Featured Speakers
Featured Speakers
During the seminar, you will have the opportunity to hear from national experts in grief, trauma, health and wellness and more. Below is a list of the speakers and presenters who will be in attendance.
Bonnie Carroll
Bonnie Carroll is the President and Founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, the leading national Military Service Organization providing comfort, care, and resources to all those grieving the death of a military loved one. Ms. Carroll founded TAPS following the death of her husband in an Army plane crash. She is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a retired U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer, and she has served in the White House under three Presidents.
Sessions: Opening Session | What's Next? Your Way Forward
Audri Beugelsdijk
Audri Beugelsdijk serves as the Vice President of Survivor Services for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), overseeing immediate and long-term survivor support and outreach, and survivor programming. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology. She came to TAPS as a survivor in March 1997 after her husband CTRSN Jason Springer, USN, was lost at sea in the Pacific from the USS Kinkaid. As a Navy veteran as well, Audri is passionate about supporting our military families. Her work in honor of her late husband is a testament to her passion for the TAPS mission and her desire to offer safe places of hope and healing for all those grieving a military loss.
Sessions: What's Next? Your Way Forward
Thom Dennis, DMIN, LCPC, CT
Thom is the Bereavement Coordinator at NorthShore University Health System and has helped individuals and families come to terms with the death of loved ones for more than 25 years. Currently, he works as a hospice grief counselor, comforting the bereaved from diverse spiritual, religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. He also maintains a private counseling practice in Chicago, Illinois.
Sessions: Opening Session | What's Next? Your Way Forward
Emily Muñoz
Emily is the Director of Program Innovation at TAPS. Emily brings fresh concepts to the Survivor Care Team to keep programming and services on the leading edge for the survivor community. Emily works closely with each Survivor Care Team program lead and supports the Programs Committee, facilitating activities that offer a healthy and active healing path for survivors. Emily first came to TAPS in 2005 following the death of her husband, Captain Gilbert Munoz, U.S. Army.
Grace Seamon-Lahiff, MFT
Grace Seamon-Lahiff is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and currently getting her doctorate at Catholic University. She serves TAPS as the manager for Research and Impact Assessment. Grace has worked in both health care and outpatient mental health care settings providing therapeutic services, connecting clients to appropriate treatment facilities, creating prevention and intervention education classes based on community culture values, and collaborating with physicians, mental health professionals, and other care providers in order to ensure that clients are receiving comprehensive, quality education and care. More recently, she has used her research experience to market and develop a preventative mental health education curriculum for the Marine Corps based on existing Marine Corps skills and values and the skills and theory found in experiential therapeutic practices and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Carla Stumpf Patton, EDD, LMHC, NCC, FT, CCTP
Dr. Stumpf Patton serves as the Senior Director of Suicide Prevention & Postvention Programs at the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), where she oversees programs and services provided to military community members and families after a suicide loss. She is a suicidologist and subject matter expert in the areas of grief, trauma, and suicide prevention, intervention, and Postvention, is a registered ASIST trainer in suicide first aid, and is trained in Psychological Autopsy Investigations and Crisis Response Planning. Dr. Stumpf Patton holds a B.S. in Psychology, an M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and School Guidance Counseling, and a Doctorate of Education in Counseling Psychology. Her dissertation research focused on military families bereaved by suicide, and was a key contributor in the development of the TAPS Suicide Prevention Model™. Dr. Stumpf Patton is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, a Certified Fellow Thanatologist, a National Certified Counselor, a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, a Florida Qualified Supervisor, and a counseling educator in higher academia. She is the surviving spouse of Sergeant Richard Stumpf, an Active Duty U.S. Marine Corps Drill Instructor and Gulf War Era Combat Veteran who died by suicide in 1994, several days before their only child was born. She is remarried to a retired U.S. Marine, who was also a suicide survivor widower, with whom she shares five children.
Session: Rhythms of Grief | What's Next? Your Way Forward