About Dana
Experience that Matters
Change, in our lives and our organizations, can be an opportunity for insight and growth if navigated well. But we often fear change and resist or rush through it. Both approaches can hinder efforts to move toward better ways of living and working.
My name is Dana Brinson (she/her) and I began Consulting Betwixt because I know magic can happen in the space "betwixt" the old way of being and the new. I am dedicated to supporting people in moving thoughtfully through periods of transition.
I bring more than twenty years of experience as an educator, consultant, facilitator, writer and grant maker to my work coaching people navigating changes like exploring a new career and taking the leap, caring for an aging parent, facing a medical challenge or grieving the death of someone close. No matter the change, I help people reflect on the past, hold space while they navigate the void between an end and a new beginning, and take initial steps toward what is next.
Connect with me to partner through your life or career change.
I also partner with dying people and their circle of support as an end-of-life doula and grief educator to help them move through this important life phase with courage and an open heart. Our society's grief denial and death phobia leave many of us without the knowledge, traditions and skills to support loved ones in their dying times. Trained as an end-of-life doula, a grief educator, a hospice volunteer, and a circle keeper I can help you build skills to support your loved ones or to face your own dying time with strength, curiosity and grace.
Experience
Dana, founder of Consulting Betwixt (consultingbetwixt.com) is a transition coach, grief partner and end-of-life doula who partners with people navigating periods of change including life phases, career changes and the dying process. She works with leaders of small organizations to thoughtfully navigate periods of change in ways that honor the emotional aspects of change as well as the procedural.
Dana partners with dying individuals and their caregivers and loved ones, presents on topics related to end-of-life planning and reflecting on our mortality, and holds spaces for open conversations around death, dying and grief. She came to this work through the dying processes of her grandparents and then parents, personal experiences that resulted in facing her mortality early in life, and supporting numerous people through experiences of loss and grief. Training and experience as a death doula, circle keeper and soul midwife further shaped her approach to being a supportive, caring presence during some of life’s most challenging moments.
Prior to founding Betwixt, Dana was a program officer at Oak Foundation’s Learning Differences Program where she managed a $20+ million portfolio of grants supporting teacher coaching, youth leadership development, mentoring, parent support, and research and innovation with the goal of promoting the academic, social and emotional success of students with learning differences such as dyslexia. Previously, she was a senior consultant at Public Impact, focused on educational philanthropy; special student populations; and school turnarounds. Prior to consulting, she served as a treatment foster care social worker managing the cases of children with medical and emotional needs that impacted placement and as a special educator at a public therapeutic school serving Boston-area teens.
Dana is the former chair of the board of Boomerang, a youth development and alternative-to-suspension program in Chapel Hill, NC and served as a founding board member of SELF in New Orleans, LA, a nonprofit that provides professional development in special education provision. She also volunteers at Carolina Meadows, a continuing care retirement community and with UNC Hospice.
Dana holds a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, bachelor’s degrees from West Virginia University, and a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke University.
Dana is a certified end-of-life doula through the International End-of-Life Doula Association, a Certified Grief Educator through grief expert David Kessler and Certified in Thanatology through the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC).
See Dana's Resume.
Contact Dana to schedule a time to connect.
Certifications
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