Before we introduce the women we admire and celebrate today, we’d be remiss not to stop and spotlight our own founder. She started this work long before grief was something people talked about openly, and in many ways, she helped get it to where it is today. We are endlessly inspired by her dedication to Comfort Zone Camp’s vision: a world where no child grieves alone.

And her impact hasn’t gone unnoticed: in 2023, she was recognized by M&M’s for Flipping the Status Quo in grief support on International Women’s Day; in 2024, she was profiled by The New York Times; and in 2025, she was named a L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Honoree, introduced on stage by Helen Mirren.

“My work at Comfort Zone Camp feels like responding to a call on my life. I’m supposed to help grieving children heal and make their grief journey filled with community and tools. Creating Comfort Zone Camp and doing that very thing is incredibly powerful. It’s a privilege, and it helps me make sense of losing my parents so early.”

Learn more about Comfort Zone Camp

Hope Edelman is the author of eight nonfiction books, including the bestsellers Motherless Daughters and Motherless Mothers, and The AfterGrief: Finding Your Way Along the Long Arc of Loss. Her books have been published in 17 countries and 11 languages and have sold more than 1 million copies. Motherless Daughters, which reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, is often considered required reading for any woman who has lost a mother.

Hope is a certified life coach with additional training in narrative therapy and trauma support services. As the founder and CEO of MotherlessDaughters.com, she creates and leads online support groups, in-person retreats, webinars, and Mother’s Day programs that reach thousands of women each year. She has been honored by both of her alma maters, as an inductee into the Medill Hall of Achievement at Northwestern University and as an Alumni Fellow at the University of Iowa. In 2020, she received the prestigious Community Educator Award from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC).

“My mother died from breast cancer when I was seventeen, and there were no books or services for girls like me at the time. For a decade afterward, I felt terribly alone. It’s been an honor to provide support for other motherless daughters, and offer them a sense of community, for more than 30 years. Our grief was never meant to be borne alone.”

Because of Hope, millions of women who have lost their mothers know they are not alone — and have a name for what they’re carrying.

Learn more about Hope Edelman and Motherless Daughters.

Rebecca Feinglos lost her mother as a teenager, her father suddenly in 2020, and her marriage in a drawn-out divorce — all before she turned 31. Instead of pushing through, she did something radical: she stopped. She took a year-long grief sabbatical — a journey that sparked a global community helping thousands make space for loss with honesty, humor, and practical support.

Today, Grieve Leave reaches millions worldwide through education, storytelling, and workplace training, all aimed at building a more grief-informed world. A former educator and senior policy advisor with degrees from Duke University and the University of Chicago, Rebecca also hosts the podcast Grief’d Up and leads the Feinglos Fund. Her work has been featured in TIME, LA Times, Fortune, and Slate.

“Grief is universal, but feeling alone in it shouldn’t be. Through Grieve Leave and the Feinglos Fund, I get to spend every day working toward a world where grief is treated like the normal, human, and incredibly hard experience that it is. If just one person feels less alone because of that work, and maybe even has a laugh or two while we’re at it, that means everything to me.”

Because of Rebecca, grieving employees are gaining something they’ve long deserved — a workplace that doesn’t ask them to leave their grief at the door.

Learn more about Grieve Leave and Feinglos Fund.

For over 20 years, Gina Moffa has been doing some of the most intimate work there is — walking alongside people through the most difficult chapters of their lives. A licensed grief and trauma therapist in private practice in New York City, Gina has worked across nonprofits, hospitals, and private practice helping countless people navigate grief and trauma in all its forms.

Wanting to reach people beyond her office walls and educate them about the many ways in which grief manifests, Gina wrote Moving On Doesn’t Mean Letting Go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss (Hachette, 2023), which went on to win a Silver Nautilus Award. She has since been quoted in Forbes, TIME, The New York Times, and USA Today, and is interviewed regularly on NBC News. She also speaks at national and international organizations with the intent of helping create a more grief-literate society.

“This work is, at its core, a profound privilege. To walk alongside someone through the most painful and tender chapters of their life, as a witness, a guide, and a steady presence, is one of the greatest honors I know.”

Because of Gina, more people can recognize grief in all its forms. And that knowledge changes everything.

Learn more about Gina Moffa and follow her on Instagram.

Grief work, Natasha Smith believes, is sacred work.

Natasha Smith is a certified grief educator, pastoral counselor, and author of Can You Just Sit With Me (2023) and Black Woman Grief (2025). Living near Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and kids, Natasha has dedicated her work to helping people — and particularly Black women — navigate grief with faith, honesty, and hope.

“In the deepest throes of my own grief, I longed for people who understood how to sit with me and my grief without trying to fix it. Now, I’m committed to offering that same presence to others, so no one has to navigate loss feeling alone. It is a gift to come alongside someone in their pain and help them navigate with hope.”

Because of Natasha, more people — and particularly Black women who have long needed a dedicated voice in the grief space — have a guide and community in their grief.

Learn more about Natasha Smith’s podcast, books, and her upcoming Grief Grows Here Summit.

On October 14, 2021, Whitney Lyn Allen’s husband, Ryan, had a severe reaction to a bee sting that led to cardiac arrest and a brain injury. He died on April 7, 2022, at the age of 35. Whitney was left a widow with a four-year-old and a three-month-old baby. The way Whitney has turned the unimaginable loss of her husband into something meaningful is exactly the kind of courage we’re meant to celebrate this International Women’s Day.

Whitney is a certified grief educator, grief coach, and author of Running in Trauma Stilettos (Amazon Bestseller) and What Must Be Carried: Living a Beautiful Life Beyond Loss. Through her 229K+ Instagram community, she has built a space where widows around the world feel seen and understood.

“Grief is one of the most isolating experiences a person can go through. My work is about helping people feel seen in their pain while also reminding them that healing, meaning, and even joy are still possible after profound loss.”

Because of Whitney, more women realize that a beautiful life after loss is not just possible. It’s waiting for them.

Learn more about Whitney Lyn Allen and follow her on Instagram.

Vivian Babin writes about mental health and grief from lived experience — with the kind of honesty that makes people feel less alone. Winner of Instagram’s Mi Voz Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, her work has been featured by Spotify, Netflix, CBS This Morning, and Oprah Magazine, and published in Forbes, Well + Good, and others.

Vivian started her career as the founder of Too Damn Young, a resource and community for young adults who are grieving. She now focuses full time on her writing and content creation, including her Substack, The Good Company — and a middle grade novel about a hilarious, deep-feeling 6th grader who has to figure out the best way to tell her classmates that her mom died.

“I care a lot about talking about grief, especially childhood grief, because I was once a 10 year old who really believed she was the only one who had ever lost a mom. Every day that I get to use my skills to peel back the curtain on what it’s like to live with grief is a good day for me.”

Because of Vivian, young people grieving today are less likely to feel like the only one.

Read Vivian Babin’s work on Substack and follow her on Instagram.

Grief education doesn’t happen by accident. It takes someone willing to stand in front of a classroom and say: this matters, this is real, and you need to know how to show up for the people who are living it.

That’s exactly what Colleen Cary Katz does. As a professor at Silberman School of Social Work / Hunter College, Colleen created and teaches a course on Death, Dying, Grief & Loss — giving future social workers the tools to meet grieving kids, adults & families where they are. Students use words like “transformative” and “beautiful” to describe this course. Her academic research focuses on the mental health and suicidal behaviors of kids in foster care, and she is training to become a chaplain for children in hospital settings.

Colleen’s work is quiet but mighty. What happens in her classroom doesn’t make headlines — but the ripple effect of what she teaches will be felt by grieving families for generations.

“Teaching this course brings me so much joy! It’s an honor and a gift to be in community with students and colleagues who love this work as much as I do. I’m especially passionate about children’s experiences of death, dying, grief, and loss, so the folks at Comfort Zone Camp feel like teammates.”

Because of Colleen, grieving people will be met with more compassion, understanding, and skill by the professionals trained to help them.

Learn more about Colleen Cary Katz or reach out to her here.