment Manager | August 2018 - September 2019
Led on recruitment and communications for all Social Innovation Hub programming; including but not limited to Refugee Livelihood Lab, Health Promotion Lab, and First Peoples Enterprise Accelerator Program
Developed and managed collaborative relationships with stakeholders from government, nonprofit, academic, and for-profit sectors; created internal and external communications processes for highly collaborative work environment
Facilitated internal and external workshops on grief and bereavement in the workplace across multiple Simon Fraser University departments
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts: Creative Writing and Ethnographic Studies
The Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA) | Graduation date: June 2013
Journalism and Arts studies
CUNY Harlem, Santa Monica College, College of the Redwoods, Clark University | 2007 - 2013
SERVICE & INTERNSHIPS
BIPOC Youth Mental Health Council | Council Member | September 2021 - Present
Our House Grief Support Center | Associate Board Member | February 2020 - Present
Moosh NYC | Community Partner | August 2018 - Present
British Columbia Women’s Health Foundation | Young Women’s Council Member | February 2019 - July 2020
Lululemon Luminaries | Entrepreneur in Residence | March - July 2019
Young Women in Business Society | Event Coordinator | June 2017 - June 2018
FarmFolk CityFolk, Feast of Fields | Silent Auction Coordinator | May - September 2017
WWOOF International | Farmhand (Scotland, Poland, Hungary) | Summer 2011, Winter 2016, Spring 2017
826 New Orleans | Writer in Residence | August 2014 - December 2014
Kinfolk Magazine (Portland, OR) | Editorial Assistant; Editorial Intern | January - June 2015
Southern Food and Beverage Museum (New Orleans, LA) | Editorial Intern; Researcher | September - December 2014
Urban Glass Quarterly Magazine (Brooklyn, NY) | Editorial Intern | January - May 2011
The Corsair Newspaper, Journalism Department at Santa Monica College (Santa Monica, CA) | Editor (Lifestyle) | December 2009 - December 2010
PRESS
Selection of features
LA Times How do you foster a good death in a racist society?
New York Times Boom time for death planning
Marketplace How grief manifests in the economy
Yahoo News How one woman has created a healing space for those who grieve
CTV news Grieving on Mother's Day
Women’s Health 10 grief networks
Bakau Consulting PAUSE for grief
Sky News Why is grief taboo?
(podcast) Alica Forneret: Being vulnerable doesn't mean you're sharing it all
(podcast) Alica Forneret: Grief & Identity
Selection of commentary
Huffington Post How people of color can experience grief differently than White people
GQ Magazine How to look after Black employees' grief in the workplace
Fast Company After a year of loss, grief support should be a permanent benefit
Talk Death Preparing for grief and the future of COVID-19
Culture Amp Dealing with grief in the workplace, why bother?
Solace Alica Forneret on Grief, racism, and the Dead Moms Club
Basenotes Making space for grief in our bodies