Our Team

Dr. Heather Mohan – our organization’s Co-Founder and Executive Director – is world-renowned for her expertise in grief counselling, palliative care, music therapy and arts education. She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor

Josh immigrated to Canada from Johannesburg, South Africa, during the Apartheid regime in 1980, and was adopted into the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation during adolescence. He has over 15 years of experience working as an Alcohol & Drug Counsellor practicing in the fields of Addictions, Mental Health, and Child & Youth Care.

In 2009, Josh joined the team at BC’s family bereavement retreat program, Camp Kerry, and was inspired by the transformations he witnessed both within himself and the families who were participating. This experience motivated Josh to create year-round bereavement supports for families and to create a world-class organization – Lumara – with Dr. Heather Mohan.

Josh currently serves as Director of Operations and Director of the Society’s Youth Services.

“Weytk ren skwest es Kiye’y7e Qwisp Nu’xwenxw ell Jo-Anne Gottfriedson Tk’emlu’psemc te Secwepemc. I am extremely proud to be Tk’emlu’psemc. I am a proud mother of two daughters, and a grandmother of five grandsons

Sgaalaanglaay, Gaamdaamaay (Vernon Williams Jr.) belongs to Kuunlaanaas Raven Grizzly Bear of Yakin Point Haida Gwaii, Vernon is a Haida Nishga.

Shelley is the Regional Manager for Lumara’s Camps in Ontario. She is a Registered Social Worker in Peterborough, Ontario, with over 20 years of experience as a Family Therapist, specializing in grief, attachment and loss, and in treating moderate to severe mental health in children within a family context.

Shelley currently works on a Maternal Child unit at a Regional Health Centre with expertise in Paediatric Palliative and Perinatal Loss. She is also working Part-time on her PhD in Canadian Studies (Policy) at Trent University, with a focus on child bereavement. She has had a part-time private practise since 1997, and is now accepting Family Therapy referrals for grieving children and youth.

RaeAnne has worked and volunteered in the charitable sector for over 30 years. Her heart has always been with small organizations with big visions – organizations like Lumara where she has helped to plan, create systems and structures, and find funding to help it grow since 2020. She is an advocate for ‘management by values’ and living those values in every corner of our organization. She loves words and puzzling with language to share the Lumara story.

A graduate of Simon Fraser University, RaeAnne has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications with a minor in Women’s Studies as well as a Certificate of Fundraising Management from Vancouver Community College. She lives in Surrey, BC with her husband, son (plus a daughter nearby in Vancouver), and her cat ‘M’ – a regular disruptor of Zoom meetings.

Dr. Catherine Hajnal facilitates an understanding of the losses that emerge in the context of living a life and the process of grieving. She invites stepping into the transformative potential that can arise in the meaning and sense making aspects of life transitions. Health, well-being, and empowerment are steadfast themes in her work. Photography is one of her self-care companions.

Kristen earned her bachelor’s degree from Capilano University and is an Accredited Music Therapist through the Canadian Association of Music Therapy. Her professional practice currently takes her to several settings throughout the lower mainland of British Columbia where she specializes in palliative and hospice care, long-term dementia care, and bereavement care. Presently, she facilitates one of our Circles of Strength Children’s Bereavement Groups.

Alexina is an Accredited Music Therapist who has been singing with choirs since she was in elementary school. She currently leads the Society’s Community Choirs in two locations. Alexina began volunteering with Camp Kerry in 2014 and has been an integral part of the Community Choir since its inception in the fall of 2015.

Marg resides in Vancouver on the traditional and unceded territory of the Coast Salish speaking people; namely the Squamish, Tsleil Waututh, and Musqueum. She is a proud mother of two adult daughters and a devoted grandmother to two little boys and two little girls.

She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with over 40 years of experience supporting people who are coping with serious illness, grief and loss. Marg has worked with Lumara since 2012; facilitating grief counselling sessions for individuals and families and adult grief support groups. She is also an accomplished grief educator and has provided many workshops for Lumara’s staff, volunteers and community members

Tara is a registered clinical counsellor with a Masters in Counselling from City University – Dr. Heather Mohan was one of her professors – and a Wilderness Leadership degree from Capilano University.

Originally from Ontario, and a camp-kid at heart, Tara brings vast experience of group facilitation and is excited to be a member of Lumara’s family.

She currently lives and works on the west coast of Vancouver Island on the traditional territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations. In addition to her role with us as a counsellor and youth worker she has her own private practice, serves Pacific Rim Hospice Society, and works as an outdoor instructor with Outward Bound Canada.

Lately, her favourite activities are surfing her longboard and reading a good book on a cozy hammock.

Anne is a Registered Social Worker with a Certificate in Grief and Bereavement from the University of Western Ontario. Over thirty years, she has worked with groups and individuals struggling with grief, loss and many of the things humans struggle with. She lives and works in Peterborough, Ontario as a Clinical Counsellor at a children’s mental health agency. She got involved in Camp Kerry when it started in Ontario and she has facilitated groups there ever since. She has been involved in fundraising, administration and anything Camp Kerry is up to in Ontario because it is awesome.

Joe Keesickquayash, is of Ojibway and Cree background from Mishkeegogamang Ontario, and Red Sucker Lake, Manitoba. He is a father of five and has one grandchild. Joe graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Indigenous Studies and History.

In 2017, Joe and his family experienced the loss of their three year old son, who was born with a rare genetic condition During his son’s odyssey, Joe and his family remained hopeful that a diagnosis would be found to bring understanding to their son’s medical journey, and more so, to help support their grief journey.

Although the path to find a diagnosis was challenging as a father, Joe hopes that by sharing his grief journey, and his traditional approaches to understanding grief, he can help others who are experiencing grief and loss.

Growing up on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mississauga people, Luke dreamed of being a rock star. His deep concern for the well-being of other living beings, combined with his sense that music alchemizes suffering into beauty, led him to pursue music-centred psychotherapy as a career. That being said, his interest in self-study, the outdoors, and playing with friends usually gets the majority of his time. Luke’s trust of the beauty and creative potential in all beings, in all moments, is what he has been bringing to those facing grief through Lumara Society’s 1:1 counselling and group workshops.

Michael is a counsellor, educator and former attorney. He is co-founder of ReelTime Creative Learning Experiences which provides in the room and online continuing education programs on grief, ethics, wellbeing, and DEIB, for lawyers, mental health professionals and others throughout the U.S. and Canada, including for the U.S. military. He serves part time as a counsellor for the Lawyers Assistance Program of British Columbia where he sees individual clients and facilitates bereavement and loss groups. Michael also facilitates bereavement groups for Lumara Grief and Bereavement Care Society in Vancouver, BC and for many years co-led “Empty Arms” groups for parents experiencing a pregnancy loss or newborn death for KinderMourn, an agency in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Michael wrote the chapter “Saying Goodbye: Loss and Bereavement” in Cinemeducation, Volume 2: Using Film and Other Visual Media in Graduate and Medical Education.